Vimified: Vim-Centered Software Collection
I tend to spend most of my day in Vim. Well, most of my day is relative, as I certainly do engage in activities like eating, playing with kids, and sleep. Nuances aside, some of the Vim’s features like HJKL movement, and command mode have become second nature to me, so much so that I started looking for software that behaves more or less the same way in areas outside text editing. Here are some gems I’d like to share with you.
vimperator
vimperator from vimperator labs is a Firefox plugin that turns your favorite browser into vim-like bliss. I know Chrome has something similar, but last time I tried it, it was nowhere near vimperator.
ranger
I already wrote about ranger last year, so I won’t repeat myself here. Simply put: awesome. And Vim-like, of course.
zathura
Stumbled upon this one by pure chance. I was browsing the Arch Linux package repository the other day and noticed a PDF viewer I haven’t seen before, and installed it becase the homepage didn’t show any screenshots. When I first opened it I knew this was going to stick: vim-like… very vim-like.
calcurse
Calcurse gave me the idea for this article. It’s a Vim-like organizer written in ncruses (text-based graphical interface all the way).
awesome
Of course, if the whole window manager has at least Vim-like movement bindings, it’s even better. And awesome does just that. (Btw, I designed the logo for that project).
other?
I have yet to see satisfactory experience with stuff like image viewers and music players. For these thigns to be really intuitive, they really need to work exactly like Vim, despite the fact that Vim itself is not considered intuitive. If you are hard-wired to Vim, the only way something can be intuitive is for it to work like Vim.
Here are some ideas for software developers out there:
Use commands like :open and :tabnew to load files. Add a :help command in addition to ? shortcut. Select stuff with v shortcut (visual mode). Use gg and GG movement commands. You get the idea. Make it as close as possible to Vim.
