Vim Resources for Programmers

I’ve been a vim user since my first linux install in 1995. I used vim as my go-to editor both as a systems administrator and programmer, but in a limited capacity. I knew enough to get around, do some simple substitutions and searches but I never really mastered it.

Recently, I’ve taken a serious interest in maximizing my productivity. I spend 10-12 hours a day in vim, I figure I’m losing at least half an hour of productivity a day to simply not using the tools effectively. So I started learning vim in earnest, collecting all the links, tweets, and videos I can find.

Recently, a friend of mine asked me for some of those resources, and I thought if he wanted them, other people might want them, too. So here they are:

  • @vimtips Vimtips twitter account. Spiffy, tiny tips delivered straight to your stream at mostly random intervals. The best thing about these tweets is that they contain links to the original source material, so you automatically discover a new vim site/page/post with every tweet!

  • vim.org tips wiki (free) The seminal work originally at vim.org/tips, they’ve made it a whole wiki. Get it from the source.

  • Vimcasts (free) Vimcasts. Screencasts that go into great detail to show you how to use vim. These are probably the best all-around introduction to more advanced vimming. They haven’t been updated in a while, but they are very worth the time.

  • PeepCode Play by Play (paid) Geoffrey Grosenbach has some of the best instructional videos in the industry covering Ruby, Rails, JQuery, and many other topics already, but recently introduced the Play by Play series. The Play by Plays sit down with an expert programmer, and instead of teaching a specific technology, they just watch the master at work. Geoff asks aweseome questions, and really gets into the how and why of what the experts do. One of the Play by Plays is with Gary Bernhardt, a real Vim Monster. If you want to up your vim game, watch this screencast, then get the Destroy All Software screencasts. The Play by Plays are $12 each, and totally worth it.

  • Destroy All Software (paid) These are screencasts by Gary Bernhardt. Covering topics from Ruby, to Test Driven Development to getting better at vim itself, Gary exclusively uses vim demonstrate everything. Watch these once at full speed to take it all in, then watch it again taking notes. For $9/month, you get about one screencast a week (10-15 minutes wach) and access to the entire back catalog. Best value in the industry, bar none.

  • NEW! openvim (free) @angelaharms mentioned this at #rubymidwest, I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before! Awesome resource!

These are just a few of the ones I’ve picked up in the past few months. I’ll update this page as I find more, if you have any, please leave a comment below!

/Korishev

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