[Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

rent0n · 2010-01-25 17:40:49

Hi

The funny thing is that I don't know absolutely how to work with Vim, but I want to learn it by building a "desktop environment" based on vim and (mostly) on terminal apps that behave like Vim.
And of course I need the help of the Arch community!

Well first of all I probably need a good tutorial (except vimtutor) to start learning vim behaivour and keybindings: Have you got any suggestions?

Then I need ideas about software: of course I prefer to use stable, maintained and lightweight software that is in the repos, or at least in the AUR.
Following is my list: I will add your suggestions and clarify my choices here.
Help me to build my Vim-like-environment!

Login Manager: none
Window Manager: i3
Editor: vim (of course)
Terminal: urxvtd + urxvtc
File Manager: vifm
Image Viewer: feh
Pdf Viewer: apvlv
Browser: uzbl-tabbed
Email Client: mutt
IRC: weechat
IM: bitlbee
Music: ncmpcpp
Video: mplayer
Network: netcfg

Have your say!

Last edited by rent0n (2010-04-13 21:15:35)

Gigamo · 2010-01-25 17:42:24

For music you could also try cmus. Sup is a nice email client alternative.

Last edited by Gigamo (2010-01-25 17:43:28)

milomouse · 2010-01-25 18:24:48

http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical … orial.html
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/vimcheat.html

I'd just go for programs that allow you to define your own keybindings (use links above for reference/learning the commands). Although most of the programs that let you define your bindings don't always allow for "vim-like" actions. I guess it depends on how deep you want to delve into their code.. or how flexible they are on bindings. I'm quite content without having <everything> vim-like, because my keybindings get mixed up and I end up opening/closing/changing something else by accident. Although I am more comfortable with them.

Musca is a pretty good window manager, so is Ratpoison, and I think you can do about anything with Xmonad though I've never really tried.
I prefer Zathura for a pdf viewer.
For chatting I use "minbif" instead of bitblbee. I also use "ii" instead of irssi or weechat. http://nion.modprobe.de/blog/archives/4 … lient.html awesome tutorial for using "ii". I changed a few things but this tutorial works for the most part.
For webbrowsing I use Surf with the help of "tabbed". In tabbed you can add/remove as much bindings/commands as you want. It's totally up to you, just like Uzbl, but Uzbl is more user-friendly when first installed.

Other than that, I don't know. I don't have much installed to use as comparison.

Last edited by milomouse (2010-01-25 18:26:29)

Cyrusm · 2010-01-25 18:29:54

first of all, you can set the command line editing option in your .bashrc to "set -o vi". this will cause your command line to be editable using vim style editing. as a browser, you could try vimprobable. It's a super light weight browser with vim style navigation.

as far as a window manager goes, I would choose one that is highly configurable, and primarily keyboard driven. take a look at some of the tiling window managers, I know xmonad can be configured to use whatever keybindings you want to code in and you could probably hack together some vim style key bindings pretty easily. I also know that fluxbox has a pretty robust keybinding feature that you might also consider if you don't feel comfortable with a tiling window manager.

and here is a really great Vim tutorial, ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/doc/book/vimbook-OPL.pdf

Last edited by Cyrusm (2010-01-26 00:53:04)

rson451 · 2010-01-25 18:31:38

If you like how vim handles multiple windows, try a manual tiling window manager like ratpoison. It splits window in a very similar fashion.

Cyrusm · 2010-01-25 19:46:14

Cyrusm wrote:

first of all, you can set the command line editing option in your .bashrc to "set -o vi". this will cause your command line to be editable using vim style editing. as a browser, you could try vimprobable. It's a super light weight browser with vim style navigation.
as far as a window manager goes, I would choose one that is highly configurable, and primarily keyboard driven. take a look at some of the tiling window managers, I know xmonad can be configured to use whatever keybindings you want to code in and you could probably hack together some vim style key bindings pretty easily. I also know that fluxbox has a pretty robust keybinding feature that you might also consider if you don't feel comfortable with a tiling window manager.
and here is a really great Vim tutorial, ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/doc/book/vimbook-OPL.pdf

EDIT: oh yeah, and play a bunch of nethack, it's the funnest way to develop vim muscle memory imho.

DOUBLE EDIT: sorry for the repeat post, I accidentally hit the quote button.

Last edited by Cyrusm (2010-01-26 00:53:20)

JohannesSM64 · 2010-01-25 20:19:07

Vimprobable for browser.. Vimperator if you can't bear with the bugs.

thayer · 2010-01-25 21:58:06

JohannesSM64 wrote:

Vimprobable for browser.. Vimperator if you can't bear with the bugs.

...and KeySnail if you can't bear with vimperator's sluggishness of late. I noticed vimperator development has ground to a halt since early December.

Edit: nix that last bit, I see now that some commits have been made.

Last edited by thayer (2010-01-25 21:59:48)

Dieter@be · 2010-01-25 22:03:56

so, you want modal keybindings in your WM? you should be able to do that with wmii (but also with others, such as awesome)

milomouse · 2010-01-25 22:17:05

thayer wrote:

JohannesSM64 wrote:
Vimprobable for browser.. Vimperator if you can't bear with the bugs.
...and KeySnail if you can't bear with vimperator's sluggishness of late. I noticed vimperator development has ground to a halt since early December.
Edit: nix that last bit, I see now that some commits have been made.

Yeah, I'm stuck with KeySnail (although it's not horrible). Interestingly enough, without having Vimperator in Firefox I don't want to use it anymore. That's why I'm using Surf and (mostly) w3m for browsing, but when I have important sites to visit I have to use Firefox for all the security addons I installed.

mikesd · 2010-01-25 22:25:04

rent0n wrote:

<snip>
Login Manager: none
<snip>

I used to use slim and before that xdm but now use this since I found it on the forums:

# .bash_profile

. $HOME/.bashrc

if [[ -z "$DISPLAY" ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
    exec startx
fi

elric · 2010-01-26 00:55:43

As an email client, I'll go for Mutt. You can customize all keybindings to be Vim-like.
Besides, it's common, so there a lot of muttrc's hanging around with such configuration,
and you get to use vim as editor for mailing.

Rockwolf · 2010-01-26 13:00:52

Login Manager: none
=> I don't use one either
Window Manager: wmii (never used one, this one has my vote for now. Feel free to suggest others.)
=> I use dwm, but that's probably just a matter of preference. They behave in the same way.
Editor: vim (of course)
=> Vim here too.
Terminal: urxvt
=> I use urxvtd (daemon) and connect with urxvtc (clients) This saves resources if you open up a lot of terminals.
File Manager: vifm
=> I got hooked to Midnight Commander. Tried vifm, but I never really got into it as much as I did in MC. But no vi keybindings in MC and that has been bothering me since the beginning... MC with vi keybindings would be the perfect filemanager though.
Image Viewer: feh
=> I use this one too.
Pdf Viewer: apvlv
=> Didn't know about this one! Thanks!
Browser: vimperator? uzbl? vimprobable? surf?
=> I use vimperator. Uzbl is too unusable without a lot of configuration and for surf I don't know wether it had vi keybindings. But I didn't know vimprobable and I will try it out when I get home! Thanks again. ^^
Email Client: muttator? mutt? (re)alpine? sup?
=> mutt here. It is great. I write gpg encrypted mail using vim, abook is used to import contacts.
IRC: weechat? irssi? ii?
IM: bitlbee? minbif?
=> Didn't know minbif, but I use irssi and bitlbee. It's cool.
Music: ncmpcpp? cmus? moc?
=> I use moc. It doesn't have vi keybindings though, but it's ui is simple and clean. I like it. You could also check out "herrie".
Video: mplayer
=> You don't need anything else. ^^

If you use mutt, I can also suggest Newsbeuter for RSS feeds, because it behaves just like mutt.

Last edited by Rockwolf (2010-01-26 13:02:01)

Kitty · 2010-01-26 19:20:45

I'd like to nominate scrotwm for WM. The keys to grow/shrink windows are Mod4+h/l

Sakura is my new fav term.

Rockwolf · 2010-02-05 14:17:48

Oh, don't forget
rexima
as a sound mixer app.
It's simple, but uses vi-keybindings.

ivotron · 2010-03-26 19:52:59

I'd also add:
* Muttator
* Practical Music Search (mpd daemon)
* finch (IM)

hatten · 2010-03-26 20:00:43

Everything's been said mostly, but zathura, uzbl, ratpoison, mplayer, irsii, feh. That's what I use here and it works excellent. I have even removed the right part of my keyboard >:D

Thanks a bunch for "set -o vi", it just made my life a lot easier, going trough history earlier was a hassle. Is it possible to edit the PS1 to indicate modes?

samuele.mattiuzzo · 2010-03-28 21:10:23

Rockwolf wrote:

Window Manager: wmii (never used one, this one has my vote for now. Feel free to suggest others.)
=> I use dwm, but that's probably just a matter of preference. They behave in the same way.

they dont' quite behave the same way... dwm and awesome support multihead, so if you have multiple monitors you'll prefer dwm or awesome or xmonad over wmii if you need something easily configurable, wmii is better because of dwm's and awesome's lua config files (they're not hard, just a bit more complicated to understand)... about xmonad configuration i cannot tell since i never used it

i'm using awesome

ludovico · 2010-03-28 21:26:17

samuele.mattiuzzo wrote:

if you need something easily configurable, wmii is better because of dwm's and awesome's lua config files (they're not hard, just a bit more complicated to understand)...

just a clarification: dwm is configured in its config.h file and recompiled. It's in C, not lua

totalkrill · 2015-01-24 20:07:36

I want to necro this thread for 2 reasons. Is anyone still doing this? and Also, is there any new improvements on this subject? I am in a similar situation in 2015 and many of theese programs are still the same.

I am using i3
vimium for chrome
ranger for filemanager
searching for more programs, specially something like a telegram client.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-25 17:40:49

[Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#2 2010-01-25 17:42:24

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#3 2010-01-25 18:24:48

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#4 2010-01-25 18:29:54

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#5 2010-01-25 18:31:38

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#6 2010-01-25 19:46:14

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#7 2010-01-25 20:19:07

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#8 2010-01-25 21:58:06

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#9 2010-01-25 22:03:56

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#10 2010-01-25 22:17:05

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#11 2010-01-25 22:25:04

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#12 2010-01-26 00:55:43

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#13 2010-01-26 13:00:52

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#14 2010-01-26 19:20:45

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#15 2010-02-05 14:17:48

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#16 2010-03-26 19:52:59

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#17 2010-03-26 20:00:43

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#18 2010-03-28 21:10:23

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#19 2010-03-28 21:26:17

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

#20 2015-01-24 20:07:36

Re: [Help] Setup a Vim-like desktop environment

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