hello Ingo,
> Heck, piping to sort, or wc + undo are two of the most common used
> commands.
no need to pipe and undo: just write to a pipe
:%w !wc
> Under vi, !}fmt is also a favorite
> though vim does have better integrated commands...
AFAIK, ! work exactly the same between vim and vi. even !!
to recall the last filter works so
!!!^M
apply the last used filter on the current line. vim makes !
even more enjoyable because it combines with extra features
in a so convenient way. an example is gF:
let's say you're reading a mail in where the sender refers to
this function_with_a_very_long_name() you never read of
before ... and you want to see some code.
in vi you can
:cd ~/src/myproject
:!ctags -R
:tag function_with_a_very_long_name
the most borring part were to write the :tag line (or you
had to use the mouse).
in vim, you will edit the command line (:h q:) in a buffer
and use completion (:h i_CTRL-N)
q:tag fun^N
cool ... but now you want navigate through the calls of this
function? use gF (:h gF):
# <cr> means "carriage return" in the vim macro notation
# <c-x> is for CTRL+x
:new<cr> # or <c-w>n to split
q:r !grep -RFwn fun<c-n><cr>
now you have a new buffer with lines like
main.c:45: function_with_a_very_long_name("/etc/hostname",3);
put your cursor in on the filename, type gF (or <c-F> if you want to
split) and here you are: in file main.c line 45.
the use and abuse of the quickfix (:make, :set aw, ...) boosted my
productivity too. piping and forking aside: i already mentionned the
text objects (:h text-objects) in another thread but once you have this,
you can't consider vi as a decent replacement of vim. no matter how
bloated vim is. it an editor with a better balance between simplicity
and functionality existed, i'll use it for sure.
marc
PS: i'll run a workshop on vim/vi during the next slcon (not announced
yet) so it will be a good opportunity to make this thread goes on.
