MiniVim

Click to launch a YouTube video demo:

A longer and more up to date demo is available here : Demo

Goals

• Mimic Sublime Text / Shell key mappings
• Minimal: one file, no plugin needed!

Automated setup

• Clone this repo to the folder of your choice:

git clone https://github.com/sd65/MiniVim.git

• Go inside this repo:

cd MiniVim

• Launch the install script and follow the instructions:

./install.sh

• It's ready! 😄 Launch Vim:

vim

Manual setup

If you can't clone the repo and do the above steps, just download the .vimrc to your home dir (backup your current .vimrc before).

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sd65/MiniVim/master/vimrc -O ~/.vimrc

And then add stty -ixon to your .zshrc or .bashrc (your shell will ignore XON/XOFF signals. Needed to remap Ctrl S, Ctrl Q). It will prevent the terminal from "freezing" when saving a file or duplicating a line.

How to use

• The key mappings can be used in Insert, Normal and Visual mode (yes, no need to exit Insert or Visual mode)
• The mouse can be used in Normal and Visual mode to scroll, select, change tab and more.
• There are clear visual hints on which mode you currently using. Like pink=normal, blue=insert and green=visual...

General Mappings

You hate those mappings? No problem, change this in your .vimrc : UseCustomKeyBindings=0.

Keys	Action	Comments
Moving	----------	----------
Arrows	Move the cursor	Like every editor
Ctrl Arrows	Move the cursor fast.	Ctrl is a booster!
Ctrl A	Go to the beginning of the line	As in Nano/Shell
Ctrl E	Go to the end of the line	As in Nano/Shell, remember as End
Home	Go to the beginning of the file	Self explanatory
End	Go to the end of the file	Self explanatory too
Tabs	----------	----------
Ctrl T	Open a new tab	Like Sublime, remember as Tab
Alt Arrows	Switch between tabs.	Ctrl Tab cannot be mapped...
History	----------	----------
Ctrl Z	Undo	Like Sublime
Ctrl R	Redo	Like no other, remember as Redo
Editing	----------	----------
Tab	Indent	Like Sublime
Shift Tab	Unindent	Like Sublime
Ctrl F	Find	Like Sublime, remember as FInd
Ctrl H	Search and Replace	Like Sublime
Ctrl G	Search and Replace on the line	Useful when duplicating a line and editing the new one
PageUp	Move the line up	Usefull function so dedicated key (don't trust me ? Try it.) Ctrl is a booster too!
PageDown	Move the line down	Same as above
Ctrl K	Delete the whole line/block	Like in nano, inspired by Sublime too, remember as Kill the line
Ctrl Q	Duplicate the line/block	Remember as "dupliqate"?
Ctrl L	Clear/Delete all lines	Like in a shell, remember as Clear
Ctrl D	Delete char from the left, as Del	Like in a shell, remember as Delete
Ctrl N	Autocomplete word	Default VIM mapping but interesting one
Ctrl \	Comment/Uncomment	Depends on filetype
Vital	----------	----------
Ctrl S	Save	Like Sublime, remember as Save
Ctrl C	Quit	Like in a shell
Miscellaneous	----------	----------
F2	Set paste toggle	With paste on you can paste more easily
F3	Show line numbers toggle	Show or hide line numbers
F4	Panic Button! Toggle garbage screen	Remember as "I need to alt-F4!"
F6	Toggle color column at 80th char	A visual helper to write clean code

Mappings in Explorer

Keys	Action	Comments
Ctrl O	Open the Explorer	Remember as Open
Enter or Right Arrow	Enter a file/dir	Easy one
Left Arrow	Go up a dir	Easy one too
l	Display info on file/dir	Remember as ls
n	Open a menu to make an action (Create file/dir, Rename, Delete)	Remember as ... New action?
a	Toggle 'Show Hidden files only, Show All, Hide hidden files (default)'	Default mapping
Ctrl C	Quit	Like in a shell

Custom commands

You can enter those command in normal mode.

Cmd	Action
:UndoCloseTab	Reopen the last close buffer/tab in a new tab
:RemoveTrailingSpaces	Remove the unwanted spaces at the end of lines

How to add plugins to MiniVim

The automated setup source in the main Vim configuration file (.vimrc) MiniVim. This means that you have a clean and standard .vimrc.

To keep MiniVim, don't delete the source [...]/MiniVim instruction in the .vimrc file.

To add plugins, simply follow the plugin's instructions. You should manage them with a plugin manager as Vundle or the old Pathogen.

How to use MiniVim with sudo

First, you could install MiniVim as root. Or better soft link your .vimrc. But it's sometimes not the best solution, like in a company where the root user is shared.

So, you can configure your system to use MiniVim when you sudo vim [file]. There are 2 solutions :

• sudo -E vim [file] as -E preserve your existing environment variables (as $HOME here and therefore your ~/.vimrc).
• sudoedit [file] or sudo -e [file] (synonyms). To use this, you must have set your $EDITOR environment variable. Then, this command will make a copy of the designated file and you will edit the copy. Note that the original file will only be modified when you exit your editor !

How to update MiniVim ?

First, you have to fetch the latest MiniVim. If you had cloned the repo, simply git pull. Else, re-download the lastest version on GitHub.

If you setup MiniVim automatically, simply re-run the installer. It will take care of everything.

If not, copy again the vimrc file to ~/.vimrc

Other info

The file is heavily commented. You're welcome to open, read and change what you want. It's easy.

• Work with Vim and GVim.
• Please keep in mind that some keys cannot be mapped as Ctrl Shift Something or Ctrl Tab because of Terminals limitations. I have to compose with this 😕 If you're on Windows with Putty or similar, you may experience problems because of key codes. Look at this tip for PuTTY numeric keypad problems and this one for other mappings that doesn't work.
• The color scheme is based on https://github.com/sickill/vim-monokai.
• Smart Paste system is based on https://github.com/ConradIrwin/vim-bracketed-paste.
• In the bottom right-hand corner, you have numbers 115/142(90%)-10. Line 115, total lines 142, position at 90% in the file and column 10.
• Tabulations will be expanded into two spaces, the default indent size.
• UTF-8 by default.
• Backups and Swapfiles are stored in $HOME/.vim/.
• Pressing Enter, Space or Backspace in normal mode will enter insert mode and do action.
• When re-opening a file, Vim will remember the last position.
• When opening multiple file (as vim file1 file2), Vim will open those files in new tabs automatically.

Changelog

1.5.1

• Fix a bug where the terminal back buffer was mangled after exiting Vim

1.5

• Change the terminal title to the current edited file
• Faster color mode changes

1.4

• Comment & Uncomment feature
• Improve block move Up/Down
• Minor bug fixes

1.3.3

• Smart paste
• The default mode is "Normal"

1.3.2

• Configuration is kept in .vimrc to persist between updates
• Better README

1.3.1

• New clean install with the automated setup
• Small fixes

1.3

• Custom save function
• Complete words containing a dash
• Replace on the line
• Better cursor position after duplicating a block
• Added percentage in statusline
• Added the 'Remove Trailing Spaces' function
• Small fixes and typos fixed

1.2

• Fix the visual block mode
• Fix the incremental search
• Install.sh is now POSIX
• Fixed typos

1.1

• Better code organisation
• Toggle custom key bindings easily
• Toggle 80th column char
• Open file browser in new tab only if tab is empty
• Fix typos

1.0

Initial release.