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Mastering Vim

You're reading from   Mastering Vim Build a software development environment with Vim and Neovim

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Product type Paperback
Published in Nov 2018
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781789341096
Length 330 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Ruslan Osipov Ruslan Osipov
Author Profile Icon Ruslan Osipov
Ruslan Osipov
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Table of Contents (12) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Getting Started FREE CHAPTER 2. Advanced Editing and Navigation 3. Follow the Leader - Plugin Management 4. Understanding the Text 5. Build, Test, and Execute 6. Refactoring Code with Regex and Macros 7. Making Vim Your Own 8. Transcending the Mundane with Vimscript 9. Neovim 10. Where to Go from Here 11. Other Books You May Enjoy

The leader key

You've probably already encountered a key referred to as the leader key. The leader key is essentially a namespace for user or plugin defined shortcuts. Within a second of pressing the leader key, any key that's pressed will be in from that namespace.

The default leader key is a backslash \, but it's not the most comfortable binding. There are a few alternative keys that are popular in the community, with the comma (,) being the most popular. To rebind the leader key, set the following in your .vimrc file:

" Map the leader key to a comma.
let mapleader = ','

You'll want to define your leader key closer to the top of .vimrc, as the newly defined leader key will only apply to mappings defined after its definition.

When you rebind a key, it's default functionality is overwritten. For example, comma , this is used to replay the...
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