I've always loved vi and vim with a passion, and when after reading a post from JP Boodoo about ViEmu I felt compelled to give it a whirl. ViEmu integrates vi/vim functionality with Visual Studio. Yes.... you too can :wq code files. Initially, I was concerned that it would hinder rather than help, mainly due to a discordance between the editing paradigms of vi and Visual Studio. Vi uses discreet editing, navigation and selection modes to maximise the usefulness of the keyboard in light of traditional console based terminals.

With advent of the graphical text editor, this paradigm fell from favour as keyboard usage was gradually overtaken by ever increasing armies of icons and other visual metaphors.

In spite of this, coders generally pride themselves as 'shortcut-smiths' and I found that my vi skillset was proving useful even with Visual Studio. I should also point out that at home I run Resharper and at work I use Refactor Pro and CodeRush, and that Viemu for the most part appears to play very nicely alongside them. ViEmu also works from Word, Outlook and SQL Management Studio.

So what more could I possibly get out of Visual Studio using a tool like viemu? I'd like to share some of the things I like the most about Viemu.

Navigation

In short, and without giving a course on vi usage, we can move around a and edit code files in ways that other editors don't even bother with. The following is a small sample of the possibilities.

• Want to move 10 lines down from your current position? 10j
• 5 words to the left? 5w
• End of a word? e
• Next line of whitespace? }
• Move up to the closing parenthesis? %
• Now move to the matching opening parenthesis? % again
• Move to the 5th instance of the , character? 5f,

Editing

• Delete the next 10 lines? d10d
• Change the next 5 words? c5w
• Append to the end of the current word? a
• Append to the end of the line? A
• Delete everything up to the closing parenthesis (a personal fave)? d%
• Change the text upto and including the 3rd ) character? c3f)

I'm often confronted with the comment "But who deletes 10 lines of code?" Well, for starters, I work with line numbering ON. Let's say I don't want 3 methods anymore. I look at my current line position, I look at the line the last method ends on. I subtract the two values in my head, that comes to 43 lines. I then type d43d and I'm done.

The point is, that you begin to notice patterns in code. Assignments are usually at least three words long. A method with no parameters in C# takes 3 words to move to the opening bracket. Hitting %% gets me to the same place in that case also. Having the ability to add numbering and repetition to navigational and editing tasks is very powerful, and now I'll show you just one of the myriad way you can harness it.

Vi Macros

Once you have familiarized yourself with the toolset, it becomes quite easy to record macros for repetitive tasks. We use SQL scripts to deploy test data at work and every now and again I'll hear the repetitive tap-tap-tap of somebody hitting the following sequence of keys: END, CTRL+V, DOWN ARROW over and over and over again. Here is an example:

PRINT 'Employees.'

INSERT INTO dbo.Employees
(EmployeeNumber, EntityGuid, DomainLogin)
	SELECT 'EM001', '018B163B-7D4F-49E1-A640-6BD9B65073FF', 'DOMAIN\EM001'
UNION	SELECT 'EM002', '3D3201F8-523D-43B1-89BC-F2FF8CAEBD56', 'DOMAIN\EM002'
UNION	SELECT 'EM003', '48EC5825-374F-4043-849D-308B2C8AA093', 'DOMAIN\EM003'

--repeat 50 more times		

GO

The usual goal might be that a role column was added, and for starters we want to assign each employee to the same role. First we go to the insert line and add the Role column at the end. Now to begin the macro that will do the heavy lifting.

First I enter normal mode by hitting escape or ctrl+[. Next I type qa to start recording a macro to register 'a'. I then type A to append to the end of the line. I'm now in insert mode, so I type , 'Users'. I exit insert mode with escape or ctrl+[ and then move to the next line with j. Finally, to finish the macro I hit q.

To recap, all I typed was: <esc>qaA,'Users'<esc>jq Thats a whopping 15 keystrokes including the string I had to write anyway.

I now have a macro I can reuse by simply using the recall macro command @. To recall macro 'a' I actually have to type @a.

'So what', you say, 'That only does it once and having to type @a over and over again is just as tedious as paste, end, down??'

Well the final trick is that to do it 52 times over I type 52@a. Repetition of commands is definitely one of vi's strengths and you can use it pretty much everywhere. 

Variation: I want the the Role column to be the 3rd column in my insert. Simple.. a few minor changes like instead of using A I would use ^2f, to move to the second comma. I would have to write: <esc>qa^2f,i'Users', <esc>jq then finally 52@a and I'm done.

I'll admit, there is a bit of thinking going on there, and I might not be typing at 80 wpm, but I'm saving myself a whole lot of RSI. Oh... and looking totally l33t when I run that macro 52 times.

So is it worth it?

Well, I think so, but I think it really depends on the type of person you are. If you've already fallen for vi, and Visual Studio seems only bearable with Resharper installed, then I'd say absolutely get Viemu. It doesn't cost much and you can utilize almost everything vim has to offer. If not, the learning curve isn't huge, but its significant. Thankfully, Viemu maps Ctrl+shift+alt+V to instantly turn it on or off, so if it starts hurting your head, you can escape the pain. It plays nicely with existing productivity tools, and caches any keyboard mappings that it steals during operation, and it will put them back if you switch it off.

Still, vi is a cryptic way of editing code, so if you struggle with remembering the keyboard shortcuts for Build, Step Into & Step Over, then I'd suggest that this product isn't for you. But if you want to add a new light sabre to your existing Jedi toolkit, then I'd encourage you to give it a try. Maybe even install gvim for a while to replace notepad, to help get used the whole vi thing.