Vim Style Key binding

[waderyan]

There are a few extensions in the marketplace for Vim, however Vim key bindings is still such a hot request in User Voice. Can VS Code / Vim users chime in on what is currently missing?

[Beatusvir]

@elgrego I believe having surround functionality shouldn't be an issue, it could be something like just a new command on a visual selection.

@aioutecism I'll do my best to help! specially since one of my most used commands (ciX) is not implemented yet. I'll check your code asap (currently at work). Good job man :+1:

[elgrego]

@Beatusvir Yeah, like vat + '

' should create a div around the current selection. Even better would be to have emmet style commands with the current selection so that vat + div|span c+y, would create a div around this and then a span after.

[TrailHacker]

:+1: for @elgrego's suggestion on supporting pathogen. This kind of falls into the original suggestion from @giggio to support existing ~/.vimrc files. In doing this, you could delegate the surround functionality to other community built vim plugins like https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround

[websurfshop]

@aioutecism This one is actually usable with .12, way to go man!

[cchamberlain]

Macros (q) and Multiline editing (vj>) are needed. Neovim integration would be awesome.

[codeblooded]

My big 4 (before anything else imo):

• [ ] open
• [ ] wq
• [ ] yyp
• [ ] line number command support like :2,10dd

[74th]

VSCode new vim support is very powerful. I get to make the most of function I want. Very thank @alexandrudima .

I make repeat command(.) for my vim plugin (74th/vscode-vim). Complex command, repeat command and visual mode are available. I'm looking forward to next vscode release.

[arcseldon]

With all due respect to the existing VSC Vim extensions, none of them provides anything close to the sort of quality support provided by say JetBrains for their range of (IDE) Editors.

For an example of what is required to be built by Microsoft (yes, you, please stop stalling with comments like we are actively evaluating but checking what is missing in Open Source - nothing has changed from a year ago when I last voted on user voice) - see ideavim - this includes all the usual keybindings, visual / command modes, and Macros support etc.

Please just get started, and stop stalling for time - this is the feature that will attract thousands of *nix / Mac devs to this otherwise awesome Editor. Would add integrated terminal support and tabs are the other two features very much needed.

[hastebrot]

An extension on par with ideavim is definately what is needed. Existing VS Code extensions are nowhere near ideavim. Microsoft should really pick this up and make this Vim extension.

One thing I wanted to add: ideavim uses a simple parser for .vimrc. Works good. To have something like that would also attract more Vim users.

Ah, and tabs, tabs are even in Vim considered bad. Vim users seem to prefer buffers and windows (as layout mechanism) over tabs.

[johnnadratowski]

👍 - really love the lightweight, snappy implementation of VSCode. If it had similar support to IdeaVim I would most likely be an overnight convert.

[TrailHacker]

:+1: I too would be a quick convert and spend more time developing in VSCode with better Vim support. I currently use VS2015 (with ViEmu), gVim, and/or WebStorm (ie. with IdeaVim), depending on the project I'm working on.

[cchamberlain]

:+1: To date, the VIM extensions are very buggy for me (right now mine never paints a cursor among other issues). This needs to be implemented in the core product.

[elgrego]

@waderyan, back to the original question: There are many things I use on a daily basis that are not in the current extensions. YY, yank a line, diw, delete inner word, visual selections, ciw ci", change inner. After going through a couple of the standard commands one realise that the question is a bit strange. There are hardly anything but the most basic movements in the current extension so the answer would be everything

[aioutecism]

@elgrego Have you tried amVim? We have yy, di", ci", visual mode, visual line mode and many other commonly used commands implemented. I use it every day, and I'm keeping adding commands people asked frequently. Contribution are welcomed too.

[cchamberlain]

@aioutecism is it on par with VsVim, IdeaVim, ST3 Vintageous? Are there any limitations to the plugin API that would keep it from supporting (or slow down) core vim functionality (cursor configuration, macros, regex search, : commands, etc.). Does it parse .vimrc?

If it doesn't, ST3 is a superior editor for me.

[elgrego]

@aioutecism this was much better, I stil miss ciw, diw, daw, dd, ct[char](the first couple of ones i tried)

[aioutecism]

@elgrego Thanks! dd and ct{char} should work. "Word text object(ciw, caw, diw, daw)" support will be added soon.

[aioutecism]

@cchamberlain Not now. However, besides : commands, most used vim commands are on the road map. We have a good code base, so it's only a matter of time to implement them.

[cchamberlain]

@aioutecism - I installed it. This is definitely much better than the other VIM extensions, great job!

Would still like the core product team to get involved so we can get things like / using regex instead of the built-in search tool as well as the rest of the common VIM features that are expected out of a text editor.

[Platzer]

Here is one of the best Atom vim plugins https://github.com/t9md/atom-vim-mode-plus

[Lindenk]

Ideally, I would like to see VSCode keybindings to have the option to be context based and allow key-chords and key-chains. If these keybinding options are built in to VSCode keybinding support, most vim support could be configured into using only keybindings themselves.

For example, something like:

[
    {
        "key": "l",
        "command": "cursorRight",
        "when": "editorTextFocus && normalMode"
    },
    {
        // press and release 'd', then press and release 'd'
        "key": "dd", 
        "command": "editor.action.deleteLines",
        "when": "editorTextFocus && normalMode"
    },
    {
        // press and release the chord 'ctrl+a', then press and release 'ctrl+d'
        "key": "ctrl+a; ctrl+d", 
        "command": "editor.action.deleteLines",
        "when": "editorTextFocus && insertMode"
    }
]

I know this doesn't cover all of the bases but it would certainly help to be built into VSCode itself.

If amount of fancyness is no issue, supporting regex based mappings too would be amazing:

[
    {
        "regex_key": "([0-9]+); d",
        "command": "editor.action.delete(\1)",
        "when": "editorTextFocus && normalMode"
    }
]

[aakashsigdel]

Please implement this in the core, the extensions out there are not very useable.

[elgrego]

Sometimes now and then I check in on this issue with the hope of, like a christmas present, a Vim plugin that does everything the excellent vsvim does for visual studio. Any progress?

[hastebrot]

@elgrego It's already there! Quite usable.

https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim/

Merry Christmas!

[elgrego]

Wow, thank you Santa 🎅!

[johnfn]

🎅

[giggio]

If we consider VsVim (for Visual Studio) a baseline, all extensions are very much behind. They are usable, but an experienced Vim user gets pissed off very frequently with the missing features.

[jaredpar]

@giggio people wrote the same about VsVim when it first came out (comparing to ViEmu at the time). 😄

It's basically impossible to have a vi emulator that makes 90% of the users happy on the initial release because there is no 90% use case for vi. The set of commands, modes, mappings and incredibly easy customizations mean that almost every user has a different core use case for vi. It means making 90% of the users happy is equivalent to implementing 90% of vi (tough).

I've been a vim user for almost all of my programming life. Even so during the first two years of VsVim virtually every bug report I saw was a feature I'd never heard of or new way to use a feature that I'd never encountered before. It was pretty daunting.

VsCodeVim seems to be taking the right approach here though: just keep implementing features. Every time I get an update it seems to have fixed the most recent annoyance I was experiencing. It was certainly hard to use in the initial releases but lately it's gotten much better. I rather enjoy using it now.

[giggio]

I agree the extensions are getting better. I hope it gets there fast! ;)

[johnfn]

Thanks @jaredpar!

@giggio, as a developer of VSCodeVim, please make issue requests over on http://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim rather than just getting pissed off! We're happy to help.

[rebornix]

@giggio and anyone might be interested: I happen to be a developer of both VS Code and VSCodeVim. Feel free to file feature requests or issues on vscodevim, let's see what we can do to make it better from both sides (Code and extension), together.

thanks @jaredpar you just made my day.

[monkoose]

In vscodevim i still miss surround-plugin for vim and possibility to control all sidebar tools properly with the homerow(or may be i miss something how to do it)(or atleast some plugin compareble to advanced create file in Atom so i can work without the mouse most of my time), and i_CTRL-W that deletes all tabs and a "word" on previous line. It needs just delete all tabs first. Other than that it is already have a lot of features, even good ex mode. Thanks for your work guys.

[mswift42]

I just tried vscodevim, but alas, no support for tags (which is marked as low priority).

For me this is unfortunately essential, not only to navigate through my code, but often Source Code is the best documentation.

[rebornix]

@monkoose @mswift42 feel free to file issues and add reactions to existing one in https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim :) We do have a lot of passionate contributors there and they are willing to help, just lack of feedback sometimes :)

[johnfn]

@mswift42, the reason that tags are low priority is because VSCode already has excellent support for tags. Try cmd-t or ctrl-shift-t. If that's not good enough, you should let us know what specifically is lacking.

[mswift42]

@johnfn On my box pressing ctrl-shift-t does nothing. (This is using Linux). The working Key Combo here is F12, which is far far away from my Homerow. Also, how do I get back ? Under Vim, or Editors with good Vim Support, I'd use Ctrl+] to go to definition and Ctrl+O to get back where I was.

[monkoose]

@mswift42 You just need to learn more about how to rebind keys in vscode. And then just rebind showallsymbols command to a map that you want. Because by default vscodevim override ctrl-T behaviour.

[mswift42]

@monkoose Thanks for that. Of course I'm not interested in showallsymbols, but in navigating quickly between methods / files.

[monkoose]

@mswift42 You can rebind Go To Definition command then. Its easy to do in vscode. Add this to your keybindings.json

{ "key": "ctrl+]",                   "command": "editor.action.goToDeclaration",
                                     "when": "editorHasDefinitionProvider && editorTextFocus && vim.mode != 'Insert'"},

[hastebrot]

@monkoose Isn't Go To Definition in VsCodeVim already bound to the gd command?

[mswift42]

@monkoose: And now we are nearly half way there. I press Ctrl+] and am transported to its Definition. But how do I get back ?

[monkoose]

@hastebrot Yes, seems so forget about it. Thanks.

@mswift42 I do not use vscode so much(really miss surround plugin). I think the guys behind vscodevim still do not implement cursor jumps with CTRL-i and CTRL-o. Just checking it sometimes to see how far they go.

[hastebrot]

@mswift42 If we're still speaking about vim/VsCodeVim this should be ctrl+o (previous location) and ctrl+i (next location).

[monkoose]

@hastebrot Do not work for me.

[hastebrot]

I think the guys vehind vscodevim still do not implement cursor jumps with CTRL-i and CTRL-o

Tested it with vim.useCtrlKeys enabled. Indeed this is not implemeted.

[mswift42]

That's what I was trying to say. To support jumping between tags, gotoDefinition has to save the current Cursor position, jump to the definition, and when Ctrl+O is invoked, going back to stored position.

[hastebrot]

Seems VSCode doesn't support this history next/prev functionality. I find nothing in the keybindings.json.

Update: However there are Go > Back and Go > Forward menu entries.

The default (on my system) is:

{ "key": "ctrl+alt+-",            "command": "workbench.action.navigateBack" },
{ "key": "ctrl+shift+-",          "command": "workbench.action.navigateForward" },

A vim-like binding would be:

{ "key": "ctrl+o",         "command": "workbench.action.navigateBack" },
{ "key": "ctrl+i",         "command": "workbench.action.navigateForward" },

But beware this seems a bit sloppy. Maybe this is also mentioned in the VsCodeVim documentation.

[monkoose]

@mswift42 I trully believe that you can implement something what you need with the marks(they are supported in the vscodevim). Not the full ctrl-o functionality, just jump back to the line where you were. Do not tested myself but vscodevim support .vimrc configs so you can do some mark before jump(autoadd it when you press ctrl+]) and then add another keybindig to jump to that mark. At least for now. Or stick with an editor that you work for now and check this feature later. I'm too for now can't work in vscode. But i really like it besides some missing vim features.

@hastebrot Seems like working. At least for first glance(may be has some bugs though do not sure). So my comment is useless.

[hastebrot]

@monkoose I observed some problems with gd, then multiple ctrl-o, then ctrl-i inserts some strange history items inbetween. Or gd, then ctrl-o, then j jumps somewhere multiple rows below.

Update: I could not reproduce the first issue after an update to the newest insiders build. Could be fixed in the update, could also be me trying to reproduce this issue in the wrong files.

[Xaeroxe]

It's been a while since this issue was last looked at, but I did download VSCodeVim today and I am rather pleased with it. It's also offered through the welcome page of VSCode. Therefore I don't see any reason to keep this issue open. Any further enhancement requests should probably go to the VSCodeVim repository.