This is a great question. To my mind, the short answer is learn regular, unconfigured vim first. Use vimtutor (see :help vimtutor) to get started if you're really at zero and have no idea even what to search for with :help.
To go deeper and really set yourself up for powerful configuration, it helps to go a little deeper than vimtutor. I learned a lot by reading Practical Vim <https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Vim-Edit-Speed-Thought/dp/1680501275> (by Drew Neil of vimcasts.org) on the train on my way to work. Before that, I was more or less just copying stuff without really understanding what it did. The book was an amazing combination of depth and accessibility; I gained a huge amount of knowledge without having to work all that hard. (The real understanding comes in the practice of course, but the book does a lot to set you up for that.) A quick perusal of Mr. Neil's site yields at least one essay about the pros and cons of customizing. Cutting to the end you'll find Mr. Neil seems to agree you should learn vim itself: In his classic essay, Seven habits of effective editing > <http://www.moolenaar.net/habits.html>, Bram Moolenaar encourages us to > invest time in sharpening the saw. Building your vimrc file and installing > plugins are both ways of doing that, but it’s vital that you understand > Vim’s baseline functionality before you build on top of it. First, learn to > use the saw. Then sharpen it. > I’ve seen people customizing Vim in ways that blunt the saw. I’ve even seen > people sharpening the wrong edge! > > There’s more to Vim’s core functionality than you may realize. In my book, > Practical Vim, I demonstrate all of the essential features of stock Vim. > Learn to use vanilla Vim well, then you’ll be in a position to decide which > plugins are a help, and which are a hindrance. John Passaro (917) 678-8293 http://riemann-summary.blogspot.com http://www.soundcloud.com/a-straight-john-at-last On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 11:27 AM, Jose Caballero <jcaballero....@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > first, I sincerely apologize for asking in this forum a question that > I believe is trivial for most members in the list. > However, I think you will understand why I am asking it here. > > > I am regular VIM user, even though I only know around 1% of the user's > features. > But that is fine, since I know the other 99% exist, and how to find > documentation if needed. > > What I don't seem to find is a documentation newbies-friendly to > custom configure vim. > I mean, how to modify vimrc, write my own plugins, where to put them, > how to call them, not to mess with standard behavior, and so on. > > I know all the documentation is there. Both in google and builtin help > inside VIM. > However, I find it useful when you already know what you are looking > for. Not my case. > I am looking for a step-by-step tutorial, from zero, for those who > don't even know the key words to search in :help > Makes sense? > > > As said, I apologize if the question is too trivial for this forum, or > it has been posted before. > Other than that, thanks a lot in advance for any hint, or link, if > possible :) > Jose > > -- > -- > You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. > Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. > For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "vim_use" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to vim_use+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_use" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vim_use+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
