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vimeditornavigation

Vim file navigation

I'm trying really hard to learn vim after using TextMate for the last few years.

I've started to commit some of the in-file navigation to memory but I'm struggling with navigating between multiple files.

In my workflow it is pretty common that I'm flipping between a handful of files pretty regularly (enough files such that split-pane windows become too small).

I'm currently using NERDTree but find drilling down into directories cumbersome as well as constantly using CTRL+W h/CTRL+W l to hop back and forth.

I think I would do better with tabs I can easily toggle between but maybe I need to use a different workflow.

I'd also like a "Go to File..." shortcut like CMD+T in TextMate. I've found fuzzy_file_finder but it requires vim to be built with Ruby bindings which isn't the case the native installs I've worked on.

While I could rebuild the main reason I want to switch to vim is so I can have one editor environment that I know will easily work across any platform.

Solution

  • I don't find drilling down into subdirectories via plain old :e to be that cumbersome given a decent configuration for tab-completion.

    Look into the 'wildmenu' option to have Vim show a list of completions (filenames) in the modeline above the commandline. You can change the 'wildmode' option to further configure the kind of tab-completion Vim will do.

    Personally I use :set wildmode=full.

    My workflow is like this:

    1. :cd into the toplevel directory of my project.

    2. To open file foo/bar/baz:

      • Simplest scenario: type :e f<tab>b<tab>b<tab><enter>.

      • If there are more than one file starting with b in one of those directories you might have to do a <left> or <right> or another <tab> on the keyboard to jump between them (or type a few more letters to disambiguate).

      • Worst-case scenario there are files and directories that share a name and you need to drill down into the directory. In this case tab-complete the directory name and then type *<tab> to drill down.

    3. Open 2 or 3 windows and open files in all of them as needed.
    4. Once a file is open in a buffer, don't kill the buffer. Leave it open in the background when you open new files. Just :e a new file in the same window.
    5. Then, use :b <tab> to cycle through buffers that are already open in the background. If you type :b foo<tab> it will match only against currently-open files that match foo.

    I also use these mappings to make it easier to open new windows and to jump between them because it's something I do so often.

    " Window movements; I do this often enough to warrant using up M-arrows on this"
nnoremap <M-Right> <C-W><Right>
nnoremap <M-Left> <C-W><Left>
nnoremap <M-Up> <C-W><Up>
nnoremap <M-Down> <C-W><Down>

" Open window below instead of above"
nnoremap <C-W>N :let sb=&sb<BAR>set sb<BAR>new<BAR>let &sb=sb<CR>

" Vertical equivalent of C-w-n and C-w-N"
nnoremap <C-w>v :vnew<CR>
nnoremap <C-w>V :let spr=&spr<BAR>set nospr<BAR>vnew<BAR>let &spr=spr<CR>

" I open new windows to warrant using up C-M-arrows on this"
nmap <C-M-Up> <C-w>n
nmap <C-M-Down> <C-w>N
nmap <C-M-Right> <C-w>v
nmap <C-M-Left> <C-w>V

    It takes me a matter of seconds to open Vim, set up some windows and open a few files in them. Personally I have never found any of the third-party file-browsing scripts to be very useful.