The Ultimate vimrc [[OFF'S EDITION]]

Update: I'm now using Vim when I want fast access because Vim is all over the place. But I'm currently using Spacemacs (an Emacs distribution focusing on bringing the best of Vim and Emacs together) and I've been happy with it so far.

Update 2: There is something called SpaceVim that comes out lately and it said that it's similar to Spacemacs. I have not tried it yet but this proved that concept of Spacemacs is good enough to be followed.

This also means that it might be better to use SpaceVim distribution instead of mine. Because I think I'm not going to update this repository for awhile. I'm going to the dark side with Spacemacs distribution on Emacs.

You will see that many key bindings in this vimrc is stolen from Spacemacs. I want you to explore it yourself. I encourage you to try it, here's my dot spacemacs directory in case you are curious: https://github.com/offchan42/.spacemacs.d

Update 3: I'm now using Visual Studio Code as my go to text editor now. As it's easy to use and it also has a stunning Vim extension. It's fast to open in my PC. It took less than 3 seconds to run. That's not a lot of time to tolerate! Its Vim extension doesn't interfere much with the VS Code keybindings itself. That's why I like it. (JetBrains IDE like PyCharm, IntelliJ, PhpStorm, etc have Vim plugins that interfere a lot with its keybindings, so I don't use Vim plugin in those IDEs)

I code in python a lot so Jupyter Lab is another IDE that runs in the browser. I like a lot because it's easy to experiment with code using its visual style. And it starts even quicker than any text editor. And yes, it has Vim extension (without any interference with its keybindings at all)! So I suggest using Jupyter Lab to run your Jupyter Notebook and python code.

Also, if you are a Vim lover like me, you might like Vimium extension in Chrome. Try that and you will not need to use much mouse for browsing web anymore.

Prerequisite

If you don't have Vim installed, I suggest you to install 64-bit version and here is the suggested link: https://bintray.com/micbou/generic/vim

Please use Vim version >= 7.4 if possible. GVim and MacVim are the most ideal distribution that I recommend.

Vimrc Installation

There are two options:

• Basic: If you want something small just copy basic.vim into your ~/.vimrc and you will have a great basic setup
• Awesome: This includes a ton of useful plugins, color schemes and configurations

I would of course recommend using the awesome version.

How to install the Awesome version?

The awesome version includes a lot of great plugins, configurations and color schemes that make Vim a lot better. To install it simply do following:

git clone https://github.com/offchan42/vimrc.git ~/.vim_runtime
sh ~/.vim_runtime/install_awesome_vimrc.sh
cd ~/.vim_runtime && git submodule update --init && cd ~-

5. I highly recommend using Source Code Pro font from Adobe (it's free and awesome font for writing and programming). The Ultimate vimrc is already setup to try to use it. You can download it freely from this repository: https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro

6. If you want to use neocomplete (Autocomplete) plugin, you'll need to have Lua installed, please refer to https://github.com/Shougo/neocomplete.vim#requirements for further instructions.

7. If you want to use taglist.vim plugin (F8) then you also need to install ctags which can be found at http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ (For Windows, I have already installed it inside this repository for you. But if you want to install it with PATH variable set, use chocolatey and run cinst ctags)

Optional: You can use the latest version of ctags which is named Universal ctags manually instead of the Exuberant ctags I mentioned above.

3. deprecated: If you want to use Python's Omni autocomplete feature with CTRL-X CTRL-O then install Python 2 and set PYTHONHOME to the directory where you have python.exe lying around. Refer to http://stackoverflow.com/a/40566169/2593810 for more information. Try entering :py print 2**10 and if it outputs 1024 then you are good to go. Please use jedi-vim instead.

4. If you want to use flake8 python static file checkers (F7) please use python pip or any python environment manager to install flake8 like so: pip install flake8. In my opinion, this plugin is unnecessary. It rarely finds problems if you code well. :)

5. To use jedi-vim plugin, you must have jedi installed. Jedi is an awesome autocompletion/static analysis library for Python. Either run git submodule update --init --recursive inside sources_non_forked/jedi-vim/ or pip install jedi will work. If you are using Anaconda package manager, jedi will already be installed for you.

6. To use Ag (The Silver Searcher), you need to install it. It's like grep but is faster.

   If you are on Windows, the easiest way to install is to use chocolatey.

   Runs choco install ag then you are ready to use Ag with ack.vim plugin in this repository.

   ack.vim is a plugin made to integrate Ack and Ag into Vim.

   Trigger the plugin by hitting <leader>a and enter your search pattern.

How to install the Basic version?

The basic version is basically just one file and no plugins. You can check out basic.vim.

This is useful to install on remote servers where you don't need many plugins and you don't do many edits.

git clone git://github.com/offchan42/vimrc.git ~/.vim_runtime
sh ~/.vim_runtime/install_basic_vimrc.sh

How to install on Windows?

Use msysgit (Git Bash) to checkout the repository and run the installation instructions above. No special instructions needed ;-)

How to install on Linux

Install like on Windows but instead of using Git Bash, you can just simply use a real Bash!

How to update to latest version?

Simply just do a git pull rebase and update the submodules!

cd ~/.vim_runtime
git pull --rebase
git submodule foreach git pull origin master
cd ~-

Some screenshots

LATEST SCREENSHOT: This is my current working gVim on Windows. It uses dark solarized colorscheme.

gVim vs Atom on my Windows: Clearly atom is more aesthetically pleasing, it also has vim-mode-plus so you can do some vimming inside it. But it's just a package, it cannot beat the true power of Vim. I love both of them, but I think I favor Vim more. Its interface is not as beautiful as Atom yet but it will as long as Neovim team keeps working. I spent so much time learning and customizing my Vim, I'm not gonna be the victim of an editor's beauty again! :)

Colors when editing a Python file of a peaksea colorscheme

Opening recently opened files mru.vim:

NERD Tree plugin in a terminal window:

Old Windows showoff time!

Distraction free mode using goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2 (Default key to trigger is <leader>z):

Included Plugins

I recommend reading the docs of these plugins to understand them better. Each of them provide a much better Vim experience!

• pathogen.vim: Manages the runtime path of the plugins
• snipMate.vim: snipMate.vim aims to be a concise vim script that implements some of TextMate's snippets features in Vim
• bufexplorer.zip: Buffer Explorer / Browser. This plugin can be opened with <leader+o>
• NERD Tree: A tree explorer plugin for vim
• ack.vim: Vim plugin for the Perl module / CLI script 'ack'
• ag.vim: A much faster Ack
• ctrlp.vim: Fuzzy file, buffer, mru and tag finder.
• mru.vim: Plugin to manage Most Recently Used (MRU) files. Includes my own fork which adds syntax highlighting to MRU. This plugin can be opened with <leader+f>
• open_file_under_cursor.vim: Open file under cursor when pressing gf
• vim-indent-object: Defines a new text object representing lines of code at the same indent level. Useful for python/vim scripts
• vim-multiple-cursors: Sublime Text style multiple selections for Vim, CTRL+N
• vim-expand-region: Allows you to visually select increasingly larger regions of text using the same key combination. (In this case, it's + and _)
• vim-fugitive: A Git wrapper so awesome, it should be illegal
• goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2: Remove all clutter and focus only on the essential. Similar to iA Writer or Write Room Read more here
• vim-commentary: Comment stuff out. Use gcc to comment out a line (takes a count), gc to comment out the target of a motion. gcu uncomments a set of adjacent commented lines.
• syntastic: Syntax checking hacks for vim

• lightline.vim: A light and configurable statusline/tabline for Vim
• and a lot more! (Please check inside the sources_non_forked directory)

Included color schemes

• vim-colors-solarized: Off's favorite! (this is the default colorscheme)
• peaksea: amix's favorite
• vim-irblack
• mayansmoke
• vim-pyte
• Zenburn: This colorscheme is used by default if you do not have a GUI version running on your system. AKA you run Vim in a terminal of some sort.

Included modes

• vim-coffee-script
• vim-less
• vim-bundle-mako
• vim-markdown
• nginx.vim: Highlights configuration files for nginx
• vim-go

How to include your own stuff?

After you have installed the setup you can append ~/.vim_runtime/my_configs.vim to fill in any configurations that are important for you.

You can also install your own plugins, for instance, via pathogen we can install vim-rails:

cd ~/.vim_runtime
git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-rails.git sources_non_forked/vim-rails

Now you have vim-rails installed ;-)

Key Mappings

Plugin related mappings

Open bufexplorer and see and manage the current buffers (<leader>o):

map <leader>o :BufExplorer<cr>

Open MRU.vim and see the recently open files (<leader>f):

map <leader>f :MRU<CR>

Open ctrlp.vim plugin (<c-p>)

Managing the NERD Tree plugin:

map <leader>nt :NERDTreeTabsToggle<cr>
map <leader>nf :NERDTreeTabsFind<cr>
map <leader>nn :NERDTreeFocusToggle<cr>

goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2 lets you only focus on one thing at a time. It removes all the distractions and centers the content. It has a special look when editing Markdown, reStructuredText and textfiles. It only has one mapping. (<leader>z)

map <leader>z :Goyo<cr>

Normal mode mappings

Fast saving of a buffer (<leader>fs):

nmap <leader>fs :w!<cr>

Disable highlight when <leader><cr> is pressed:

map <silent> <leader><cr> :noh<cr>

Smart way to move between windows (<ctrl>j etc.):

map <C-j> <C-W>j
map <C-k> <C-W>k
map <C-h> <C-W>h
map <C-l> <C-W>l
" or use spacemacs style
map <leader>wj <C-W>j
map <leader>wk <C-W>k
map <leader>wh <C-W>h
map <leader>wl <C-W>l

Closing of current buffer(s) (<leader>bd and (<leader>ba)):

" Close current buffer
map <leader>bd :Bclose<cr>
" Close all buffers
map <leader>ba :1,1000 bd!<cr>

Useful mappings for managing tabs:

map <leader>tn :tabnew<cr>
map <leader>to :tabonly<cr>
map <leader>tc :tabclose<cr>
map <leader>tm :tabmove 
" Opens a new tab with the current buffer's path
" Super useful when editing files in the same directory
map <leader>te :tabedit <c-r>=expand("%:p:h")<cr>/

Switch CWD to the directory of the open buffer:

map <leader>cd :cd %:p:h<cr>:pwd<cr>

Remove the Windows ^M - when the encodings gets messed up:

noremap <leader>m mmHmt:%s/<C-V><cr>//ge<cr>'tzt'm

Toggle paste mode on and off:

map <leader>pp :setlocal paste!<cr>

Insert mode mappings

Insert the current date and time (useful for timestamps):

iab xdate <c-r>=strftime("%d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S")<cr>

Visual mode mappings

Visual mode pressing * or # searches for the current selection:

vnoremap <silent> * :call VisualSelection('f')<CR>
vnoremap <silent> # :call VisualSelection('b')<CR>

When you press gv you vimgrep after the selected text:

vnoremap <silent> gv :call VisualSelection('gv')<CR>

When you press <leader>r you can search and replace the selected text:

vnoremap <silent> <leader>r :call VisualSelection('replace')<CR>

Command line mappings

$q is super useful when browsing on the command line. It deletes everything until the last slash:

cno $q <C-\>eDeleteTillSlash()<cr>

Bash like keys for the command line:

cnoremap <C-A>    <Home>
cnoremap <C-E>    <End>
cnoremap <C-K>    <C-U>
cnoremap <C-P> <Up>
cnoremap <C-N> <Down>

Write the file as sudo (only on Unix). Super useful when you open a file and you don't have permissions to save your changes. Vim tip:

:W

Spell checking (currently disabled, please use default Vim keys)

Pressing <leader>ss will toggle and untoggle spell checking

map <leader>ss :setlocal spell!<cr>

Shortcuts using <leader> instead of special chars

map <leader>sn ]s
map <leader>sp [s
map <leader>sa zg
map <leader>s? z=

Cope

Do :help cope if you are unsure what cope is. It's super useful!

When you search with vimgrep, display your results in cope by doing: <leader>cc

To go to the next search result do: <leader>cn

To go to the previous search results do: <leader>cp

Vimscript mappings:

map <leader>cc :botright cope<cr>
map <leader>co ggVGy:tabnew<cr>:set syntax=qf<cr>pgg
map <leader>cn :cn<cr>
map <leader>cp :cp<cr>

How to uninstall

Do following:

• Remove ~/.vim_runtime
• Remove any lines that reference .vim_runtime in your ~/.vimrc