To try these out, (gingerly) click the links, and see if they appeal. Once installed, many of the all-day, everyday activities of web browsing can be accomplished by using keyboard shortcuts. (For Firefox users there are Tridactyl and Vimium-FF plugins – installed in much the same way). Web browsers can be controlled the vim way: Chrome with Vimium or cVim, Firefox with Vimium-FF or Vim Vixen (thanks to @Ruslan and @wchargin for mentioning it) The bash shell running in Terminal.app can be used in vi mode using set -o vi or set editing-mode vi. There are great textual file managers ready to install via Homebrew that worth a try.
Vim Motion is an open source app which fairly does what you ask, it does more than just with Finder including stuff like Launchpad and other UI elements. We are bringing vim-easymotion to macOS , where most UI elements can be accessed with your fingers stay on the keyboard. Hope vim users enjoy it as much as we do ♥️. For users of the popular text editor vim. Transfer your efficient shortcut skills from editing code to browsing the web. If you do any sort of writing, you should be using Grammarly, regardless of browser!
Most of us spend countless hours working on all kinds of tasks. We use tools and our own ways to complete our work, but can we always be these are the fastest ways. Most of us think we’re working as fast as we can, but there are things we might not have yet discovered that could help speed things up, by a little bit or by several fold. We have spoken some in the past, such as Colemak, the keyboard layout that has the potential of doubling your typing speed. Vim, the topic for this article is not a keyboard layout, but it is related. It is a text editor but it’s much more than that; it is a way of interacting with software.
Vim is a newer version of vi, a text editor from 1976, nearly 44 years ago. In recent times, nearly everyone who uses Linux or any *nix base operating system has used Vi or Vim. You might wonder, why a text editor should hold so much importance today. It has been used to type in a lot of code, for operating systems and software we have been using over the decades, no doubt, but it’s the way you navigate through lines of code of any text for that matter, that makes Vim so impressive. It’s just not for programmers. It can be used by writers, those who want to write journal and take notes, those who need to clean up data before posting it into a mail, a presentation or a spreadsheet. Vim (Vi) can speed it up.
We spend a lot of time and energy with keystrokes to type in information, to edit it, and to get from one point of the screen to another. This means several down, left, right key presses. All of it adds up through the day into a lot of time and energy. Vim is all about being able to replace words and characters without having to jump across to backspace, delete and space bar. It needs the least number of key presses and movements to get work done. You can try out Vim for yourself today, on any operating system. Most Linux distributions ship with one and if you are a Windows user, there are releases such as gVim and Neovim that you can download for free. If you happen to install them, you might find them to be quite bland, and they look like something out of the 80s. Don’t be surprised though. There are a lot of customisations for Vim. You will find a lot of information online if you look for the vimrc configuration file. Vim has a world of customisations available to the user.
Vim has a few modes in it. Most text editors let you type right away but Vim does not. You are always set in a navigation mode, where pressing a key doesn’t print anything on the screen. By default, the keys, hjkl are used for navigation, instead of the direction keys. The idea is to keep your fingers on these keys and not switch to your mouse or your direction keys. e and b for example, are used for going ahead a word at a time, or behind. y completes the copy function, while p pastes. There are different upper and lower-case commands too. There are quite a few of these keys one needs to remember and get used to. The i key enables the Insert mode, letting you type. When you are done, simply press the Esc key to return to the navigation mode.
The v key enables the Visual mode that lets you select a word or lines, then copy, paste or delete them. The . key repeats the last step you performed, which is particularly great if you want to paste a specific set of text into different places or replace specific text in different paragraphs. As complicated as it seems, these keyboard shortcuts are quite intuitive and they come naturally to you, after a few days of using them. Vim also supports plugins too, that you can download. There are plugins managers such as Vundle and Vim-Plug that can be installed on your PC or laptop. Plugins can add features ranging from colour schemes, code formatting, language tools, quick reference tools, even media playback controls and more.
Vim isn’t limited to text editors, there are even extensions for browsers that let you navigate using only the keyboard. One of the most popular ones is called Vimium and it is available for Firefox and Chrome. You can switch between tabs, scroll, jump to the nearest text box, even pin tabs using nothing more than a key or two. Most of the key bindings are like the ones you might have used on Vim. While it seems pointless, you will be surprised by how useful the shortcuts help when you’re researching information or trying to navigate across 100 tabs. Head over to the Firefox (Vimium-FF) or the Chrome Web Store to download the extension. Once installed, simply press the ? key to get the list of all the shortcuts. You can customize them by clicking the Vimium icon in the toolbar, then on Options. Make changes as needed but try using the default ones since they are common across other software.
We also spoke about VS Code, a great software development tool for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. There are even extensions for it, that set the Vim key binds into VS Code. You can navigate pages using the Vim convention. You can find many other software that offer the Vim way of doing things.
While Vim is by no means, unheard of, it isn’t all too popular either. We hope you give it a try and you see the benefits of it in your work. This was only a quick introduction to Vim. To learn more new exciting things about Vim and everything around technology, keep visiting RelianceDigital.in.
Vimium-ff Vs Tridactyl
Many IT professionals, in particular, suffer from RSI (repetitive strain injury) or some form of carpal tunnel syndrome caused by poor posture, uncomfortable working environments, and especially the use of computer mice or trackpads all day.
As computers are now an accepted part of just about everyone’s working day, the threat faced by businesses and organizations everywhere now includes many millions of dollars lost annually caused by staff needing to take time off sick or incapacitated.
In a previous article a few years back, we looked at some of the mouse alternatives available on the market that are specifically designed to help obviate the problem.
This article goes one step further to look at a couple of ways that RSI sufferers can vastly reduce their daily mouse or trackpad use, by simple means of using web browser plugins, or better yet, a keyboard-focussed web browser.
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Why browser-centric services spell agony for thousands
Unlike twenty or even five years ago, most people don’t use applications that are installed locally on their daily driver computers. Instead, the ubiquity of the cloud and XaaS (anything-you-like as a service) now means that many, if not most business apps and services are addressed in a web browser of some sort.
The desktop operating system’s importance is now massively diminished — a fact that has as its proof the sales of millions of Chromebooks, especially into schools. These lightweight, cheap computing devices offer little more than a wireless internet connection and web browser. Users are expected to work online, store work remotely on cloud-based services like DropBox, and collaborate and communicate with team members or colleagues via platforms like Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom and Slack.
Download isd usb devices driver. While there are apps that can be downloaded and installed locally for many web-based services, these are often so-called Electron apps, or runtime applications, that are merely bundled web “wrappers”. To all intents and purposes, a local Slack client is just another view onto the cloud-based Slack hub. In short, most people can use a web browser connected to the internet to achieve a good day’s work.
https://t.co/acxafCNnKk
What’s the difference BTW carpal tunnel & tendonitis of the wrist? This video may clear it up!#Gamers#eSports#RSI
— Dr. Levi Harrison (@drleviharrison) April 26, 2016
Plugins on trial
If we accept that as a tool, the web browser is the piece of software that we’ll spend the lion’s share of our day in, it’s a source of wonder that the average way we use the app hasn’t changed much in the last thirty years or more.
Just about every site we visit, every interaction with every online service, starts with a mouse click. The constant clicking of mice is the new background white noise of everyday office life, interspersed with just occasional keyboard noises as data is entered, or a search term typed in.
Free online games. To the RSI sufferer, however, even a single mouse click can cause shooting pains to leap right down the arm, into the neck and spine, and generally make the working day a physical ordeal. Many users, therefore, deploy web browser plugins to use keyboard shortcuts and commands that can “steer” their browser, not mouse movements.
That has two advantages: firstly, using a keyboard is quicker (once muscle memory is established), but mostly, keyboard use involves many thousands of different moves and gestures. That’s in contrast with the two or three deployed in using a mouse (left-click, right-click, scroll wheel). And reducing repetitive motions is what it’s all about.
For Chrome (and Edge) users, there are a few choices – Shortkeys, Vimium, and cVim, for example. To try these out, (gingerly) click the links, and see if they appeal. Device cleaner app. Once installed, many of the all-day, everyday activities of web browsing can be accomplished by using keyboard shortcuts. (For Firefox users there are Tridactyl and Vimium-FF plugins – installed in much the same way).
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The cute answer to RSI
If you’ve tried some or all of the plugins mentioned above and explored the keyboard shortcuts too that browsers ship with to help navigate your way through their menus, and want to go further, we at TechHQ would recommend qutebrowser (pronounced cute-browser). This piece of software was developed as a way that developers especially could bring to their browsing experience the same keyboard shortcuts and navigation methods from a much-favored text editor used on the command line.
vi, or more commonly these days, vim (vi iMproved) is a pure, text-only editor that forms the basis of most IT development professionals’ toolsets. The advocates of vim argue its merits with a passion seen in few places outside colleges of competing theological theory, railing against its main alternative app, emacs, and using the word “Word” as a term of direst blasphemy.
Be that as it may, if you’re willing to get your head around some (at first) seemingly arcane keyboard shortcuts and some rather odd notions, like “modes” (command mode, insert mode, passthrough mode, for example), you can navigate the ‘web using just the keyboard (with maybe the occasional touch of a mouse now and then — at least, to start with).
Here, then, the developer’s tool becomes a cure for RSI. (As a bonus, should you ever want to start using vim, then the majority of the learning curve you might otherwise have experienced will be well behind you.)
It soon becomes apparent to the qutebrowser user that not only is having to reach for a mouse anachronistic (and painful), but compared with keeping one’s fingers hovering over the keyboard, the mouse is outmoded – slower as well as uncomfortable.
The learning curve to qutebrowser (and vim) is perhaps analogous to learning to use crutches, or driving a manual (stick shift) car when you’re used to an automatic gearbox. To begin with, it seems unnecessarily complicated and strange. But after a few days (or even a few hours), we promise you’ll not look back.
Props to The-Compiler
Vimium-ff Chrome
The qutebrowser was written and is maintained by a single person known as The-Compiler, and like many open-source and free software applications, he (we assume a “he”) relies on user feedback and donations to keep the work up to date.
If you find qutebrowser useful, we’d urge you to at least send a note of thanks, the price of a cup of coffee, or indeed, whatever you can afford to express your gratitude. Well recommended.
23 April 2021
23 April 2021
22 April 2021