Modern Vim

Notation for Simulating Vim on the Page

Ctrl-s is a common convention for representing chordal key commands. It means “While holding down the Ctrl key, press the s key.” But this convention isn’t well suited to describing Vim’s modal command set. In Modern Vim, I use a specific notation to illustrate Vim usage, which I outline here.

Playing Melodies

In Normal mode, commands are composed by typing one or more keystrokes in sequence. These commands appear as follows:

Notation	Meaning
x	Press x once
dw	In sequence, press d, then w
dap	In sequence, press d, a, then p

Most of these sequences involve two or three keystrokes, but some are longer. Deciphering the meaning of Vim’s Normal mode command sequences can be challenging, but you’ll get better at ...