Vim

Vim (and Neovim, its actively-developed fork) is a modal text editor: the same keys mean different things depending on the current mode. This is the one idea everything else builds on.

Modes

• Normal (the default, Esc always returns here) — keys are commands, not text.
• Insert (i, a, o, …) — keys are literal text.
• Visual (v, V, Ctrl-v) — select a region (character/line/block), then apply an operator to it.
• Command-line (:) — ex commands (:w, :%s/.../.../g, :q).

The grammar: operator + motion (+ count)

Normal-mode commands compose as [count] operator {motion|text-object}. This is the core productivity idea — learn the pieces, not a list of memorized whole commands.

• Operators: d (delete), c (change: delete + enter Insert), y (yank/copy), >/< (indent), = (reindent).
• Motions: w/b/e (word forward/back/end), 0/^/$ (line start/first non-blank/end), f{char}/t{char} (find/till a character on the line), gg/G (buffer start/end), {/} (paragraph).
• Text objects (pair with an operator, not standalone motions): iw/aw (inner/a word), i"/a", i(/a(, ip/ap (paragraph), it/at (tag).

Examples: dw deletes to the next word start. ci" deletes inside the quotes under the cursor and enters Insert. 3dd deletes 3 lines. d} deletes to the next paragraph break. . repeats the last change verbatim — the highest-leverage single key in Vim once you're composing edits this way.

Registers, marks, macros

• Registers hold yanked/deleted text: "ayy yanks a line into register a; "ap pastes it. The unnamed register ("", default for y/d/p) is separate from the system clipboard ("+y / "+p on most builds).
• Marks bookmark a position: ma sets mark a; ` a ` jumps to it exactly, 'a` jumps to its line.
• Macros record a command sequence: qa starts recording into register a, q stops, @a replays it, 10@a replays it 10 times, @@ repeats the last-played macro.

Configuration

Vim: ~/.vimrc, Vimscript. Neovim: ~/.config/nvim/init.vim (Vimscript) or init.lua (Lua — the modern default for Neovim config and plugins).

" ~/.vimrc / init.vim (Vimscript)
set number relativenumber
set expandtab shiftwidth=2 tabstop=2
set ignorecase smartcase
nnoremap <leader>f :find<space>

-- init.lua (Neovim)
vim.opt.number = true
vim.opt.relativenumber = true
vim.opt.expandtab = true
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 2
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>f', ':find ', { desc = 'Find file' })

Plugin managers: Vim commonly uses vim-plug; Neovim commonly uses lazy.nvim (lazy-loaded, Lua-native) or the older packer.nvim.

-- lazy.nvim plugin spec
require('lazy').setup({
  { 'nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter', build = ':TSUpdate' },
  { 'neovim/nvim-lspconfig' },
})

Common pitfalls

• map vs noremap. Plain map/nmap/imap are recursive — if your new mapping's right-hand side matches another mapping, it triggers that one too, which surprises people. Default to noremap/nnoremap/inoremap unless you specifically want recursive expansion.
• Fighting Insert mode instead of leaving it. Reaching for arrow keys or long Backspace runs inside Insert mode is a sign the edit should have been a Normal-mode operator+motion instead — leave Insert (Esc), do the edit, and only re-enter Insert if more typing is actually needed.
• :%s/foo/bar/g without c. Add the c flag (:%s/foo/bar/gc) to confirm each substitution when you're not certain the pattern is scoped tightly enough.
• Vimscript's line-continuation and let scoping quirks when porting config from someone else's dotfiles — a bare variable in a .vimrc is global by default; use s: (script-local) or l: (function-local) prefixes deliberately.

Learn more

• :help (or :Tutor for the interactive tutorial) — the built-in reference; authoritative for the exact Vim/Neovim version installed.
• Neovim documentation
• vim-plug, lazy.nvim, nvim-lspconfig
• Learn Vimscript the Hard Way — deep dive into Vimscript specifically.