An anthropological account of the Vim text editor: features and tweaks after 10 years of usage

TL;DR

This paper provides an anthropological perspective on Vim, sharing insights from over ten years of usage to help users understand its features, design, and diverse usage patterns.

Contribution

It offers a detailed account of Vim's features and user practices based on long-term experience, aiming to guide both new and experienced users.

Findings

Vim has a complex feature set that takes years to master.

Different users utilize different features and tweaks.

The paper serves as a comprehensive reference for Vim commands and usage patterns.

Abstract

The Vim text editor is very rich in capabilities and thus complex. This article is a description of Vim and a set of considerations about its usage and design. It results from more than ten years of experience in using Vim for writing and editing various types of documents, e.g. Python, C++, JavaScript, ChucK programs; \LaTeX, Markdown, HTML, RDF, Make and other markup files; % TTM binary files. It is commonplace, in the Vim users and developers communities, to say that it takes about ten years to master (or start mastering) this text editor, and I find that other experienced users have a different view of Vim and that they use a different set of features. Therefore, this document exposes my understandings in order to confront my usage with that of other Vim users. Another goal is to make available a reference document with which new users can grasp a sound overview by reading it and the discussions that it might generate. Also, it should be useful for users of any degree of experience, including me, as a compendium of commands, namespaces and tweaks. Upon feedback, and maturing of my Vim usage, this document might be enhanced and expanded.