úLTIMA HORA DE CHINA
百度 都说中大奖不易，且行且珍惜，青州中奖彩友却为何迟迟不肯现身领奖呢是不知道自己手中的彩票中奖了还是一时抽不出时间来领奖或者是粗心大意把彩票放在犄角旮旯不管是何种原因，中奖者迟迟未兑奖的事情令潍坊市福彩中心的工作人员非常揪心。
Questions about the history of Vi. DO NOT use this for command history.
30 questions
86
votes
1
answer
37k
views
What is the select mode and when is it relevant to use it?
I accidentally pressed gh in normal mode and started a selection, so I looked up the doc and found :h Select-mode.
From what I understand the select mode is close to the visual mode excepted that:
...
- 50.9k
72
votes
3
answers
28k
views
Why does vim use hjkl for cursor keys?
Why use the keys hjkl on the same line instead of keys in a triangle like wasd for moving on video games?
Why not something equivalent with right hand, like ijkl or pl;'?
- 1,225
61
votes
1
answer
8k
views
How much money has been raised for needy children in Uganda from Vim? [closed]
As it says under :help iccf…
Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but
you are encouraged to make a donation for needy children in Uganda.
Please see kcc below or ...
- 9,769
43
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Why is Y a synonym for yy instead of y$?
Is there a specific historical reason for this?
Background — (you can skip this part if you already understand the question.)
As intermediate/advanced vi users will know, y is the "yank" command—it ...
- 4,519
24
votes
2
answers
7k
views
What is the relation between vi, nvi and vim?
On some unixes sometime I found a command named nvi. It was a vi-like editor, without much of its functionality. Maybe it was a fork of the old vi?
Anyways, which vi versions are a fork of the others,...
- 1,171
18
votes
4
answers
3k
views
What is the rationale for \r and \n meaning different things in s command?
We all know that, when searching, \n is newline and \r is carriage return (^M), but when replacing \r is newline while \n is a null byte (^@).
What is the origin of this asymmetry? Given that this ...
- 283
17
votes
3
answers
5k
views
What is the use of the black hole register ("_)?
I recently read about the black hole register "_ which is a write-only register.
Vim documentation describes it this way:
Black hole register "_
When writing to this register, nothing ...
- 50.9k
16
votes
2
answers
530
views
Does Vimscript have an official name?
The name of the language sometimes known as Vimscript is a topic of debate. Some places use Viml (or is it VimL?), others Vimscript. Does it have an official name, and if it does, what is it and since ...
- 25.3k
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why is it called a "vimrc" file?
Where did the name vimrc come from? Is the rc part an acronym? Are there historical reasons for picking this name? Where did the practice of using rc for configuration files first come from?
For what ...
- 18k
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Vi and Vim default to split left and split above. What is the history and motivation behind this?
When a window is split, given that Vi/Vim splits are not stored in a tree structure, the "direction of the split" is basically "the window in which the cursor is placed after the ...
- 251
14
votes
2
answers
11k
views
Advice to add `set nocompatible` as first line of .vimrc
I recall (perhaps in the early 2000's) having set nocompatible as the first line of my vimrc and most Vim guides and tutorials recommending that practice.
Some examples I could easily find online:
...
- 30.4k
11
votes
1
answer
488
views
What are the advantages of using colon for commands instead of semicolon?
Vi very successfully minimises finger travel and speed with command mode.
Swapping ; and : seems to save a lot of extra shift keystrokes for commands which are used more freqently than repititions of ...
- 211
10
votes
1
answer
504
views
What is the origin of the term "yank"?
I'm interested in learning how the term yank got its name. I'm also interested in why Vi/Vim "yank" differs from Emacs "yank".
See also: same question on Unix & Linux; dual question about Emacs
- 103
8
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Why doesn't vimscript provide a random number generator?
EDIT Since 8.1.2342, Vim introduced a rand() function as described by @Maxim Kim's answer. I'll keep the question here for historical reference.
I recently needed to generate a random number in vim ...
- 50.9k
8
votes
2
answers
470
views
Why is ] used for tag navigation?
Several of the commands for browsing programs with tags use ].
Is there a mnemonic for this?
Why was it selected?
- 181