- Complete
vimtutor
. Note: it looks best in a 80x24 (80 columns by 24 lines) terminal window. - Download our basic vimrc and save it to
~/.vimrc
. Read through the well-commented file (using Vim!), and observe how Vim looks and behaves slightly differently with the new config. - Install and configure a plugin:
ctrlp.vim.
- Create the plugins directory with
mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start
- Download the plugin:
cd ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start; git clone https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim
- Read the
documentation
for the plugin. Try using CtrlP to locate a file by navigating to a
project directory, opening Vim, and using the Vim command-line to start
:CtrlP
. - Customize CtrlP by adding
configuration
to your
~/.vimrc
to open CtrlP by pressing Ctrl-P.
- Create the plugins directory with
- To practice using Vim, re-do the Demo from lecture on your own machine.
- Use Vim for all your text editing for the next month. Whenever something seems inefficient, or when you think "there must be a better way", try Googling it, there probably is. If you get stuck, come to office hours or send us an email.
- Configure your other tools to use Vim bindings (see instructions above).
- Further customize your
~/.vimrc
and install more plugins. - (Advanced) Convert XML to JSON (example file) using Vim macros. Try to do this on your own, but you can look at the macros section above if you get stuck.