Overview

These are just some personal notes on various functionality across Vim-like editors.

Writing these out is mostly for my own sake, but it helps me to remember by:

1. researching to confirm how things work
2. testing to get a feel of how they work
3. acting as a future reference for when I inevitably forget

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General Vim Things

Insert Mode

Ctrl Commands

Useful Ctrl Commands

Command	Description
<C-@>	Insert previously inserted text, and stop insert
<C-a>	Insert previously inserted text
<C-d>	Outdent current line
<C-o>	Execute a single command, then back to insert
<C-r> {register}	Insert the contents of a register
<C-t>	Indent current line
<C-u>	Delete everything before the cursor
<C-w>	Delete word before the cursor
<C-Left>	Move one word left
<C-Right>	Move one word right
<C-Home>	Move to start of file
<C-End>	Move to end of file

Not So Ctrl Useful

These are mostly handled by other keys, so you can probably remap them.

Command	Description	Notes
<C-e>	Insert the character below the cursor	Maybe useful to some, but not to me
<C-h>	Same as <BS>	Just use backspace...
<C-i>	Same as <TAB>	Just use tab...
<C-j>	Same as <CR>	Just use enter...
<C-m>	Same as <CR>	Just use enter...
<C-y>	Insert the character above the cursor	Maybe useful to some, but not to me

Unmapped Ctrl Commands

These are unmapped and can mostly be reused without issues. Worth noting that vim-like editors may not agree with this statement. <C-b> <C-f> <C-l> <C-s> <C-z>

Registers

:reg - Show the current states of the registers

Type Name Content
  c  ""   Yanked text
  l  "0   Yanked text
  l  "1   Some deleted text^Jcrossing multiple^Jlines^J
  c  "2   deleted text^Jcrossing multiple^Jlines
  < omitted for brevity >
  c  "-   Some
  c  ":   :reg

Register Types

Selection	Type	Description
v	c - characterwise	Inside/across lines
V	l - linewise	Across entire lines
<C-v>	b - blockwise-visual	Rectangular blocks of characters

Register Names

Name	Register	Description
""	Unnamed register	Stores yanked, changed, and deleted text
"0	"yank" register	Stores most recently yanked text
"1 - "9	Numbered registers	Stores 9 most recently deletions longer than one line
"-	Small delete register	Stores the most recent deletions shorter than one line
"a - "z	Named registers	Explicitly defined registers to use for whatever you like
".	Read-only registers	Last inserted line
":	Read-only registers	Last executed command
"%	Read-only registers	Name of the current file
"#	Alternate file register	Name of the last file you opened
"* and "+	Selection registers	System clipboard1
"_	Black hole register	Used to send text to the void
"/	Last search pattern register	self explanatory

Usage examples:

• "*yy - Yank line to system clipboard
• "0p | Ctrl-R 0 - Paste from the yanked register
• "_db - Delete backwards, but don't store the text

The numbered ("1-"9) registers will automatically increment when using . to repeat an action. So you can delete lines in multiple places, then use the actions "1P . . . to paste them in order.

The system clipboard can be changed to use the unnamed register by running :set clipboard==unnamed or lua vim.opt.clipboard = 'unnamed'.

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VSCode Vim

vim.mode != 'Insert'

Neovim in Windows Terminal

Some combination of Ctrl keys don't work as expected when using nvim via windows terminal. To fix this, you can modify the terminal settings.json file to handle these combos properly.

The current schema will complain that keys isn't a valid option, but saving then opening terminal will automatically split into actions & keybindings.

"actions":
[
  {
    "command":
    {
      "action": "sendInput",
      "input": "\u001b[32;5u" // Send Space [32] and with Ctrl modifier [5u]
    },
    "keys": "ctrl+space"
  },
  {
    "command":
    {
      "action": "sendInput",
      "input": "\u001b[105;5u" // Send i [105] and with Ctrl modifier [5u]
    },
    "keys": "ctrl+i"
  },
]

Footnotes

1. Very simplified explanation... The usage of * or + may differ in X11 ↩