VIM

Keyboard shortcuts

• Ctrl + w t Ctrl + w K - change split windows from vertical to horizontal split
• Ctrl + w t Ctrl + w H - change split windows from horizontal to vertical split

New developments with v8

With the dawn of Neovim in 2014, there were two major new developments: non-blocking, asynchronous execution, and terminal

vimscript

• Learn the Vimscript Hard Way

Adding comments to a block

Grab lines with visual block and then :norm i# to comment, and then :norm x or :norm ^x with indentation.

.vimrc

With the introduction of internal package management system, there is no longer a logical need to install a third-party package management tool. Here's a refresh of my .vimrc as of mid-2018 with VIM v8.

if &compatible
  set nocompatible
endif

if has('packages')
  packloadall
else
  " Use vim-plug
  filetype off
  source $HOME/.vim/plugged/vim-plug/plug.vim
  call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')
  call plug#end()
endif

syntax on

Initial setup (deprecated)

Install Shougo/neobundle.vim from Github. It's a new package management tool for Vim that utilizes the Github repository.

Here is my entire ~/.vimrc file.

set nocompatible
set noexpandtab
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
set smartindent
set autoindent
set encoding=utf-8
set number
set autowrite
set ruler
set foldmethod=indent
set foldnestmax=15
set nofoldenable
set foldlevel=1
set timeoutlen=500
set hidden
set t_Co=256
set statusline=%F\ \%{fugitive#statusline()}\ \%=\ \%y\ -\ %l/%L
set laststatus=2
set runtimepath+=~/.vim/bundle/neobundle.vim/
let g:phpcomplete_index_composer_command="composer"

let g:Powerline_symbols = "fancy"

let g:gitgutter_sign_added = '++'
let g:gitgutter_sign_modified = 'MM'
let g:gitgutter_sign_removed = '--'
let g:gitgutter_sign_modified_removed = 'M-'

call neobundle#rc(expand('~/.vim/bundle/'))

NeoBundleFetch 'Shougo/neobundle.vim'

filetype plugin indent on

NeoBundle 'Shougo/vimproc', {
      \ 'build' : {
      \     'windows' : 'make -f make_mingw32.mak',
      \     'cygwin' : 'make -f make_cygwin.mak',
      \     'mac' : 'make -f make_mac.mak',
      \     'unix' : 'make -f make_unix.mak',
      \    },
     \ }
NeoBundle 'Shougo/unite.vim'
NeoBundle 'Shougo/vimshell.vim'
NeoBundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'
NeoBundle 'Lokaltog/powerline',{'rtp': 'powerline/bindings/vim/'}
NeoBundle 'tpope/vim-fugitive'
NeoBundle 'kien/ctrlp.vim'
NeoBundle 'vim-scripts/sudo.vim'
NeoBundle 'm2mdas/phpcomplete-extended'
NeoBundle 'm2mdas/phpcomplete-extended-laravel'
NeoBundle 'chriskempson/vim-tomorrow-theme'

NeoBundleCheck

filetype plugin indent on

colorscheme torte
highlight LineNr ctermfg=darkgrey
highlight SignColumn ctermbg=black
highlight Folded ctermfg=11 ctermbg=23

autocmd FileType php setlocal omnifunc=phpcomplete_extended#CompletePHP

set nocompatible - forget about making Vim behave like Vi.

set noexpandtab - do not expand tabs into spaces; use the tab character

set tabstop=4 - uses 4 character spaces for a tab

set shiftwidth=4 - move 4 spaces for reindent operation (<< or >> shortcut keys)

set softtabstop=4 - number of spaces a tab uses in INSERT mode

set smartindent - use smart indent mode -- i.e. entering after a opening bracket would automatically indent and in other similar situations

set autoindent - use the same indentation as the last line

set encoding=utf-8 - set encoding

set number - turn on line numbers (set nonumber to turn it off)

set autowrite - automatically save when changing between buffers

set ruler - information such as line number and current position in the file are displayed on the status line

set foldmethod=indent - another foldmethod I use regularly is marker ({{{ & }}}) when documenting code, but indent is a good start for reading through long lines of code

set foldnestmax=15 - the nest level for the code folding

set nofoldenable - you don't want Vim to fold your code by default on initial load of a file

set foldlevel=1 - when executing close command for code folding everything will be folded down to level 1, or the top level

set timeoutlen=500 - keycode delay to be used; default is 1000, but this reduces the polling time when you press on a Esc to change modes

set hidden - allows loading of a buffer in a window that has a modified buffer

set t_Co=256 - allow Vim to understand that the terminal is using 256 colors

set statusline=%F\ \%{fugitive#statusline()}\ \%=\ \%y\ -\ %l/%L - this is the default for the fugitive installation

set laststatus=2 - turn the status line on

set runtimepath+=~/.vim/bundle/neobundle.vim/ - required for neobundle installation

let g:phpcomplete_index_composer_command="composer" - by default, it is "php composer.phar", so this is according to how you've customized your development environment

let g:Powerline_symbols="fancy" - I haven't confirmed this yet, but this probably allows Lokaltog/powerline plugin to use Private Use Area of the Unicode of fonts specifically patched for Powerline characters

let g:gitgutter_sign_added = '++' - I like my GitGutter to occupy two characters for better visibility

...

call neobundle#rc(expand('~/.vim/bundle/')) - I think this sets this directory as NeoBundle's target bundle directory; required by NeoBundle

NeoBundleFetch 'Shougo/neobundle.vim' - as required by NeoBundle

filetype plugin indent on - allow plugins to change the indent behavior (??)

All those NeoBundle 'owner/package' lines are for installation of packages

NeoBundle 'Shougo/vimproc'... - vimproc allows real-time update of certain components that uses this package

NeoBundle 'Shougo/unite.vim' - similar to ctrlp, allows extensive searching features and UI

NeoBundle 'Shougo/vimshell.vim' - allows bash shell like interface within vim

NeoBundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter' - Git diff marks are displayed somewhat realtime

NeoBundle 'Lokaltog/powerline',{'rtp': 'powerline/bindings/vim/'} - one of the most popular status line plugins

NeoBundle 'tpope/vim-fugitive' - run Git commands within Vim

NeoBundle 'kien/ctrlp.vim' - extensive searching tool

NeoBundle 'vim-scripts/sudo.vim' - installed to get rid of the annoying msg while running Vim as a sudo

NeoBundle 'm2mdas/phpcomplete-extended' - command completion similar to ones found in many GUI IDEs

NeoBundle 'm2mdas/phpcomplete-extended-laravel' - this is add-on allows completion for Laravel 4

NeoBundle 'chriskempson/vim-tomorrow-theme' - I sometimes use this theme

NeoBundleCheck - NeoBundle requires this

colorscheme torte - Use this color scheme -- a default one I like

highlight LineNr ctermfg=darkgrey - color of the line numbers

highlight SignColumn ctermbg=black - color of the gutter used by GitGutter

highlight Folded ctermfg=11 ctermbg=23 - the default folded code color is an eyesore, so replace it

autocmd FileType php setlocal omnifunc=phpcomplete_extended#CompletePHP - this completes the phpcomplete_extended plugin installation

Useful commands

Turn number lines

:set number

Wordwrap off

:set nowrap

Syntax on

:syntax on

Remove HTML tags

:%s/<\_.\{-1,\}>//g

Replace all tabs with 4 spaces

%retab

Set tab to 4 spaces

set expandtab ts=4 sw=4 ai

Plug-ins

Emmet

Also known as Zen Coding previously.

• Emmet cheatsheet

gitgutter

• Activation (default on): :GitGutterDisable, :GitGutterEnable, :GitGutterToggle
• Signs toggle (default on): :GitGutterSignsDisable, :GitGutterSignsEnable, :GitGutterSignsToggle
• Highlights toggle (default off): :GitGutterLineHighlightsDisable, :GitGutterLineHighlightsEnable, :GitGutterLineHighlightsToggle
• Hunks
  • Jump between hunks: [c, ]c
  • Stage hunk: <Leader>hs
  • Undo changes: <Leader>hu
  • Preview hunk's changes: <Leader>hp

CTAG

Possibly outdated by 2014

Rebuild a ctag file from a current project (assuming extensions are abc & def)

find . -type f -name \*.abc -o -name \*.def | xargs ctags --language-force=php

(to add more extensions) find . -type f -name \*.ghi | xargs ctags -a --language-force=;http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/04/ctags-taglist-vi-vim-editor-as-sourece-code-browser/

ctags and taglist

http://runpaint.org/

vim and other tech books

Miscellaneous

Check VIM version

• Last tested on VIM 7.4 (2013-08-10)

:ve

Reload .vimrc without quitting

• Last tested on VIM 7.4 (2013-08-10)

:so ~/.vimrc

Fixing an issue with Python version when using VIM with some packages

When running vim with Powerline package on Ubuntu 16.04, I get this error message every time I execute it from the CLI.

$ vim
UltiSnips requires py >= 2.7 or py3
You need vim compiled with Python 2.6, 2.7 or 3.2 and later support
for Powerline to work. Please consult the documentation for more
details.
Press ENTER or type command to continue

I'm not sure what this does, but this seems to solve the problem. Thanks to Sergey Khaylov for the answer at Stackoverflow.

$ apt-get install vim-nox

Links

The VIM trick which will save your time and nerves