VimBindings is an experimental Julia package which brings some vim keybindings to the Julia REPL.

VimBindings is early in development and is not yet recommended for daily use. For the brave, feel free to give it a try!

• Normal mode
• Basic navigation (h, j, k, l,)
• Binding escape key from Julia REPL (see caleb-allen#8)
• Basic editing (e.g. dw, cw, x)
• Less basic editing (e.g. diw, cfx)
• History integration (partial)
• Visual mode
• Registers
• Undo/Redo
• Macros

] add https://github.com/caleb-allen/VimBindings.jl

The VimBindings package must be loaded before the REPL to correctly bind the Esc key (see caleb-allen#8). You can do this in your startup config:

# ~/.julia/config/startup.jl
atreplinit() do repl
    @eval using VimBindings
end

Then when you start julia:

julia[i]> # You now have vim bindings!

If you are having issues initializing the package, you can try manual initialization with VimBindings.init()

VimBindings begins in insert mode, and the Julia REPL can be used in its original, familiar fasion.

Switch to normal mode by pressing Esc, where you can navigate with h, j, k, l, etc.

julia[i]> println("Hello world!") # user presses Esc
julia[n]> println("Hello world!") # normal mode!

You may see warnings about method definitions being overwritten. VimBindings.jl overwrites some methods in the standard library in order to hook into REPL functionality, and you can safely ignore these warnings.

You may experience lag when you begin to use VimBindings.jl as Julia compiles functions for the first time. This lag should ease up over time. Adding some precompilation is a longer term item on the todo list.

VimBindings.jl is early in development and likely has bugs! Issues with bug reports or general feedback is welcome.