

Vim FAQ - soheilhy
http://vimhelp.appspot.com/vim_faq.txt.html

======
_kst_
[http://vimhelp.appspot.com/vim_faq.txt.html](http://vimhelp.appspot.com/vim_faq.txt.html)
currently shows:

"This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again
later."

A Google search for "vim faq" shows:

[http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/vimfaq.html](http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/vimfaq.html)

But it says the latest version is 6.3, which was released in 2004. I don't
know whether there's a newer version of the FAQ.

~~~
soheilhy
The Hacker News effect! Thanks for the link.

------
unclebunkers
Why hasn't anyone come up with a way to make these less hard on the eyes?
Reading code in mono-spaced is divine, but reading prose in mono-spaced
actually causes my brain to almost shut down and refuse to read. It's less bad
in a terminal with a dark background, but on a white webpage, I really have
issues.

~~~
snide
Should be obvious, but think it's pretty rare for frontend / designer types to
use Vim.

/me Looks around and notices that I'm a designer.

OK. Proposition. I've always wanted to a really nice tutorial / guidebook for
Vim. I however, am not someone familiar with the guts of Vim, Vimscript and
mostly just implement packages and pick up stuff as I go. If there is a coder-
type person out there that is interested in working on the more technical
bits, I'd be happy to style up the documents and make it presentable. I have
experience writing, making videos and styling technical docs. You can see my
work at [http://www.webhook.com](http://www.webhook.com)

Also, I should say I don't think this FAQ is a good intro to Vim. I think a
better way to do it would be to present a chapter by chapter guide that gives
people very easy earlier wins. To me, that means you focus on package
installation and configs first, and then start working on movement and more
advanced packages. Get people hooked on customization first, because the
movement stuff takes weeks of brain training. At the end of the day I love Vim
because I can make it whatever I want.

~~~
bulte-rs
Perhaps contact the author of submitted link? I'm fully open to setting
something up; 10+ years of vim usage behind me, just inexperienced in writing
up this kind of stuff. Might still give it a shot though :P

------
Kurtz79
Vim has been my main editor for years now, and I still can´t get used to think
with with motions that involve more than 1/2 lines/words/chars.

I think it´s just an unnecessary middle step for the brain: if I want to get
to the word "dog" I don´t want to think how many lines/words/chars away it is.

Instead: focus on search to move about. It´s much more immediate and practical
in my opinion. Using '/' I can usually get where I want to be in 2/4
keystrokes.

Combine it with visual mode (or small motions) and then you will really
experience the power of vim AND its simplicity.

I think for a beginner (and I still consider myself one, even after a couple
of years of intensive use) it´s a much easier paradigm to start with.

------
infinotize
This is one of my favorite Vim tricks/guides posts:
[http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2011/12/vim-
revisited/](http://mislav.uniqpath.com/2011/12/vim-revisited/)

~~~
ianstallings
I might as well chime in too. I thought this was a fun way to get the motor-
memory down for movement: [http://vim-adventures.com/](http://vim-
adventures.com/)

And although I agree with the post you made, that everyone should know how the
.vimrc file works, I use Vundle to help make my vim experience less painful:
[https://github.com/gmarik/Vundle.vim](https://github.com/gmarik/Vundle.vim)

My biggest complaint about vim is probably a common one: the key commands
don't seem to have much rhyme or reason. Perhaps in Bill Joy's mind they did
but even now after years of use I find myself always having my vim cheat sheet
nearby.

~~~
erikb
What do you mean with key commands? `i` for insert and `c` for copy makes
quite sense to me.

------
nicholassmith
That FAQ is broken, the first thing on there should be "How do I quit vim?".

~~~
ichinco
I know you probably meant that as a diss on vim, but for a long time that was
the only vim command I knew. I felt more comfortable exploring files in
editors and vim was the only editor available on the servers. The first two
dozen times, I had to google the :q!

~~~
nicholassmith
Partially a diss, partially as if it's the default editor it'll open with no
clear indication of how to actually quit it in certain circumstances. I had to
do the same thing repeatedly when I first encountered it.

------
kazinator
This is useful, because the official links to the VimHelp format FAQ have gone
dead:

[http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/](http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/)

You're taken to a Geocities dead page where you are rickrolled.

(For those who don't know what that is:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling))

~~~
akkartik
The plain text version is broken, but the html version is right under it.

I usually just go to vim.org, click through to documentation and then FAQ, so
I never noticed until now. I'll figure out how we can get the broken link
removed.

