Benjamin Klein - The VimL Primer: Edit Like a Pro with Vim Plugins and Scripts

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If youve used Vim for more than a couple of minutes, youre probably familiar with at least a few of its commands. To save a file, you run :w . When you want to exit the editor, you run :q .

Commands such as :w and :q are called Ex commands because they originated in Ex , the line-based editor. Pioneering computer scientist Bill Joy invented vi , a visual mode for Ex, in 1975. In the years since, vi has inspired newer editors and has been ported several times. Of these, the most popular and perhaps the most enduring editor is the one Im using to write this book: Vim.

In Vim, Ex commands can be run on the command line, but they also make up the bulk of Vims built-in scripting language, VimL . Recent Vim versions (notably, version 7) have added data types, functions, and many other common language features that together turn VimL into a highly capable scripting language. In this book, youll learn how to work with VimL.

This book is for Vim users who want to get started with VimL. I assume that youre familiar with how to use Vim for basic text editing. You dont have to be an expert Vim user, because this is an introduction, after all. VimL is not a wildly advanced topic if youre already comfortable with the editor. You just need to know your way around.

If youre not familiar with Vim buffers, windows, the command line, and modes, I suggest you try the Vim tutorial first. Its a splendid interactive tutorial for first-time Vim users.

This is also not a book on advanced Vim usage. For users looking to advance their Vim editing skills, I recommend Drew Neils .

We start with Chapter 1, , you learn how to write your own commands to run in the Vim command line and how to map keys to your plugins functionality.

Because of its project-based format, this is not a good book for skimming or jumping around. Its also not a good book to just read straight through. The goal is to code along! When we get to the end, youll not just have read through an introductory textbookyoull have written a fully functional Vim plugin.

You can download the code from this book from the Pragmatic Bookshelf website. Click on the Source code link on the books page. The code is broken into at least one directory for each chapter; the intro directory contains the example code from the first chapter, and the other directories contain the example code from each chapters version of the plugin.

Also on the books website is the forum. Click Discuss on the books page to ask questions, make comments, or just discuss the book with fellow readers and me. Youll also find a link to report errata; if you come across a problem in the code, something thats not explained clearly enough, or even a typo, head over there to report it.

And with that, lets be off!

Thanks to the entire Pragmatic Bookshelf team for letting me work with them. Dave Thomas, Andy Hunt, Susannah Pfalzer, Fahmida Y. Rashid, and all of the rest that Ive worked with have been unreasonably patient and very kind; particular thanks go to Susannah for answering all of my many questions, to Dave for bearing with my explanations of some of the joyous oddities in VimL syntax, and especially to Fahmida for keeping this project on track in spite of my constant mangling of schedules.