This is a sample section from the in-progress book 10 Minute Vim available DRM-free on Leanpub. If you find it helpful, the book has 50+ more sections like this!
The included exercises are contrived - they are designed to teach you the
muscle memory needed to perform the specific command. The exercises should be
performed on a pristine file: we recommend cloning this repository with git clone [email protected]:steveshogren/10-minute-vim-exercises.gitand running a git checkout after each exercise to bring the files back to their pristine state.
Vim (and Vim plugins inside other IDE's) do not offer out-of-the-box semantic-aware IDE features like auto-complete and "go to definition". While the Vim editor has many plugins for extra features, we want to focus on what can be had in the default experience. The base Vim installation offers a suite of IDE-lite commands that fulfill the "80/20" rule of value: 80% of the value can be had for 20% of the cost. Instead of attempting to build a full AST of your source code for auto-complete and navigation, Vim provides basic navigation and auto-complete based on text searches of your files.
While in no way does this substitute for the full set of features in a semantic-aware IDE, they are still extremely useful. These commands derive the most power from the simple fact that they work in every text file, in any language, and without any setup.
Vim provides a basic auto-complete based off text found elsewhere in any open file.
| Command | |
|---|---|
Ctrl-n |
Cycle to next completion |
Ctrl-p |
Cycle to previous completion |
When in insert mode, type Ctrl-n or Ctrl-p to list and iterate through the
available options. When an option is selected, it is already "inserted" in the
text, and no further command is needed to "confirm". If you do not wish to use
the inserted text, Ctrl-p will return you to your original text.
| Command | |
|---|---|
Ctrl-xCtrl-f |
Start match on next file name |
Ctrl-xCtrl-l |
Start match on whole line match |
The file name and whole line completion will start the cycle, then you can use
Ctrl-n and Ctrl-p to cycle as usual.
Use the file longWords.txt to recreate the first 14 lines
starting at line 16. Start typing each word, then use either Ctrl-p, Ctrl-n,
or Ctrl-xCtrl-l to complete it - no copy, delete, yank, etc.