Re: Mutt + Vim tricks (replace Nano)

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

On Sun, Oct 26, 2003 at 06:27:11PM -0600, Will Trillich wrote:
> another, better, reason, is that ^W is already used for something
> else. i tried your mappings for a while last night (i've been
> using vi since about 1987, so there wasn't much hope) and darn
> near went mad.

Now you know how I feel.  I've been doing this for weeks! ;)

> curious -- what features does vim have that's got you interested
> in exploring vim: the-modal-editor-from-purgatory?

You mean other than trying to use Emacs first?...

Well, it seems like a nice, powerful text-based editor that I could
extend as needed.  I want to use it for coding (Perl and C).   Not
perfect reason but there's enough vim devotees that I'm curious, too.

Lately, I do more email than anything else so I figured that using vim
for email would be a good way to learn.

And it's really got me curious because I'm sure I'm not using it
efficiently yet -- everyone else can't be pressing this many keystrokes
for simpler operations, I figure. ;)

> quite. i've learned to have a blank line going before i paste in
> some goodies, to make it easier to delete if i've got autoindent
> on (or paste off):
> 
> 	type type type <newline>
> 	<newline>
> 	<paste>
> 	whoops! icky formatting -- <esc> d { {

Whew.  And it's really 

  <esc> d shift { { i

See why I miss ^U for undo?  I imagined vim users had keys mapped to do
all those common tasks.

Now is the time I'd like that short-cut to cut all text from here to my
signature line.   <esc> V (down, down, down) x.  Now, I'm sure I'm doing
that the hard way.

Can you describe your email editing sessions with vim?  

Seems like a simple use of an editor: 

- I prune text (dd is one extra keystroke, <esc> shift v, down,
  down, down, is also too many strokes) [^K in nano]

- I edit paragraphs and re-justify them as I type [^J]

- I move text/paragraphs up/down.  [^K^K^K move and ^U to paste]

- I paste in text and code examples that I don't want 
  wrapped (and often want indented).

- I trim left over text down to my sig.

Isn't that what everyone does when writing mail?

Thanks,

-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org