MY VIM CUSTOMIZATION POLICY

Thu, Oct 30, 2014

It is the Vim that bring we into the fantastic OSS world. Fiddling with it is full of surprise and happy.

Below records my thoughts and rules of customizing my Vim.

About Mapping

Good prefixes for normal mode mappings

The comma ,

use 2 ~ 3 suffix characters, then we can get more candidates key combinations for mapping.

The backslash \

different keyboard layouts have different locations for \, so it should be used less frequently than ,.

The space key <Space>

the <Space> is the best prefix for normal mappings I’ve ever found. It spans a long distance at the bottom of the keyboard, which makes it’s very easy and comfortable to touch.

currrently, I only assigned it to

• kien’s ‘CtrlP’ family mappings

• my ‘vim-omnimenu’ mappings

• my ‘vim-chameleon’ mappings

The enter <Cr> or <Enter>

since many vim itself and many plugin use , so I should use it sparely. when a single click of is needed, you will feel a noticeable response lag.

The backspace key <BS>

by default, the <BS> acts the same as h, Ctrl-H and <Left> keys on normal mode. so I have substituted it with the <Enter> key as a main prefix.

other possible key for prefixes

• <C-P>

• <C-N>

• =

Mapping toggling commands

1. use co prefix, which is derived from tpope’s ‘unimpaired’ plugin.

2. use ,*<Space> pattern, which is derived from scrooloose’s ‘NERD commenter’ plugin.