VIM is useful and powerful for the generic editor, it has lots of plugins to use for different language and purpose. The vim config file located in $HOME/.vimrc. The configuration is not that easy to make as your plugins increasing and its quite tedious to remember and search “How To Use XXX” for each plugs. But https://vim-bootstrap.com/
provide a handy way to ease the configuration, which saved lots of time.
For me, the split feature is useful, which can display multiple file in a singe window, you don’t need to switch from files.
The generic tricks for the vim split manipulation
:e filename - edit another file
:split filename - split window and load another file
ctrl-w up arrow - move cursor up a window
ctrl-w ctrl-w - move cursor to another window (cycle)
ctrl-w_ - maximize current window
ctrl-w= - make all equal size
10 ctrl-w+ - increase window size by 10 lines
:vsplit file - vertical split
:sview file - same as split, but readonly
:hide - close current window
:only - keep only this window open
:ls - show current buffers
:b 2 - open buffer #2 in this window
Once generated the .virmc file by using the vim-bootstrap
, the shortcut would be created and you can even create your own shortcut for spcific command.
Assuming we opened file and split that into 3 splits
Split Navigations
You can use different key mappings for easy navigation between splits to save a keystroke. So instead of ctrl-w then j, it’s just ctrl-j:
nnoremap <C-J> <C-W><C-J>
nnoremap <C-K> <C-W><C-K>
nnoremap <C-L> <C-W><C-L>
nnoremap <C-H> <C-W><C-H>
Split Resizing
Vim’s defaults are useful for changing split shapes:
"Max out the height of the current split
ctrl + w _
"Max out the width of the current split
ctrl + w |
"Normalize all split sizes, which is very handy when resizing terminal
ctrl + w =
Split Manipulation
"Swap top/bottom or left/right split
Ctrl+W R
"Break out current window into a new tabview
Ctrl+W T
"Close every window in the current tabview but the current one
Ctrl+W o
That’s it.