Vim's normal and insert modes are wonderful. A source of constant frustration for me is that whenever I enter command-line mode for entering Ex commands (by pressing 🙂 suddenly I lose all the niceness of modal editing and wind up with a set of totally different (and comparatively lame) shortcuts that don't correspond to normal-mode OR insert-mode. Is there any way to enable standard modal editing of ex commands on the Vim command line?
This would also be nice for / searching, etc.
Possible to use modal editing inside Vim’s command-line mode
command linevim
Best Answer
Vim actually has several modes, of which normal and insert are just the most obvious. So to say...
To enter the command-line window from command-line mode (the mode you're in after you press
:
), pressCtrl-F
. Now you're in the command-line window, where you can write up a command just like in insert, and edit it kinda like in normal mode. Enter will execute the command.An example:
It will echo' the "Hello world!" on the commandline, just like as if you've written that command from the cmdline.
Does this make any sense?