How to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way
Hi, I'm used to cut, copy and paste the windows-way. Meaning, selecting text and then press CTRL-X, CTRL-C or CTRL-V. In VIM (and correct me if I'm wrong) you yank (y) for copy put (p) for paste . for cut With this in mind, how to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way? Because when I select text and see select-mode in the lowest line and then press y, I see a letter y in my text and the selected text is gone. How come? Rgds, Eric _ Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft Office Live! http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/
Re: How to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way
Eric Leenman wrote:
Hi,
I'm used to cut, copy and paste the windows-way.
Meaning, selecting text and then press CTRL-X, CTRL-C or CTRL-V.
In VIM (and correct me if I'm wrong) you
yank (y) for copy
put (p) for paste
. for cut
With this in mind, how to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way?
Because when I select text and see select-mode in the lowest line
and then press y, I see a letter y in my text and the selected text is
gone.
How come?
Rgds,
Eric
The Vim names for cut, copy and paste are delete, yank and put, respectively.
By default, they use the unnamed register, which is good enough when the
cut/copy and the paste happen within a single instance of Vim. To use the
clipboard, specify register + by using either a + prefix to the Normal-mode
commands y d p P or by postfixing a + argument to the :y[ank] :d[elete] and
:pu[t] Ex-commands (which accept a range).
The difference between Select mode and Visual mode is that in Select mode, any
printable-character key hit causes the character in question to replace the
selection. All the Normal-mode commands and Ex-commands mentioned above are
for Normal or Visual modes, not for Select or Insert/Replace.
To create a Visual (not Select) -mode selection, hit v at one end of the
selection, then move the cursor to the other end.
See
:help y
:help d
:help p
:help P
:help {motion}
:help motion.txt
:help registers
:help :yank
:help :delete
:help :put
:help :range
Examples:
:%y +
copy the whole file to the clipboard
dd
delete the current line into the default register
+5yy
yank 5 lines (starting at current line) into the clipboard
p
put the default register after the cursor
+P
put the clipboard before the cursor
y$
yank from the cursor to the end of the line
:$put +
add the clipboard after the last line of the file
etc.
Best regards,
Tony.
--
When one woman was asked how long she had been going to symphony
concerts, she paused to calculate and replied, Forty-seven years --
and I find I mind it less and less.
-- Louise Andrews Kent
RE: How to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way
-Original Message- From: Eric Leenman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 3:40 PM To: vim@vim.org Subject: How to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way Hi, I'm used to cut, copy and paste the windows-way. Meaning, selecting text and then press CTRL-X, CTRL-C or CTRL-V. In VIM (and correct me if I'm wrong) you yank (y) for copy put (p) for paste . for cut With this in mind, how to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way? Because when I select text and see select-mode in the lowest line and then press y, I see a letter y in my text and the selected text is gone. How come? Rgds, Eric _ Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft Office Live! http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/ When you press y after selecting text you will replace the entire text with the y; this is because you are in the select mode. This is the kind of behaviour you would get in, lets say Notepad or most other editors. What you want is, to be in the visual mode before pressing y. There are two ways - 1. After selecting text (you can see a '---SELECT---' at the bottom of your screen.) press CTRL-g, that is 'Ctrl + g' to toggle between visual and select mode. :h v_CTRL-G 2. Whenever you select text you can directly enter visual mode by default, instead of the select mode by setting the 'selectmode' options appropriately. :h selectmode Regards, Sibin DISCLAIMER: This message (including attachment if any) is confidential and may be privileged. Before opening attachments please check them for viruses and defects. MindTree Consulting Limited (MindTree) will not be responsible for any viruses or defects or any forwarded attachments emanating either from within MindTree or outside. If you have received this message by mistake please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this message from your system. Any unauthorized use or dissemination of this message in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. Please note that e-mails are susceptible to change and MindTree shall not be liable for any improper, untimely or incomplete transmission.
Re: How to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way
(Stupid plain text problem...)
Russell Bateman wrote:
Eric Leenman wrote:
Hi,
I'm used to cut, copy and paste the windows-way.
Meaning, selecting text and then press CTRL-X, CTRL-C or CTRL-V.
In VIM (and correct me if I'm wrong) you
yank (y) for copy
put (p) for paste
. for cut
With this in mind, how to cut, copy and paste the VIM-way?
Because when I select text and see select-mode in the lowest line
and then press y, I see a letter y in my text and the selected text
is gone.
How come?
Rgds,
Eric
Eric,
Just in case you don't think Sibin's reply was what you were after,
let me answer more simply the question you asked. You were trying to
erect a naive list of equivalents between common other-world actions
and vi/Vim.
There are two ways to copy content to a buffer. y is used to yank a
copy of it (essentially leaving the text intact--what Sibin refers to
as replacing the text with itself) and d is used to delete that text
keeping a copy of it in the buffer. (I'm sorry, when I say buffer
here, I'm referring not the larger buffer between Vim and the file,
but to a clipboard. I do not myself know the correct terminology that
has grown up in the Vim community because I've always been more
interested in consumingvi/Vim as a productivity tool than in its
development.) And, yes, p for paste after, P for paste before cursor.
Additionally, and this is a delight that you do not have in Windoz,
you can choose any of many named buffers (clipboards if you will) to
put the text, so you can copy up a bunch of discontiguous chunks of
text into buffers a, b, c, ... etc.:
Mark the beginning of the selection (Vim has a more advanced, visual
mode for this--I'm only talking vi here) using m + some anchor mark
(anything from a, b, c, ..., z and maybe more), then move the cursor
to the end (or beginning if you marked the end) and yank or delete the
text into the buffer of your choosing:
mx
(movement commands to get somewhere else)
ay'x (or ad'x)
--interpreted as choose () buffer a (a) yank (y) from mark (') x (x).
(Or, choose buffer a and delete text from current position to mark
keeping it in that buffer.)
Then you go where you want to paste the text and use the following
incantation to spit it out:
(movement somewhere)
ap
--interpreted as choose () buffer a (a) and put out (p). Now, if you
hadn't yanked or deleted any other text in the meantime, you didn't
need to indicate the named buffer because it would have been the last
one so you could simply have done
(movement somewhere)
p
Last, if you use the back-tick or grave in place of the single quote
in the yank or delete commands, you will get not the whole line, but
the range of characters only. Experimenting with all of this will
quickly clue you in:
mx
(movement)
ad`x
(movement)
ap
Because I'm a now ancient vi user only dipping a toe intothe wonderful
world of Vim, the most beautiful, performant and fully featured editor
in the known universe, I miss out on the cooler stuff, but this is how
I've always done it.
I strongly suggest input from other Vimmers and would not mind being
corrected, put in place, growled at for being so unenlightened, etc.
Russ
