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    Colemak for VIM

    • Started by dougui
    • 10 Replies:
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    • Registered: 29-Nov-2015
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    Hi,

    I'm a vim user and I use hjkl to move. hjkl are at a very good position in a QWERTY keyboard but not so well on a colemak one. If I want to use neio, I have to remap those keys. Vim seems to not be designed for this. There is mnemotechic for N[ext] E[nd] I[nsert] O[?].

    What is you feedback with vim and colemak?

    Thanks!

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    • Registered: 29-Nov-2015
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    I saw this thread : https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=50&p=6 . It seems to be possible to remap but there is not a clear status or a vim plugin. The latest solution seems to rebind a lot of keys, I don't really want to relearn vim. Furthermore, the thread is old.

    What you think?

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    • Registered: 21-Apr-2010
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    Welcome!

    It's been discussed before, but if you know Vim shortcuts by letter, you should be able to translate them easily enough in your head.  I didn't bother remapping the shortcuts.

    The only irritation for me with Dvorak was the movement of the colon.  The loss of the home keys navigation hasn't been much of an issue as I mainly use find, w (word forwards), b (word backwards), CTRL + U (page Up), CTRL + D (page Down) for navigation anyway, so it isn't that much bother.

    I do use Vim alot, but I am not a power user.

    Last edited by pinkyache (30-Nov-2015 19:57:37)

    --
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    • From: UK
    • Registered: 14-Apr-2014
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    I wonder why vim users like their HJKL so much. I would have thought  IJKL qwerty = UNEI colemak  would be much better.

    Last edited by stevep99 (30-Nov-2015 11:08:16)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    • Registered: 12-Oct-2015
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    @stevep99 it goes back from old terminals... predating WASD. It's actually better, since you have a finger per key, instead of using your middle finger for two.

    @dougui, I would really recommend you do _NOT_ remap the keys. You shouldn't be using those keys ofter anyway, and they are all reachable with your index. Take it as an opportunity to learn the better movement keys.

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    bombdiggity said:

    @stevep99 it goes back from old terminals... predating WASD. It's actually better, since you have a finger per key, instead of using your middle finger for two.

    Back in the day, I remember actually using vi(m) with green-screen terminals, but even then I remember thinking the choice of HJKL was a bit weird for navigation. Even if I buy the one-finger-per-key argument, it should JKL;

    Last edited by stevep99 (01-Dec-2015 15:15:25)

    Using Colemak-DH with Seniply.

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    just like offset columns don't.

    Here's the history: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-us … rrow-keys/

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    • Registered: 19-May-2012
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    I'm a heavy vim user, and I don't remap anything to compensate for using colemak. The defaults work well for me though I will admit, hjkl is nice, but I really don't miss it. Also, trying to fix it by remapping seems to cause a lot of other things to change about vim, and I like keeping the mnemonics.

    My vim setup for the curious: https://github.com/farmergreg/dotfiles
    and here's a shameless plug for: https://github.com/farmergreg/vim-lastplace

    Last edited by dietsche (08-Mar-2017 07:07:27)
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    dietsche said:

    I'm a heavy vim user, and I don't remap anything to compensate for using colemak. The defaults work well for me though I will admit, hjkl is nice, but I really don't miss it. Also, trying to fix it by remapping seems to cause a lot of other things to change about vim, and I like keeping the mnemonics.

    My vim setup for the curious: https://github.com/farmergreg/dotfiles
    and here's a shameless plug for: https://github.com/farmergreg/vim-lastplace

    You can remap within h,l,j,k only (for example: map j to h, map h to k, map k to j) it will not affect other keys

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    I didn't change the shortcuts and it's working perfect for me too. I already tried to move the shortcuts of another software to match their qwerty position and i struggled to memorize it.

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    • Registered: 01-Jul-2024
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    I use KMonad to remap UNEI to arrow keys when holding t; it's a great workflow for me.

    KMonad is infinitely powerful and can be used to achieve many of the things QMK does, but adding arrow keys to the home row is sufficient to me for the time being.

    (You can edit the config so that the arrows point to neio or hnei if you wish to).


    Instructions:

    Install KMonad

    Download my example keymap

    Edit the defcfg block in the keymap so it points to your keyboard.

    Run KMonad and point it to the config.

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