Level Up Your Vim Experience

The article describes a personal Vim environment for beginners. It starts with installing Vim and Vundle, then using ~/.vimrc as the place for plugin management, key mappings, and configuration.

It highlights NERDTree for file navigation, Lightline for a status bar, vim-gitbranch for showing the current branch, ALE for linting and syntax checks while typing, and You Complete Me for code completion. It also suggests customizing the UI, installing plugins through :PluginInstall, removing them with :PluginClean, and remapping Caps Lock to Control on Mac keyboards to make frequent Control use easier.

Reading notes

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• Install Vim with Homebrew, install Vundle, and copy the starter code into ~/.vimrc.
• Use ~/.vimrc to store plugins, key mappings, and setup.
• Edit dotfiles in Vim as a way to practice.
• NERDTree shows files on the left and helps navigate and open files quickly.
• Vim can split the editor with ^W V.
• Lightline adds a status bar and shows the current mode.
• vim-gitbranch works with Lightline to display the current working branch.
• ALE provides linting, syntax checking, and semantic error alerts while you edit.
• You Complete Me is a fast completion and refactoring engine for Vim.
• UI settings can include line numbers with set number.
• Plugins are added in ~/.vimrc, installed with :PluginInstall, and removed with :PluginClean.
• On Mac keyboards, Caps Lock can be remapped to Control through System Preferences.