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+*tips.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2004 Feb 17
+
+
+ VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
+
+
+Tips and ideas for using Vim *tips*
+
+Don't forget to browse the user manual, it also contains lots of useful tips
+|usr_toc.txt|.
+
+Editing C programs |C-editing|
+Finding where identifiers are used |ident-search|
+Switching screens in an xterm |xterm-screens|
+Scrolling in Insert mode |scroll-insert|
+Smooth scrolling |scroll-smooth|
+Correcting common typing mistakes |type-mistakes|
+Counting words, lines, etc. |count-items|
+Restoring the cursor position |restore-position|
+Renaming files |rename-files|
+Speeding up external commands |speed-up|
+Useful mappings |useful-mappings|
+Compressing the help files |gzip-helpfile|
+Hex editing |hex-editing|
+Executing shell commands in a window |shell-window|
+Using <> notation in autocommands |autocmd-<>|
+
+==============================================================================
+Editing C programs *C-editing*
+
+There are quite a few features in Vim to help you edit C program files. Here
+is an overview with tags to jump to:
+
+|usr_29.txt| Moving through programs chapter in the user manual.
+|usr_30.txt| Editing programs chapter in the user manual.
+|C-indenting| Automatically set the indent of a line while typing
+ text.
+|=| Re-indent a few lines.
+|format-comments| Format comments.
+
+|:checkpath| Show all recursively included files.
+|[i| Search for identifier under cursor in current and
+ included files.
+|[_CTRL-I| Jump to match for "[i"
+|[I| List all lines in current and included files where
+ identifier under the cursor matches.
+|[d| Search for define under cursor in current and included
+ files.
+
+|CTRL-]| Jump to tag under cursor (e.g., definition of a
+ function).
+|CTRL-T| Jump back to before a CTRL-] command.
+|:tselect| Select one tag out of a list of matching tags.
+
+|gd| Go to Declaration of local variable under cursor.
+|gD| Go to Declaration of global variable under cursor.
+
+|gf| Go to file name under the cursor.
+
+|%| Go to matching (), {}, [], /* */, #if, #else, #endif.
+|[/| Go to previous start of comment.
+|]/| Go to next end of comment.
+|[#| Go back to unclosed #if, #ifdef, or #else.
+|]#| Go forward to unclosed #else or #endif.
+|[(| Go back to unclosed '('
+|])| Go forward to unclosed ')'
+|[{| Go back to unclosed '{'
+|]}| Go forward to unclosed '}'
+
+|v_ab| Select "a block" from "[(" to "])", including braces
+|v_ib| Select "inner block" from "[(" to "])"
+|v_aB| Select "a block" from "[{" to "]}", including brackets
+|v_iB| Select "inner block" from "[{" to "]}"
+
+==============================================================================
+Finding where identifiers are used *ident-search*
+
+You probably already know that |tags| can be used to jump to the place where a
+function or variable is defined. But sometimes you wish you could jump to all
+the places where a function or variable is being used. This is possible in
+two ways:
+1. Using the |:grep| command. This should work on most Unix systems,
+ but can be slow (it reads all files) and only searches in one directory.
+2. Using ID utils. This is fast and works in multiple directories. It uses a
+ database to store locations. You will need some additional programs for
+ this to work. And you need to keep the database up to date.
+
+Using the GNU id-tools:
+
+What you need:
+- The GNU id-tools installed (mkid is needed to create ID and lid is needed to
+ use the macros).
+- An identifier database file called "ID" in the current directory. You can
+ create it with the shell command "mkid file1 file2 ..".
+
+Put this in your .vimrc: >
+ map _u :call ID_search()<Bar>execute "/\\<" . g:word . "\\>"<CR>
+ map _n :n<Bar>execute "/\\<" . g:word . "\\>"<CR>
+
+ function! ID_search()
+ let g:word = expand("<cword>")
+ let x = system("lid --key=none ". g:word)
+ let x = substitute(x, "\n", " ", "g")
+ execute "next " . x
+ endfun
+
+To use it, place the cursor on a word, type "_u" and vim will load the file
+that contains the word. Search for the next occurrence of the word in the
+same file with "n". Go to the next file with "_n".
+
+This has been tested with id-utils-3.2 (which is the name of the id-tools
+archive file on your closest gnu-ftp-mirror).
+
+[the idea for this comes from Andreas Kutschera]
+
+==============================================================================
+Switching screens in an xterm *xterm-screens* *xterm-save-screen*
+
+(From comp.editors, by Juergen Weigert, in reply to a question)
+
+:> Another question is that after exiting vim, the screen is left as it
+:> was, i.e. the contents of the file I was viewing (editing) was left on
+:> the screen. The output from my previous like "ls" were lost,
+:> ie. no longer in the scrolling buffer. I know that there is a way to
+:> restore the screen after exiting vim or other vi like editors,
+:> I just don't know how. Helps are appreciated. Thanks.
+:
+:I imagine someone else can answer this. I assume though that vim and vi do
+:the same thing as each other for a given xterm setup.
+
+They not necessarily do the same thing, as this may be a termcap vs.
+terminfo problem. You should be aware that there are two databases for
+describing attributes of a particular type of terminal: termcap and
+terminfo. This can cause differences when the entries differ AND when of
+the programs in question one uses terminfo and the other uses termcap
+(also see |+terminfo|).
+
+In your particular problem, you are looking for the control sequences
+^[[?47h and ^[[?47l. These switch between xterms alternate and main screen
+buffer. As a quick workaround a command sequence like >
+ echo -n "^[[?47h"; vim ... ; echo -n "^[[?47l"
+may do what you want. (My notation ^[ means the ESC character, further down
+you'll see that the databases use \E instead).
+
+On startup, vim echoes the value of the termcap variable ti (terminfo:
+smcup) to the terminal. When exiting, it echoes te (terminfo: rmcup). Thus
+these two variables are the correct place where the above mentioned control
+sequences should go.
+
+Compare your xterm termcap entry (found in /etc/termcap) with your xterm
+terminfo entry (retrieved with /usr/5bin/infocmp -C xterm). Both should
+contain entries similar to: >
+ :te=\E[2J\E[?47l\E8:ti=\E7\E[?47h:
+
+PS: If you find any difference, someone (your sysadmin?) should better check
+ the complete termcap and terminfo database for consistency.
+
+NOTE 1: If you recompile Vim with FEAT_XTERM_SAVE defined in feature.h, the
+builtin xterm will include the mentioned "te" and "ti" entries.
+
+NOTE 2: If you want to disable the screen switching, and you don't want to
+change your termcap, you can add these lines to your .vimrc: >
+ :set t_ti= t_te=
+
+==============================================================================
+Scrolling in Insert mode *scroll-insert*
+
+If you are in insert mode and you want to see something that is just off the
+screen, you can use CTRL-X CTRL-E and CTRL-X CTRL-Y to scroll the screen.
+ |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-E|
+
+To make this easier, you could use these mappings: >
+ :inoremap <C-E> <C-X><C-E>
+ :inoremap <C-Y> <C-X><C-Y>
+(Type this literally, make sure the '<' flag is not in 'cpoptions').
+You then lose the ability to copy text from the line above/below the cursor
+|i_CTRL-E|.
+
+Also consider setting 'scrolloff' to a larger value, so that you can always see
+some context around the cursor. If 'scrolloff' is bigger than half the window
+height, the cursor will always be in the middle and the text is scrolled when
+the cursor is moved up/down.
+
+==============================================================================
+Smooth scrolling *scroll-smooth*
+
+If you like the scrolling to go a bit smoother, you can use these mappings: >
+ :map <C-U> <C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y>
+ :map <C-D> <C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E>
+
+(Type this literally, make sure the '<' flag is not in 'cpoptions').
+
+==============================================================================
+Correcting common typing mistakes *type-mistakes*
+
+When there are a few words that you keep on typing in the wrong way, make
+abbreviations that correct them. For example: >
+ :ab teh the
+ :ab fro for
+
+==============================================================================
+Counting words, lines, etc. *count-items*
+
+To count how often any pattern occurs in a buffer, set 'report' to 0, and use
+the substitute command to replace the pattern with itself. The reported
+number of substitutions is the number of items. Examples: >
+
+ :set report=0
+ :%s/./&/g characters
+ :%s/\i\+/&/g words
+ :%s/^ lines
+ :%s/the/&/g "the" anywhere
+ :%s/\<the\>/&/g "the" as a word
+
+You might want to reset 'hlsearch' or do ":nohlsearch".
+
+This does not work if the 'modifiable' option is off. An alternative is using
+|v_g_CTRL-G| in Visual mode.
+
+ *count-bytes*
+If you want to count bytes, you can use this:
+
+ Visually select the characters (block is also possible)
+ Use "y" to yank the characters
+ Use the strlen() function: >
+ :echo strlen(@")
+A line break is counted for one byte.
+
+==============================================================================
+Restoring the cursor position *restore-position*
+
+Sometimes you want to write a mapping that makes a change somewhere in the
+file and restores the cursor position, without scrolling the text. For
+example, to change the date mark in a file: >
+ :map <F2> msHmtgg/Last [cC]hange:\s*/e+1<CR>"_D"=strftime("%Y %b %d")<CR>p'tzt`s
+
+Breaking up saving the position:
+ ms store cursor position in the 's' mark
+ H go to the first line in the window
+ mt store this position in the 't' mark
+
+Breaking up restoring the position:
+ 't go to the line previously at the top of the window
+ zt scroll to move this line to the top of the window
+ `s jump to the original position of the cursor
+
+==============================================================================
+Renaming files *rename-files*
+
+Say I have a directory with the following files in them (directory picked at
+random :-):
+
+buffer.c
+charset.c
+digraph.c
+...
+
+and I want to rename *.c *.bla. I'd do it like this: >
+
+ $ vim
+ :r! ls *.c
+ :%s/\(.*\).c/mv & \1.bla
+ :w !sh
+ :q!
+
+==============================================================================
+Speeding up external commands *speed-up*
+
+In some situations, execution of an external command can be very slow. This
+can also slow down wildcard expansion on Unix. Here are a few suggestions to
+increase the speed.
+
+If your .cshrc (or other file, depending on the shell used) is very long, you
+should separate it into a section for interactive use and a section for
+non-interactive use (often called secondary shells). When you execute a
+command from Vim like ":!ls", you do not need the interactive things (for
+example, setting the prompt). Put the stuff that is not needed after these
+lines: >
+
+ if ($?prompt == 0) then
+ exit 0
+ endif
+
+Another way is to include the "-f" flag in the 'shell' option, e.g.: >
+
+ :set shell=csh\ -f
+
+(the backslash is needed to include the space in the option).
+This will make csh completely skip the use of the .cshrc file. This may cause
+some things to stop working though.
+
+==============================================================================
+Useful mappings *useful-mappings*
+
+Here are a few mappings that some people like to use.
+
+ *map-backtick* >
+ :map ' `
+Make the single quote work like a backtick. Puts the cursor on the column of
+a mark, instead of going to the first non-blank character in the line.
+
+ *emacs-keys*
+For Emacs-style editing on the command-line: >
+ " start of line
+ :cnoremap <C-A> <Home>
+ " back one character
+ :cnoremap <C-B> <Left>
+ " delete character under cursor
+ :cnoremap <C-D> <Del>
+ " end of line
+ :cnoremap <C-E> <End>
+ " forward one character
+ :cnoremap <C-F> <Right>
+ " recall newer command-line
+ :cnoremap <C-N> <Down>
+ " recall previous (older) command-line
+ :cnoremap <C-P> <Up>
+ " back one word
+ :cnoremap <Esc><C-B> <S-Left>
+ " forward one word
+ :cnoremap <Esc><C-F> <S-Right>
+
+NOTE: This requires that the '<' flag is excluded from 'cpoptions'. |<>|
+
+ *format-bullet-list*
+This mapping will format any bullet list. It requires that there is an empty
+line above and below each list entry. The expression commands are used to
+be able to give comments to the parts of the mapping. >
+
+ :let m = ":map _f :set ai<CR>" " need 'autoindent' set
+ :let m = m . "{O<Esc>" " add empty line above item
+ :let m = m . "}{)^W" " move to text after bullet
+ :let m = m . "i <CR> <Esc>" " add space for indent
+ :let m = m . "gq}" " format text after the bullet
+ :let m = m . "{dd" " remove the empty line
+ :let m = m . "5lDJ" " put text after bullet
+ :execute m |" define the mapping
+
+(<> notation |<>|. Note that this is all typed literally. ^W is "^" "W", not
+CTRL-W. You can copy/paste this into Vim if '<' is not included in
+'cpoptions')
+
+Note that the last comment starts with |", because the ":execute" command
+doesn't accept a comment directly.
+
+You also need to set 'textwidth' to a non-zero value, e.g., >
+ :set tw=70
+
+A mapping that does about the same, but takes the indent for the list from the
+first line (Note: this mapping is a single long line with a lot of spaces): >
+ :map _f :set ai<CR>}{a <Esc>WWmmkD`mi<CR><Esc>kkddpJgq}'mJO<Esc>j
+<
+ *collapse*
+These two mappings reduce a sequence of empty (;b) or blank (;n) lines into a
+single line >
+ :map ;b GoZ<Esc>:g/^$/.,/./-j<CR>Gdd
+ :map ;n GoZ<Esc>:g/^[ <Tab>]*$/.,/[^ <Tab>]/-j<CR>Gdd
+
+==============================================================================
+Compressing the help files *gzip-helpfile*
+
+For those of you who are really short on disk space, you can compress the help
+files and still be able to view them with Vim. This makes accessing the help
+files a bit slower and requires the "gzip" program.
+
+(1) Compress all the help files: "gzip doc/*.txt".
+
+(2) Edit "doc/tags" and change the ".txt" to ".txt.gz": >
+ :%s=\(\t.*\.txt\)\t=\1.gz\t=
+
+(3) Add this line to your vimrc: >
+ set helpfile={dirname}/help.txt.gz
+
+Where {dirname} is the directory where the help files are. The |gzip| plugin
+will take care of decompressing the files.
+You must make sure that $VIMRUNTIME is set to where the other Vim files are,
+when they are not in the same location as the compressed "doc" directory. See
+|$VIMRUNTIME|.
+
+==============================================================================
+Executing shell commands in a window *shell-window*
+
+There have been questions for the possibility to execute a shell in a window
+inside Vim. The answer: you can't! Including this would add a lot of code to
+Vim, which is a good reason not to do this. After all, Vim is an editor, it
+is not supposed to do non-editing tasks. However, to get something like this,
+you might try splitting your terminal screen or display window with the
+"splitvt" program. You can probably find it on some ftp server. The person
+that knows more about this is Sam Lantinga <slouken@cs.ucdavis.edu>.
+An alternative is the "window" command, found on BSD Unix systems, which
+supports multiple overlapped windows. Or the "screen" program, found at
+www.uni-erlangen.de, which supports a stack of windows.
+
+==============================================================================
+Hex editing *hex-editing* *using-xxd*
+
+See section |23.4| of the user manual.
+
+If one has a particular extension that one uses for binary files (such as exe,
+bin, etc), you may find it helpful to automate the process with the following
+bit of autocmds for your <.vimrc>. Change that "*.bin" to whatever
+comma-separated list of extension(s) you find yourself wanting to edit: >
+
+ " vim -b : edit binary using xxd-format!
+ augroup Binary
+ au!
+ au BufReadPre *.bin let &bin=1
+ au BufReadPost *.bin if &bin | %!xxd
+ au BufReadPost *.bin set ft=xxd | endif
+ au BufWritePre *.bin if &bin | %!xxd -r
+ au BufWritePre *.bin endif
+ au BufWritePost *.bin if &bin | %!xxd
+ au BufWritePost *.bin set nomod | endif
+ augroup END
+
+==============================================================================
+Using <> notation in autocommands *autocmd-<>*
+
+The <> notation is not recognized in the argument of an :autocmd. To avoid
+having to use special characters, you could use a self-destroying mapping to
+get the <> notation and then call the mapping from the autocmd. Example:
+
+ *map-self-destroy* >
+ " This is for automatically adding the name of the file to the menu list.
+ " It uses a self-destroying mapping!
+ " 1. use a line in the buffer to convert the 'dots' in the file name to \.
+ " 2. store that in register '"'
+ " 3. add that name to the Buffers menu list
+ " WARNING: this does have some side effects, like overwriting the
+ " current register contents and removing any mapping for the "i" command.
+ "
+ autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * nmap i :nunmap i<CR>O<C-R>%<Esc>:.g/\./s/\./\\./g<CR>0"9y$u:menu Buffers.<C-R>9 :buffer <C-R>%<C-V><CR><CR>
+ autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * normal i
+
+Another method, perhaps better, is to use the ":execute" command. In the
+string you can use the <> notation by preceding it with a backslash. Don't
+forget to double the number of existing backslashes and put a backslash before
+'"'.
+>
+ autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * exe "normal O\<C-R>%\<Esc>:.g/\\./s/\\./\\\\./g\<CR>0\"9y$u:menu Buffers.\<C-R>9 :buffer \<C-R>%\<C-V>\<CR>\<CR>"
+
+For a real buffer menu, user functions should be used (see |:function|), but
+then the <> notation isn't used, which defeats using it as an example here.
+
+ vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: