.. _vim:

Vim
===

Being able to modify files and edit text from the command line is *extremely*
important. There is a lot of overhead in opening a separate graphical text
editor (like Sublime, VSCode, Atom, TextEdit, Notepad++, etc) and navigating to
the file you want to edit, instead of directly opening a file where you are on
the command line.

When you start working on remote servers (like NIH's Biowulf), you may not have
an easy option of using a graphical editor. This may require extra steps like
transferring files to and from the server which dramatically slows down your
work. Feeling at home in the terminal will pay off.

The two main command-line text editors are ``emacs`` and ``vim``. If you
haven't already learned one of these, I suggest vim because it’s available on
just about any machine you log on to, so you’ll always feel at home in
a terminal.

It takes a lot of time and practice to get proficient with vim. But editing
text is such a common task that improving your efficiency in any small way will
pay off in the long term.

As a rule of thumb, you'll be miserable for the first two weeks you're learning
vim. Everything will seem like it's taking you way longer than it should. But
then you'll get more practice, and will be able to edit far faster than
any other graphical text editor.

In fact, many graphical text editors have a "vim mode" for users who want to
apply their vim skills to more efficient editing even within a GUI.

I have yet to meet someone who regretted learning vim. It's well worth your
time.

vimtutor
~~~~~~~~

Once vim is installed, type ``vimtutor`` at the terminal and go through
it. This walks you through the concepts of vim within vim itself.

Other resources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-  Here's one example of a `vim cheatsheet <https://vim.rtorr.com/>`_, but you
   might want to look around for something that fits your brain from a `Google
   image search
   <https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=vim+cheat+sheet>`_ for
   them.

- `This infographic <https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0165/4168/files/preview.png>`__ has a lot
  of material packed into it (so maybe a bit more than just a cheatsheet...)
  and may have some useful tidbits for even the seasoned vim user.

-  `Learn Vim Progressively
   <http://yannesposito.com/Scratch/en/blog/Learn-Vim-Progressively/>`_ is one
   person's view on a good pacing for learning vim.

-  A browser-based game that gets your fingers used to the Vim
   keybindings: `Vim Adventures <https://vim-adventures.com/>`_

-  Once you have some vim under your belt, you can try some of these to
   get some practice (might want to check the cheat-sheets before each
   one): `Vim Dojo <https://www.shortcutfoo.com/app/dojos/vim>`_

- There is a robust plugin ecosystem for vim. See my `dotfiles
  <https://daler.github.io/dotfiles/vim.html>`_ for the vim plugins I use the
  most.