⇠ chan.dev / posts

LazyVim for Omarchy

🌱 This post is in the growth phase. It may still be useful as it grows up.

Most modern text editors have a single mode where every key you enter gets inserted into on open document.

In these editors, you access editing with modifier keys (e.g., ⌘, ⌥, ⌃, etc).

Modal editors behave differently.
In modal editors, you switch between modes to complete different editing operations.

What are major modes in Vim?

Insert: The text editing mode you’re used to. Type; characters get inserted.
Normal: Every key is a macro or action (like a keyboard shortcut).
Command: Issue editor commands, e.g., write, quit, help, etc.
Visual: Make text selections (like holding shift or click-and-drag).

How do I make visual selections with motions?

First, arrow keys work.
So you can just use those in visual mode.

But there better ways to make selections.
I like to start with word/Word motions.

word: move to the beginning of the next word (deleniated on whitespace and punctuation).
Word: move to the beginning of the next WORD (deleniated on whitespace).
beginning: move to the beginning of the previous word (deleniated on whitespace and punctuation).
Beginning: move to the beginning of the previous WORD (deleniated on whitespace).
end: move to the end of the next word (deleniated on whitespace and punctuation).
End: move to the end of the next word (deleniated on whitespace).

(There is logical opposite to e/E. But you can use the g modifer to get it, with ge/gE)

How do I make visual selections with text objects?

What can you do with a visual selection?

delete: delete into normal mode
cchange: delete into insert mode
yank: yank into normal mode

Other notes

## Thesis

Every editor you've used, as a modern programmer has just one editing mode.

Open a file, move the blinking cursor with your mouse, insert or delete text

For you, this is "normal".

in Vim, `normal` is something else.


## Bridge

Insert mode is just one mode in Vim.
But what if i told you tehre where other editing modes you use on a daily basis?

## Antithesis

Vim is a `modal` editor.
You'll use multiple different modes to edit and operate on text.
(Metaphors: Lightroom, video editor, physical workbench.)

## A simple end-to-end edit
- open a file in vim (normal)
- select an insertion point
- make a visual selection (visual) and change (insert)
- escape (normal)
- save and close (command)