This text still needs a good structure. As I am busy with other stuff, too, you will have to send me email to encourage further work on it. :-)

TODO: link to VI FAQ

line

A sequence of characters. Start: First character after an EOL character (or first character of buffer). End: Next EOL character. The EOL is included.

running text

A sequence of consecutive characters.

block

A sequence of (full) lines.

paragraph

see block

Q: How do I quit?
A: Type ":q".
If this gets inserted then press ESC and type ":q" again.
Q: How do I insert text?
A: Type an 'i' to start insert text.
All characters you enter will be inserted -
except ESC which ends the insertion of characters.
Q: How do I start a new line while typing?
A: Type in the character 13 aka as control-M.
It is usually entered with the key labelled "return".
Q: How do you start a new line?
A: Type 'o' to "open" a new line below the current one.
   Type 'O' to "Open" a new line above the current one.
Q: How do you move the cursor?
A: The characters 'hjklwbWB0${}HML' all move the cursor:
   h	left	moves cursor onto the character to the left
   l	right	moves cursor onto the character to the right
   j	down	moves cursor onto the next line below
   k	down	moves cursor onto the next line above
   w	word	move cursor onto start of next word
   b	back	move cursor back to start of current or previous word
   0	zero	move cursor onto column zero ie start of current line
   $	end	move cursor onto the last column ie end of current line
   {		move current to start of current/previous paragraph
   }		move current to end   of current/next     paragraph
   H	high	move cursor onto highest line on window ie top line
   M	middle	move cursor onto the middle line of window
   L	last	move cursor onto last line of window
   NG	goto	move cursor onto line number N  (you must type N before G)
Q: How do I delete the current line?
A: Type "dd".
Q: How do I delete unto the end of the line?
A: Type 'D'.
Q: How do I delete unto the beginning of the line?
A: Type 'd0'.  ("dee zero")
Q: How do I make a copy the current line?
A: Type "yy".
Q: How do I insert what I have copied?
A: Type 'p' to "put" the text after  the current character/line.
   Type 'P' to "Put" the text before the current character/line.
   If the last thing you copied was a line of a block of lines
   then it will be put between lines.

ab DON Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftkapitaenwitwengesetzzusatzparagraph

I also use abbreviations for Email addresses, important file name such as setup files, and some URLS of my web pages.

Examples:

ab _vimrc    $HOME/.vimrc
ab _mymail   [email protected]
ab _homepage http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/

Sample Mappings

Caveat: Mapping must be "prefix free", ie no mapping must be the prefix of any other mapping. Example: "map ,abc foo" and "map ,abcd bar" will give you the error message "Ambigous mapping".

" 950101 ,v = vimrc editing (edit this file)
  map    ,v :e $HOME/.vimrc
" 950101 ,u = "update" by reading this file
  map    ,u :source $HOME/.vimrc
" 950330 ,dp = dequote current paragraph
  map    ,dp {jma}kmb:'a,'bs/^> *//
" 950330 ,qp = quote current paragraph
  map    ,qp {jma}kmb:'a,'bs/^/> /

:g/^$/d

:g/^\s\+$/d

:v/./.,/./-1join

A2:	map  _b  GoZ^[:g/^[ ^I]*$/,/[^ ^I]/-j^MGdd

A:      :map ^V^V^V^I right-hand-side

	:map  

Q: How do I get back to the exact position within a line I have marked with 'a'?
A: Use "`a" (that's a backtick!).

Q: How I see what I type?
A: Use ":set showcmd".

Changing line feeds from DOS to UNIX

Q:  How to convert DOS line-ends (13,10) to Unix line-ends (10)?
NOTE:  Whenever this question arises, people give *wrong* answers.
The error usually lies in the assumption that you simply have to
"do away with *all* ^M" - but not every ^M is followed by a ^J,
ie a ^M can be part of a line.  Removing all ^M therefore is *wrong*.
A1: Using the power of Vim: Assume that the file is in the current buffer.
	within vim-5:
		:set fileformat=unix
		:w
	within vim-3 and vim-4:
		:set textmode
		:w
    You can, of course, use an external command as a filter, too:
	Use "tr" ("translate") as filter:
	:%!tr '\015' '\012'
	Drawback:  "tr" does not exist on all platforms.
	Use perl as filter:
	:%!perl -pe ";"
	Advantage: Perl exists on almost every platform and is a great tool.
	Drawback:  Perl isn't easy to install and overkill for this purpose.
	Note: An empty perl script should suffice as Perl automatically writes
	files with the correct eol character for the system it's being run on.
	This should work, too:
	perl -pe 's/\15\12/\12/' file
A2:  Using "that other editor (Emacs)":
	M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m RET
	(Not possible with emacs 19.31.1 in slackware 3.1, I hear.)
	Advantage: Some versions of Emacs automatically convert on startup.
	Drawback:  Emacs is BIG.  Mind-boggingly big.
	;;;; for you emacs setup file ($HOME/.emacs):
	;;; Note: You can insert ^M literally (by typing ^Q ^M) -
	;;; but you can also write it as "\C-m", "\r", or "\^M".
	(defun todos ()
	  (interactive "*")
	  (replace-regexp "$" "\r"))
	(defun tounix ()
	  (interactive "*")
	  (replace-regexp "\r$" ""))
	However, these functions can be slow.  So Erik Naggum
	has implemented some other functions for Emacs:
	convert-lineends.em
A3:  Using the editor "joe":
	^T Z
	This command hides the EOL.  *No* changes, though.
	Thanks to Marc Lehmann [email protected] for telling me.
A4:  Using the Unix command "col":
	col -b
	(not tested)
A5:  Using "dos2unix":
	dos2unix < infile > outfile
A6:  Using "awk":
	awk 'BEGIN{ORS="\r\n"};/.*/' file1
General Note:
There are many conversion tools just for this purpose.
Have a look at the various archives (DOS: Garbo, Simtel).
Some transfer programs (most notably "ftp") also convert
line endings automatically.  But a lot of these are buggy.
Summary:
Good editors (and programs that include editing facilities) are *independant*
of the underlying OS by supporting conversion of line-ends for all systems as
the user prefers, ie no automatic conversion unless specified.
Some noted:
Borland's Turbo C++ editor turns UNIX text into DOS text.
Some wrong solutions:

vi and clones:
	:%s/^M//g
	Problem:  *All* occurrences of ^M are removed.
	sed -e s/\015/""/g $1 &gt; $1.new
	Problem:  *All* occurrences of ^M are removed.
	sed 's/$/\r&/g'
	Problem:  sed uses regexpr(3) which does not know about "\r".

Example:
  "ni"
  Put the cursor on the "n".
  Use "x" to delete the "n".
  Note:  The cursor will be placed on the next charcter, ie "i".
  Use "p" to "put" the deleted text (the "n") after the current position ("i").
  Result:
  "in"

Q: How do you format the current paragraph?
A: With Vim-4 type "Qp".
A: With Vim-5+ type "gqip".

Q: How do you substitute from line marked with x to a line marked with y ?
A: :'x,'ys/this/that/

Q: How do I read in a file to the current buffer?
A: Use ":r file".  The contents of "file" will be appended *after*
   the current line.
Q: How do I append a signature to my text?
A: Jump to the end of the text with "G" and then read in the signature file.
Example:  ":r ~/.signature"
Q: How do I read in the output of a command?
A: Use ":r!command".
Example: ":r!date"

Special VIM stuff

Highlight mode jumping

Completion of negated settings

Formatting text

[TODO: add example of quoted text before and after formatting]

However, the builtin formatting command does not suit everybody. There are a few scripts about which you can use to pipe your text through. Here are two scripts - one in PERL and one in AWK:

Q:  Is there a command to remove any or all digraphs?
A:  No.  There is a table that is defined at compile time.
    You can only add new ones.
    Adding a command to remove digraphs is on the todo list.

Q: How do I encode text with uuencode?
A: !uuencode filename

Q: How do you specify the current filename?
A: Use "%".
Examples:
	:w %
	:w %.bak
	:w ../%.copy
Q: How do you specify the current filename without the extension?
A: Use "%<".
Examples:
	:w %<

" Yank the current line into buffer y and execute it
map - "yyy:@y^M
"	Use buffer
y	buffer y
yy	yank current line
:	switch to command line
@y^M	put contents of buffer y onto command line

Pasting yank buffer into command line
Fact:
You can record keystrokes to a yank buffer and thus you can put it into the
edit buffer.
Question:
How do you paste a yank buffer into the command line?
Answer:
Assume that there is something in buffer 'y'.
Enter ":@y" then hit return.

Vim's smartindent option is nice. But there's one thing, I dislike a lot:
Whenever you start a line with "#", Vim ignores the current indent and
places the # at the begin of line. This is o.k. when editing C-code,
but if you're writing shell or awk scripts, # introduces a comment...
If I want to write something like
  if [ $a = "x" ]; then
    # comment about what's done here
I have to indent the # line manually. :-(
I don't use vim, but I see where that could be a problem.  Even in C/C++-code
I don't start lines with # at the first column.  The product I work on
(Preditor/2) uses one codebase to support multiple platforms (OS/2, Windows
and Win95/NT).  It uses a multi-platform class library and *lots* of #ifs to
do this, many of which are nested.  If all of th #ifs start in the 1st column,
you easily get hopelessly lost and confused.  Therefore I always indent the
#ifs just like the rest of th code so it can be read.
Yes maybe there should be different types of smartindenting?  For the moment
you can get around this by putting this in your .vimrc or .exrc file:
    inoremap # X^H#
where ^H is typed as .
Strange, most C compilers won't allow the # to be anywhere other than in the
first column.  I think the ANSI standard requires it to be in the first
column.  You can of course have spaces/tabs after the '#' and before the
"if" or whatever.  -Rob.

In Vim 3.0, * (in the command mode) searches forward for the next occurrence
of the *word* that is under the cursor.  And # searches backward.
If you want to search the word which can be part of another word, you
can try the following map
        map \s wb"zyeo/^["zpbb"zy$u@z^M
        where ^M is Ctrl-V Ctrl-M

do one of the following you should be able to relocate the tmp directory:
        - set directory=/ in EXINIT
        - or, "set directory=/" in your .exrc file
        - or, in a vi session do ":set directory=/"
where pathname is the location you want to put the temp file.

I have problems using vi with characters which have an ascii value > 128.
For example if I insert ue the editor echoes \334 in insert mode. After leaving
the insert mode everything is fine. Also fmt removes all characters with ascii
> 128 from the text being formated.
You have to define the environment-variable LC_CTYPE.
If you are using csh then put in your .cshrc following line:
setenv LC_CTYPE=iso_8859_1

" my addresses - email, home page, and vim pages
"
ab YMAIL [email protected]
ab HPM   http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/
ab HPV   http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/

" abbreviations - file names
"
ab SIGVIM $HOME/public_html/sig/sig.vim

" 950101 ,s = "sign" - read in signature file (requires manual completion)
map	,s :r $HOME/public_html/sig/sig.

http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/howto/edit.html
https://www.vim8.org/howto/edit.html (mirror)
Created:     Mon Apr  1 00:00:00 MET 1996