Use Vim as a simple IDE
Vim already has all functionalities to use it as an IDE.
Everybody can install an IDE and use it, but how to use vim as an IDE? I’ll show you settings, shortcuts and features of vim, which turns it into an IDE without using plugins or magic, just plain vim features.
These are the features I’ll focus on:
- Features out of the box:
- Basic usages: Open, save, close, …
- File explorer
- Create tabs and use them
- Split the window
- Navigation in vim:
- Find, replace, …
- Jump (e.g. to the next occurrence, definition, …)
- Build and run software
- Debugging
- Create own settings:
- Line numbers, syntax highlighting, highlight cursor line, …
- Auto completion in a drop-down menu
These are all adjustments to vim.
Basic usage
Even if you should be familiar with the modes in vim, here’re are some basic commands:
Open a file (without tabs): :e /path/to/file
Save a file: :w
Close a file: :q and without saving :q!
Show information on a command: :help command