1. Brew Vim
2. Brew Install Vim With Python3
3. Brew Vimr

Introduction

Ctags generates an index (or tag) file of language objects found in source files that allows these items to be quickly and easily located by a text editor or other utility. A tag signifies a language object for which an index entry is available. Vim is the official editor of ctags (No vim plugin required). Plain and simple: ctags lets us jump around our source code using tags and a stack. Ctags (specifically Exuberant Ctags, not the BSD version shipped with OS X) indexes source code to make it easy to jump to functions, variables, classes, and other identifiers in (among other editors) Vim (see :help tags).

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as 'vi' with most UNIX systems and with Apple macOS. To install the latest version, use homebrew: brew install vim. Homebrew is ranked 2nd while MacVim is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Homebrew is: Once installed, you control Homebrew using the.brew. command. Interaction with Vim is centered around several modes. Each mode has a different purpose and switching between them changes behaviour and keybindings.

Prerequisites

• Any Linux based OS with vim
• Source code in any of the ctags supported programming languages

Installation

• Ubuntu
• CentOS
• MacOS
• Windows

How to generate tags file?

• cd to the root directory of your source code
• Run Ctags recursively over the entire source code to generate the tags file
• Command to generate tags:

• It would be silly to specify the long command in every source code directory.~/.ctags file to our rescue! Just list all the commonly used arguments ofctags and place it in your home directory and call it .ctags
• If we have a ~/.ctags file, we can just enter our source code directory andgenerate a tags file using:

Brew Vim

NOTE:

• Feel free to exclude any other directories you don’t wish to search.
• Feel free to explore and use the wealth of ctags command options

How to use tags?

• To search for a specific tag and open Vim with its definition, run the following command in your shell: $ vim -t <tag>

Demo:

• Open any source file in Vim and use the following basic commands:

  Keyboard command	Action
  Ctrl + ] OR g] OR :ta[g] Ctrl+rw	Jump to the tag underneath the cursor using the information in the tags file(s)
  :ts[elect] <tag_name>	List the tags that match <tag_name>, using the information in the tags file(s). When <tag_name> is not given, the last tag name from the tag stack is used
  :pts[elect] <tag_name>	Does :tselect and shows the new tag in a “Preview” window (horizontal split) without moving the cursor
  Ctrl + w } OR :ptag Ctrl+rw	Opens a preview window with the location of the tag definition. The cursor does not change its position, so tag stack is not updated
  Ctrl + wz OR :pc	Close preview window created by the command Ctrl+w }
  Ctrl + w Ctrl + ]	Open the definition in a horizontal split
  :tn	Jump to next matching tag (If there are multiple matches)
  :tp	Jump to previous matching tag (If there are multiple matches)
  Ctrl-t	Jump back up in the tag stack
  :tags	Show the contents of the tag stack. The active entry is marked with a >

Ctrl+rw pastes the word under cursor in command mode. It’s just a quick copy paste command in vim

Demo

NOTE: vim commands will appear in the bottom left of the screen. Watching the demo in full screen is recommended for laptops.

Skype for business plug in for mac. NOTE:

• I’ve just listed the basic shortcuts and commands that make sense to me and fit my typing speed. There are tons of other shortcuts and similar looking commands in :help tag . Feel free to use anything that suits your speed/workflow
• Of course there are plenty of plugins out there with bells and whistles. I just don’t like plugins.

tag-regexp

The tag commands also accept a regular expression argument. When using a pattern, case is ignored. If you want to match case, use C in the pattern. When the argument starts with /, it is used as a regex pattern. If the argument does not start with /, it is taken literally, as a full tag name.Examples:

• :tag main jumps directly to the tag “main”
• :tag /^get jumps to the tag that starts with “get”
• :tag /Final$ jumps to the tag that ends with “Final”
• :tag /norm lists all the tags that contain “norm”, including “id_norm”
• :tag /Final$C lists all the tags that end with “Final” (Doesn’t match “Cipher_final” or “SHA_FINAL”)

When the argument both exists literally, and match when used as a regexp, a literal match has a higher priority. For example, :tag /open matches “open” before “open_file” and “file_open”.

Demo:

Notes:

• People have written whole books just for regex.This demo doesn’t cover the complex patterns
• This demo covers the regular expressions that I use frequently and are simple to remember
• Feel free to try out your complex regex (regex101)

Sample regex searches with vim

Requirement	Command
Search tags containing ‘aes’	vim -t '/aes'
Search tags ending with ‘sha1’	vim -t '/sha1$'
Search tags beginning with ‘evp’ and ending with ‘sha1’	vim -t '/^evpw+sha1$'
Search tags beginning with ‘EVP’ and ending with ‘sha1’(case sensitive)	vim -t '/^EVPw+sha1$C'
Search tags beginning with ‘evp’, ending with ‘sha1’ and containing ‘aes_xxx’ in between	vim -t '/^evpw+aes_dddw+sha1$'
Search tags beginning with alphabets (no numbers) and ending with ‘sha1’	vim -t '/^[a-zA-Z]w+sha1$'

Keeping the index file up-to-date

The major downside to Ctags is having to manually rebuild that index all the time. There are multiple ways of automating this stuff:

However, here’s an easy one using vim autocommands:Add the following lines to your ~/.vimrc file.

Create a ~/.vimrc if it doesn’t exist

Where,

Example

If you’re in openssl source code directory, add the following lines to crypto/aes/aes_cbc.c and exit the file using vim command :wq!

How to format western digital passport for fat32 on mac os. Verify tags file:

Of course it’s going to rebuild the entire index and take a lotof time for large projects. Remember, I said it’s easy (not quick)

References:

Credits

I’ve compiled a list of essential Vim commands that I use every day. I have then given a few instructions on how to make Vim as great as it should be, because it’s painful without configuration.

Essentials

Cursor movement (Normal/Visual Mode)

• hjkl - Arrow keys
• w / b - Next/previous word
• W / B - Next/previous word (space seperated)
• e / ge - Next/previous end of word
• 0 / $ - Start/End of line
• ^ - First non-blank character of line (same as 0w)

Editing text

• i / a - Start insert mode at/after cursor
• I / A - Start insert mode at the beginning/end of the line
• o / O - Add blank line below/above current line
• Esc or Ctrl+[ - Exit insert mode
• d - Delete
• dd - Delete line
• c - Delete, then start insert mode
• cc - Delete line, then start insert mode

Operators

• Operators also work in Visual Mode
• d - Deletes from the cursor to the movement location
• c - Deletes from the cursor to the movement location, then starts insert mode
• y - Copy from the cursor to the movement location
• > - Indent one level
• < - Unindent one level
• You can also combine operators with motions. Ex: d$ deletes from the cursor to the end of the line.

Marking text (visual mode)

• v - Start visual mode
• V - Start linewise visual mode
• Ctrl+v - Start visual block mode
• Esc or Ctrl+[ - Exit visual mode

Clipboard

• yy - Yank (copy) a line
• p - Paste after cursor
• P - Paste before cursor
• dd - Delete (cut) a line
• x - Delete (cut) current character
• X - Delete (cut) previous character
• d / c - By default, these copy the deleted text

Brew Install Vim With Python3

Exiting

• :w - Write (save) the file, but don’t quit
• :wq - Write (save) and quit
• :q - Quit (fails if anything has changed)
• :q! - Quit and throw away changes

Search/Replace

• /pattern - Search for pattern
• ?pattern - Search backward for pattern
• n - Repeat search in same direction
• N - Repeat search in opposite direction
• :%s/old/new/g - Replace all old with new throughout file (gn is better though)
• :%s/old/new/gc - Replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

General

• u - Undo
• Ctrl+r - Redo

Advanced

Cursor movement

• Ctrl+d - Move down half a page
• Ctrl+u - Move up half a page
• } - Go forward by paragraph (the next blank line)
• { - Go backward by paragraph (the next blank line)
• gg - Go to the top of the page
• G - Go the bottom of the page
• : [num] [enter] - Go to that line in the document
• ctrl+e / ctrl+y - Scroll down/up one line

Character search

• f [char] - Move forward to the given char
• F [char] - Move backward to the given char
• t [char] - Move forward to before the given char
• T [char] - Move backward to before the given char
• ; / , - Repeat search forwards/backwards

Editing text

• J - Join line below to the current one
• r [char] - Replace a single character with the specified char (does not use Insert mode)

Visual mode

• O - Move to other corner of block
• o - Move to other end of marked area

File Tabs

• :e filename - Edit a file
• :tabe - Make a new tab
• gt - Go to the next tab
• gT - Go to the previous tab
• :vsp - Vertically split windows
• ctrl+ws - Split windows horizontally
• ctrl+wv - Split windows vertically
• ctrl+ww - Switch between windows
• ctrl+wq - Quit a window

Marks

• Marks allow you to jump to designated points in your code.
• m{a-z} - Set mark {a-z} at cursor position
• A capital mark {A-Z} sets a global mark and will work between files
• '{a-z} - Move the cursor to the start of the line where the mark was set
• ' - Go back to the previous jump location

Text Objects

• Say you have def (arg1, arg2, arg3), where your cursor is somewhere in the middle of the parenthesis.
• di( deletes everything between the parenthesis. That says “change everything inside the nearest parenthesis”. Without text objects, you would need to do T(dt).

General

• . - Repeat last command
• Ctrl+r + 0 in insert mode inserts the last yanked text (or in command mode)
• gv - reselect (select last selected block of text, from visual mode)
• % - jumps between matching () or {}

Vim is quite unpleasant out of the box. It’s an arcane experience:

• Autocomplete is missing
• System clipboard is not used
• Act of typing :w to save is cumbersome
• Mouse doesn’t work
• Management of multiple files is tricky
• Ability to indent multiple lines is missing

Brew Vimr

It does have a significant strength though: your fingers can stay on the main keyboard keys to do most editing actions. This is faster and more ergonomic. I find that the toughest part about VIM is guiding people towards getting the benefits of VIM without the drawbacks. Here are two ideas on how to go about this.

Switch caps lock and escape

• I highly recommend you switch the mapping of your caps lock and escape keys. You’ll love it, promise! Switching the two keys is platform dependent.

Visual Studio Code

• VSCode is the simplest way to give you a fantastic editor that also gives you the benefits of VIM. Just install the VIM extension.
• I made a few slight changes which improved the experience for me.

Configure native VIM

Donkey kong wii download. For all the given limitations, you’ll need to find a solution. You can either solve the issues one by one, or you can use a reference .vimrc settings file that fix most of the issues out-of-the-box.

• My .vimrc file could be a good starting point. Honestly, it’s a bit old and not the best. I now use VSCode mainly so I haven’t kept a great vimrc.

Using the system clipboard

• '+y copy a selection to the system clipboard
• '+p paste from the system clipboard
• If this doesn’t work, it’s probably because Vim was not built with the system clipboard option. To check, run vim --version and see if +clipboard exists. If it says -clipboard, you will not be able to copy from outside of Vim.
  • For Mac users, homebrew install Vim with the clipboard option. Install homebrew and then run brew install vim.
    • then move the old Vim binary: $ mv /usr/bin/vim /usr/bin/vimold
    • restart your terminal and you should see vim --version now with +clipboard

Sublime Text

• Another option is to use Vintageous in Sublime Text (version 3). This gives you Vim mode inside Sublime. I suggest this (or a similar setup with the Atom editor) if you aren’t a Vim master. Check out Advanced Vim if you are.
• Vintageous is great, but I suggest you change a few settings to make it better.
  • Clone this repository to ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/Vintageous, or similar. Then check out the “custom” branch.
    • Alternatively, you can get a more updated Vintageous version by cloning the official repository and then copying over this patch.
  • Change the user settings (User/Preferences.sublime-settings) to include:
    • 'caret_style': 'solid'
    • This will make the cursor not blink, like in Vim.
    • Sublime Text might freeze when you do this. It’s a bug; just restart Sublime Text after changing the file.
  • ctrl+r in Vim means “redo”. But there is a handy Ctrl + R shortcut in Sublime Text that gives an “outline” of a file. I remapped it to alt+r by putting this in the User keymap
    • { 'keys': ['alt+r'], 'command': 'show_overlay', 'args': {'overlay': 'goto', 'text': '@'} },
  • Mac users: you will not have the ability to hold down a navigation key (like holding j to go down). To fix this, run the commands specified here: https://gist.github.com/kconragan/2510186
• Now you should be able to restart sublime and have a great Vim environment! Sweet Dude.

Other

I don’t personally use these yet, but I’ve heard other people do!

• :wqa - Write and quit all open tabs (thanks Brian Zick)

Additional resources

• Practical Vim is a fantastic resource on many of the useful hidden features of vim.