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Vimorama 2000

[Dec. 20, 2000] Some VI-related stories from LinuxToday

[Aug 19, 2000] Introduction to Programming in C/C++  with Vim  Written By: Kmj

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Ctags is a program that comes with vim. Basically, it's purpose is to help a programmer get to various parts of his program with relative ease. The typical method of running ctags is by simply typing the following in your source directory:

[/home/someuser/src]$ ctags *

This will create a 'tags' file in you current directory with the following information for all C or C++ files in you directory. This file contains a listing of the following objects:

Vim then uses this file to help you locate these tagged items. This can be done in a few ways. First, one can open vim to the location of a tagged object. To do this, run vim with the '-t' flag and the tag-name as an argument. For example:

[/home/someuser/src]$ vi  -t  foo_bar

would open to the file containing the definition of foo_bar at that line.

If you are already in vi, you can enter the command by the tag-name:

:ta foo_bar

This may take you out of the file you are currently in, unless the 'autowrite' option is enabled. (It  is off by default.) For more information on autowrite, type ':h autowrite' from with vi command-mode.

The final way to jump to a tagged location is by typing 'Ctrl-]'  in command mode while the cursor is on a specific word. For example, if you are  looking at my program, and you come across a point where I call foo_bar(), you can type 'Ctrl-]', while the cursor is somewhere on that word, and it will jump to that definition. Note that 'Ctrl-]' is the escape character for telnet, so this may cause some issues if your editing files remotely. Type ':h^]' for more information.

Ctags can also be used with other languages (java, fortran, ...and more) and editors (emacs, NEdit, ...and more). When set up properly, this tool can make  your job tremendously easier, especially when you have to jump into a large ongoing project head-first.

For more information: View the man page, man ctags, or view the vim help, :h ctags.

c-style indenting

Vi has various methods of implementing auto-indenting. The best for C and C++ programmers is, obviously, cindent mode. This is a very versatile tool which gives the programmer much control over the look and feel of his source code, without any effort (except the effort of initial setup, of course). To enable c-indenting, just type ':set cindent' from the command mode.  The most important thing to note is that cindenting makes use of shiftwidth, not tabstops. The default shiftwidth is 8. In order to change this,  enter ':set shiftwidth=x' where x is the desired number of spaces to shift.

The default cindent options tend to be nice, but if you find your program indenting in some way that is annoying, you can modify the behaviour. To set the cindent options, type ':set cino=<string>', where <string> is a list defining exactly how you want your cindent options to behave. There are quite a few different types of indenting which can be done, and vim's help does a good job explaining them, so I won't go over them here. To view the help for the possible values of cinoptions, type ':h cinoptions-values'. To view the current values, simply type ':set cino'. Most likely there will be none, since everything starts at a default value.

For more information, check out the following: ':h shiftwidth', ':h cindent', ':h cinoptions', ':h cinoptions-values', ':h cinkeys', and ':h cinwords'.

syntax highlighting

Programmers who are used to integrated development environments know the beauty of syntax highlighting. It doesn't just make your code more readable; it also helps prevent annoying commenting and string errors. Vim has syntax highlighting for a number of languages, including C and C++ of course. To enable it, type ':syntax on'. Using it is as simple as that if you're happy with the default values.  Vim's syntax highlighting tools can be quite complex, with a number of different things to play around with. To view information on syntax hilighting, type ':h syntax', which will lead you to vim's extensive help system. Syntax hilighting with color terminals and with gvim is nice, but if you don't have color, vim uses underlining, boldface, etc. To me, this is pretty ugly.

For more information:  ':h syntax', ':h syn-qstart', ':h syntax-printing'

edit-compile-edit, a.k.a. Quickfix

This is a really nifty feature.  Basically, by typing one command, you can cause vim to attempt to make the program you're working on, then open to whatever file first compiler error is in at the line of that error. The command to execute is ':mak' (or ':make'). Vim will run whatever program is denoted by the value of 'makeprg'. The default value for 'makeprg' is 'make'. You can change this, if you wish, by typing ':set makprg=<string>', where <string> denotes the desired command. Vim uses the 'errorformat' value to figure out how to understand the output from the compiler. Since different compilers have different output format's, you'll probably have to enter the format string. The method used is rather similar to C-style formatting with scanf. The most important format specifiers are %f, meaning filename, %l, meaing line-number, and %m, meaning message.

GCC's format string: %f:%l:\%m

This can become quite complex with different compilers, but fortunately, vim has a world of information in their help at ':h errorformat'.

For more information, check out: ':h quickfix', ':h mak', ':h makeprg',  ':h errorfile', ':h errorformat'.

useful keystrokes

There are certain command-mode keystrokes that are especially useful for programmers. Below is a small subset of these:

Moving around within functions:
    [ [   = Go to previous first-column '{';   equivalent to ?^{
    ] ]   = Go to next first-column '{';   equivalent to /^{
    [ ]   = Go to previous first-column '}';   equivalent to ?^}
    ] ]   = Go to next first-column '}';   equivalent to /^}

    {   = Go to previous blank line.
   }   = Go to next blank line.

    gd   = Go to definition of current local variable  (current = cursor is on it)
    *   = Go to next instance of current word
    #   = Go to previous instance of current word
    ''   = Go to location where last search was started.

Parenthesis Matching:
%   Takes you to the matching parenthesis, curly brace, or bracket, depending on what you are on. This always comes in handy as a quick double-check.

Substution:
Vim has powerful substution capabilities,  with a very simple interface.  No annoying GUI to get in the way (though you may need to keep a cheat-sheet handy). To search for and replace text, use the following command:
:  [address] s/<pattern>/<string>/[g|c|N] (where N is an integer value).

This finds one (or more) instance of the grep-style regular expression represented by <pattern>, and substitutes it with <string>.  'address', 'g', and 'N' are modifiers which determine which and how many occurrences of <pattern> are replaced.
g = Global:    Replace all occurrences of <pattern> on the line.
c = Cond.      Ask before making each replacement.
N = Nth    Replace only the Nth occurrence of <pattern> on the line.
(No modifier implies N=1, the first occurrence on that line)

[address values]    -May be one specifier or two separated by a comma.  (below,  x represents an integer).
. = The current line
$ = The last line in the file
% = Entire file
x = The xth line of the file
+x = x lines after the current line
-x = x lines before the current line

The comma may separate any of the above in order to specify a range. All lines within the given range will undergo the substitution. The best reference I have found for  substituting can be found at the Vi Helpfile, linked below.

Miscellany

Vim has so many nifty little things, it would be impossible to list them all. Here are a few more things that are worth taking a look at.


Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotesSomerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose BierceBernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOSProgramming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC developmentScripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-MonthHow to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D


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Last modified: March 12, 2019