There are text objects for stuff in single quotes, double quotes, parentheses, brackets, braces, function bodies, class definitions, html-tags, variable names. Similarly, 4dis deletes four sentences (specifically "inner sentences", leaving trailing spaces). For example, I can say 4daw to apply (4) times the (d)elete action to the outer word (aw). Although, I can't move by a text object, I can apply an action such as "delete" to a text object. For example aw is the "outer word" text object, which means "the word under the cursor and the surrounding spaces" ( iw, the inner word is without surrounding spaces). Text objects can be thought of in a similar way, but without the movement. To extend the example above, vim understands w as a motion forward to the beginning of the next word, so 4dw will delete from the current cursor position up to the fourth word to the right. That's where motions and text objects enter the game. Yet when we actually want to perform that edit, we have to ultimately tell our editor something of the sort of "delete this character", "replace the next 5 characters by this". When we think about how we want to edit a file, we typically think in terms of sentences of text, in terms of functions, classes, and variables. So the count specifies how often you want to do something (if omitted we do it once), the action specifies what you want to do and the motion or text object specifies the target of your action - on what you want to apply your action. Similarly, you could type 4dk to (d)elete from the current position to 4 lines up. (In fact, in this case, you could omit the "g".)
When using vim (at a non-trivial level), you typically construct commands that consist of three componentsįor example, you might type 4gk to (g)o to the location (4) lines up (k). I believe that these two are what makes vim feel like an extension of my body rather than a tool that I choose to use or not. The keywords here are motion (moving around) and text objects (referring to entities). Vim offers a great number of ways to navigate and refer to content in semantic chunks rather than line by line or character by character. Although that's true, it isn't the main part for me. You often hear people praise the fact that by using hjkl navigation, you never have to take your hands of the "main" keyboard. When learning vim, most people focus on using the hjkl keys to move the cursor around and they try to avoid the arrow keys. It took me a couple of days to be able to express what exactly it is that makes vim stand out for me: Motion (and Text objects). Ori's environment can effortlessly do all kinds of things that sound really interesting. Yet, the conversation with Ori made me think. I couldn't imagine writing any text on a computer without vim. Ori is certainly interested in vim and I have quite extensively used emacs in the past, so much of the conversation circled around the why-and-why-not of the editors we are using.
However, the center pieces of our interaction with a computer are quite different Ori uses emacs and I use vim.
The other day, I had lunch with my friend Ori Barbut and it turns out, we both seem to have a passion for a fairly mouse-free computer experience.
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