Learning the vi Editor/Vim/External Scripts

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One of the strengths of vim is the possibility of using so called vim-scripts (addons) which can be easily installed by copy-and-pasting them into the appropriate directory. A selection of scripts can be found on the official homepage.

The following scripts can illustrate some of possibilities:

LaTeX

edit

One powerfull external script is the latex-suite. It supports

  • Editing: Latex-Suite ships with a very comprehensive set of insert mode and visual mode mappings and menu items to typeset most of the LaTeX elements.
  • Compiling: You can compile the tex file from within vim.
  • Viewing: By pressing a key from within vim, the .dvi viewer is started up. You can also do forward and inverse searching on your .dvi file from within vim.
  • Folding: Latex-suite ships with the plugin SyntaxFolds.vim which is a plugin for creating "fake" syntax folds on the fly.
  • Packages: This module provides ways of customizing the menus based on which packages are being used in the current LaTeX file.
  • LaTeX help file: Latex-suite ships with the standard texinfo file translated into vim help format so that you can get help for common latex commands from within vim.
  • Dictionary: Latex-suite ships with a dictionary with over 600 LaTeX commands, which speeds up typing using the CTRL-X_d command of vim.
  • Customized Templates: Latex-suite ships with some commonly used latex templates.
  • Customized Macros: Latex-suite makes it easy to add custom macros, again with the possibility of dynamic content and automatic cursor placement.



Learning the vi Editor: Getting acquaintedBasic tasksMaking your work easierAdvanced tasksDetailsVi clones (VimBasic navigationModesTips and TricksUseful things for programmers to knowEnhancing VimVim on WindowsVimL Script language, Vile, BB vi)vi Reference