02.Normal Mode

Tip 7. Pause with Your Brush Off the Page

For those unused to Vim, Normal mode can seem like an odd default. But experienced Vim users have difficulty imagining it any other way. This tip uses analogy to illustrate the Vim way.

Normal mode is the natural resting state.

Tip 8. Chunk Your Undos

chunk: to divide (something) into chunks; (of computing) to divide data into separate sections;

In other text editors, invoking the undo command after typing a few words might revert back the last typed word or character. However, in Vim we can control the granularity of the undo command.

• The u key triggers the undo command, which reverts the most recent change
• <C-r> key triggers redo
• i{insert some text}<Esc> constitutes a change
• Use <Esc> to leave Insert mode, press A to carry on where I left off
• Use <Esc>o to replace <CR>

Moving Around in Insert Mode Resets the Change

When I said that the undo command would revert all characters entered (or deleted) during a trip into Insert mode and back, I was glossing over a small detail. If we use the <Up>, <Down>, <Left>, or <Right> cursor keys while in Insert mode, a new undo chunk is created. It’s just as though we had switched back to Normal mode to move around with the h, j, k, or l commands, except that we don’t have to leave Insert mode. This also has implications on the operation of the dot command.

Tip 9. Compose Repeatable Changes

Vim is optimized of repetition. In order to exploit this, we have to be mindful of how we compose our changes.

Delete Backward / Delete Forward / Delete an Entire Word

The end is nigh

• dbx 光标位于最后一个字符，先 db 从光标处往回删至单词头，再 x 删除最后一个字母
• bdw 光标位于最后一个字符，先 b 移动光标回到单词头，再 dw 删除整个单词
• daw deletes a word

We can be more surgical by using the aw text object instead of a motion (see :h aw).

• daw deletes a word, word<Space> including the trailing space
• diw deletes a word, word

Tip 10. Use Counts to Do Simple Arithmetic

Most Normal mode commands can be executed with a count. We can exploit this feature to do some arithmetic.

The <C-a> and <C-x> commands perform addition and subtraction on numbers.

.blog, .news { background-image: url(/sprite.png); }
.blog { background-position: 0px 0px; }
.cars { background-position: -180px 0px; }

We're going to duplicate the last line and make two small modifications to it: replace the word "blog" with "news", and change "0px" to "-180px".

• yyp copy the current line and paste it below
• cW replace from cursor to the end of the word
• 180<C-x>

Tip 11. Don't Count If You Can Repeat

We can minimize the keystrokes required to perform certain tasks by providing a count, but that doesn't mean that we should. Consider the pros and cons of counting versus repeating.

Delete more than one word

Use a Count When It Matters

I have a couple of questions.

With cursor on "a", type c3wsome more<Esc> and revise.

Tip 12. Combine and Conquer

Much of Vim's power stems from the way that operators and motions can be combined. In this tip, we'll look at how this works and consider the implications.

Operator + Motion = Action

d{motion}

• dl deletes a single character
• daw deletes a word
• dap deletes a paragraph

c{motion}y{motion}

You can find the complete list by looking up :h operator

Are x command and dl command the same? They both appear to delete a single character in Normal mode.

Trigger	Effect
c	Change
d	Delete
y	Yank into register
g~	Swap case
gu	Make lowercase
gU	Make uppercase
>	Shift right
<	Shift left
=	Autoindent
!	Filter {motion} lines through an external program

Just some random text for editing purposes.
This is our editing playground. And here some 360 degrees.

daw deletes a word dd deletes the current line dap deletes the current paragraph

What's the difference between a line and a paragraph? Aren't they the same thing in Markdown files? No, they are different. In Mardkown, one line is ended by a <br> sign, while a paragraph consists of one line or several lines. Therefore, paragraph is a larger unit.