Vim Croquet

http://www.drbunsen.org/vim-croquet/

by saamm • 12 years ago

212 55 12 years ago

aaronem2• 12 years ago

The keyboard heatmap code is nifty enough to justify this being on the front page of HN all by itself, which is not to say the rest is without value -- quite the converse; I hadn't thought of doing this sort of usage analysis with Emacs, but I think that's going to be my next weekend project once I'm done updating weatherline-mode.

mkdir• 12 years ago

Judging by the heatmap, it appears the author isn't familiar with Vim's c verb.

It works just like d, except it puts you in insert mode after you've completed your command.

For example, to replace the text within a set of quotation marks with You don't like Vim?, move your cursor on or within those quotation marks and use:

    ci"You don't like Vim?<esc>

To replace the text up to (but not including) the next exclamation point with I would never drink orange juice, use:

    ct!I would never drink orange juice<esc>

EDIT: Gah. He explicitly mentioned his use of cib. I'll leave this here in case it helps anyone.

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

Judging from his discussion of cib in the Data Acquisition section, it seems like he's familiar with it.

falcolas2• 12 years ago

Perhaps familiar, but not ingrained in his muscle memory to used instead of d<motion>i.

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

ggvG$"zy can be replaced with ggVG"zy

Visual line mode is often very convenient.

Also, kana's text-object-entire plugin may come in handy here (many of her text-object plugins are very useful).

eggoa• 12 years ago

    :%yz

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

Good call! But you'll need a space:

    :%y z

falcolas2• 12 years ago

If I can recall the file name, :r <file name> might be a better choice than gg...y

saidajigumi• 12 years ago

Better still, I'll recommend @kana's vim-textobj-entire[1]. This adds 'e' as an 'everything' text object, with 'ae' (around everything) and 'ie' (inside everything) bindings by default. Thus 'vie' would select everything in the buffer in visual mode. Likewise for 'Vie' (Visual line select) or 'cie' (change everything).

[1] https://github.com/kana/vim-textobj-entire

kolme• 12 years ago

Also you don't need any visual mode if you don't need visual feedback. Yanking everything:

    gg"zyG

mateuszf• 12 years ago

This guy should definitely start using caps lock as control.

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

If you read more closely, he mentions that he uses a Kinesis Advantage where his control key is quite convenient. The heatmap is just plotted on a standard keyboard.

rjzzleep• 12 years ago

http://www.drbunsen.org/an-affray-with-rsi/

his end key is escape. on his keyboard i think it translates to being on a thumb

jbeja• 12 years ago

Even if not related to it and my get some downvoted for saying this. Something that strike me in this post is how cooler haskell code looks vs python.

skywhopper2• 12 years ago

For values of "cool" meaning "undecipherable", sure.

joehillen• 12 years ago

This is a common misconception. Haskell is extremely readable. You just have to learn it.

Python reads like pseudo-code where as Haskell reads like math. Both are readable, they are just different.

I suspect it's easier to teach someone Haskell if they have never done imperative programming before because they have a lot less hang ups.

mercurial3• 12 years ago

The nice thing with Haskell is that it can be extremely compact. The problem with Haskell is that it can be extremely compact.

bjackman• 12 years ago

map (format "The %s thing with Haskell is that it can be extremely compact") ["nice thing", "problem"]

(disclaimer: that probably isn't actual Haskell syntax.)

tnorthcutt• 12 years ago

This is very cool. Can anyone point me in the general direction of how to implement this on my machine? I understand logging keystrokes in Vim, but I'm not sure how to use the source code given for the lexer, or that given for the Makefile.

ajanuary2• 12 years ago

Using a language that eschews state to try and process the state in a modal editor tickles me.

mercurial3• 12 years ago

It doesn't. You can't run a program made of only pure functions. What it does it manage it.

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

To elaborate on the other reply, Haskell actually takes a very in-depth and principled approach to managing state. State is necessary for many applications, so rather than eschew it entirely, the idea is to isolate it and make it as explicit as possible. Frequently in complex stateful applications this is done by use of the State monad, with lenses to handle mutation of that state. There's a lot of theory behind it, but in practice it ends up being pretty similar in difficulty level to managing state in more popular languages, just a hell of a lot safer.

codygman• 12 years ago

I know others have said it, but I would like to echo the "please don't say that Haskell eschews state" message :)

efnx• 12 years ago

Parsing and lexing in Haskell is one of its shining glories.

nathan_long• 12 years ago

Awesome! I'd love to see something like this as a standalone project. "Vim Critic" or "Vim Coach" - something to say "these are the inefficient things you personally do."

Probably some low-hanging fruit would be "any keystroke in Normal mode that's repeated." Eg, if I'm doing 'jjjj' to move down or even 'wwww' to hop from word to word, I could be searching or using a movement combo like '4j'.

sdegutis2• 12 years ago

Personally, the main reason I moved from vim to emacs is because I don't want to have to think about my editor, I want it to be pure muscle memory. I'm okay with hitting "jjjjk" to go 3 lines down rather than trying to guess that it's exactly 3 down and typing "3j". Emacs-style navigating/editing is great for this kind of error-tolerant navigation/editing. It leaves my brain mostly free to focus on whatever I'm actually coding at the time.

vectorpush2• 12 years ago

I think most experienced vim users will tell you that it is pure muscle memory for them. Also, vim supports jjjjk as well as 3j. Anyway, I just realized I am debating vim vs emacs so I'll stop here.

pekk• 12 years ago

Nothing about vim forces you not to type jjjjk, or better yet use motions or whatever fits your brain. But keep up the good emacs-vs-vim-troll fight

DennisP• 12 years ago

I go with a hybrid approach: I hit the number row somewhere in the loose vicinity of the number of rows I want to move, and then hit "j" a couple times to get exactly there. If it's more than a single-digit number of rows away, I might do the first step more than once.

jff2• 12 years ago

I think it's better to repeatedly hit j rather than count "ah, 5 lines" and type 5j. Even better, you're already looking at where you want to go, it may be faster to hit / and start typing from that point to jump there.

Or, and this is a wild one, grab the mouse and click the point where you want the cursor, rather than giving some sort of treasure map to Vim: "Starting at the typedef, take 5 steps right, then 10 steps down, and 2 more steps right"

r00k• 12 years ago

A little tweak that got me in the habit of using things like 5j and 6dd: :set relativenumber.

It numbers your current line as 0, and counts up and down from there. It makes it very easy to see that you need to delete the next 5 lines, or move up 10 lines without doing any math.

As for your mouse comment, I don't think you can compare the speed with which an experienced vim user gets their cursor where they want it to the catastrophic cache miss of removing your hand from the comfort of the home row, grabbing the mouse, moving it where you want, clicking it, and moving your hand back to the keyboard. The mere thought makes me shudder :)

weavie2• 12 years ago

Looking at the heat map, what does surprise me is how he never uses Escape or ^[. How does he managed to move out of Insert mode? My [ key is starting to wear out due to such heavy use..

nbouscal7• 12 years ago

He may have it set up the way I do: if I tap Ctrl rather than holding it, it sends Escape. If that's the case, his heatmap might be lumping Escape and Ctrl together.

mercurial3• 12 years ago

Remapping?

Timothee• 12 years ago

I don't know about him but I have 'kj' mapped to <Esc>. I highly recommend it. (or any variation around it)

indiefan• 12 years ago

I use ctrl+c. It's easy to hit than esc, and it's built in, so it always works, even on servers i haven't set my config for, etc.

aaronem2• 12 years ago

I don't use vim, but from the parsing example he gives in the post, I'm guessing he uses C-c:

    `Mihere's some text^Cyyp$bimore ^C0~A.^C:w^M:q

[…]

The lexer correctly determined that I started in normal mode by navigating to a specific buffer using the `M mark, then typed here's some text in insert mode, then[…]

weavie2• 12 years ago

Wow. I never knew about that one.

exDM69• 12 years ago

Looking at the heat map, what does surprise me is how he never uses Escape or ^[. How does he managed to move out of Insert mode?

His 3rd most used command is jj. This is popular among some vim users to be remapped as Esc in insert mode (:inoremap jj <Esc>).

I do not personally use this but when writing this comment, I quickly tested it out and it actually feels quite comfortable.

I re-map my caps lock as Escape. It works suprisingly well even outside of Vim.

vsviridov• 12 years ago

This needs to be a standalone tool. Is it on github somewhere? Or do I have to copy/paste from the article?

a-b• 12 years ago

Bay area folks, please join Vim meetups http://www.meetup.com/vim-ed/

atmosx• 12 years ago

Awesome stuff!!!!

Vim Croquet

Related Stories