Vim - The Editor That Refuses to Die

There's a joke about Vim users: they spend weeks configuring their editor, then spend 20 minutes actually editing files. It's funny because it's true. But here's the thing - once you actually learn Vim, you never go back.

Learning curve is real. You'll feel stupid. You'll type things and nothing will happen. You'll type :wq to save and quit and accidentally type :w only to realize :q doesn't do what you think. Stick with it. It's worth it.

The Modes

Vim is not like other editors. It has modes. This confuses everyone at first:

Normal - Move around, delete, copy. This is where you spend 90% of your time.
Insert - Actually type text. Press i to enter.
Visual - Select text. Press v.
Command - Run commands. Press :

Movement

Learn these keys. They're your new home:

h j k l       # Left, Down, Up, Right
w             # Word forward
b             # Word backward
0             # Start of line
$             # End of line
gg            # Top of file
G             # Bottom of file
:20           # Go to line 20
%             # Jump to matching bracket

Editing

Once you're in Normal mode:

x              # Delete character
dw             # Delete word
dd             # Delete line
u              # Undo
Ctrl+r         # Redo
yy             # Yank (copy) line
p              # Paste
cw             # Change word (delete + insert)

Search and Replace

Find things. Replace things:

/pattern        # Search forward
?pattern        # Search backward
n               # Next match
N               # Previous match
:%s/old/new/g   # Replace all
:%s/old/new/gc  # Replace all with confirm

Save and Quit

The commands everyone needs but forgets:

:w              # Save
:w!             # Save (force)
:q              # Quit
:q!             # Quit (don't save)
:wq             # Save and quit
:x              # Save and quit (shorter)
ZZ              # Save and quit (even shorter)

Windows and Buffers

Vim isn't just one file:

:sp file        # Split horizontal
:vsp file       # Split vertical
Ctrl+w          # Window navigation
:bn             # Next buffer
:bp             # Previous buffer
:bd             # Close buffer

The Point

Vim is old. It looks weird. It has a learning curve that makes you want to quit. But it's on every server you'll ever touch. It's faster than anything with a mouse. It respects your freedom because it's free software and it doesn't try to be an IDE.

Learn Vim. Not because it's cool - because it makes you faster. Because when you're on a broken server at 3am, you want to be editing files as fast as possible.

The mouse is slow. Vim is fast. That's all that matters.