vim·u·la·crum [vim-yuh-ley-kruhm] /ˌvɪmyəˈleɪkrəm/

noun, plural vim·u·la·cra [-kruh] /-krə/

1. a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance.

2. an effigy, image, or representation: a vimulacrum of Vim.

Origin:

2012; Unix-speak v(im) a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing + Latin (s)imulācrum likeness, image, equivalent to simulā ( re ) to simulate + -crum instrumental suffix

The vimulacrum is never what hides the truth - it is truth that hides the fact that there is none.

The vimulacrum is true.

— Richard Stallman

• for system admins who need to install fresh new systems often

• not everyone has a Corei7 CPU and 8GB of RAM
• should be usable over ssh, putty and teraterm

• don't use too many plugins that remap keys
• don't over-customize to the point where you can't use vanilla Vim anymore

• Works best with Vim 7.3

• Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04 LTS

• Lion (10.7)
• Snow Leopard (10.6)

• TODO

• vim: to access the full set features, we recommend vim version 7.3
• git
• curl
• ack
• ctags

• for servers: sudo apt-get install vim-nox curl git ack-grep exuberant-ctags
• for desktops: sudo apt-get install vim-gnome curl git ack-grep exuberant-ctags

• for servers: yum install vim curl git ack ctags
• for desktops: yum install vim-gnome curl git ack ctags

• install nodejs using either MacPorts, Homebrew, or Fink
• install npm, or node package manager manually. the instructions are at the github page for npm.
• using npm, install jslint globally: sudo npm install -g jslint

• curl https://raw.github.com/kelsey/vimulacrum/master/install -l -o - | bash

• C-x means control key + 'x' key
• <leader> key means space in our case

Ctrlp replaces the Command-T plugin with a 100% viml plugin. It provides an intuitive and fast mechanism to load files from the file system (with regex and fuzzy find), from open buffers, and from recently used files.

QuickStart Launch using <leader>f.

NERDTree is a file explorer plugin that provides "project drawer" functionality to your vim editing. You can learn more about it with :help NERDTree

QuickStart Launch using <Leader>n.

Customizations:

• Use <Leader>n to toggle NERDTree
• Use <leader>nt to load NERDTreeFind which opens NERDTree where the current file is located.
• Hide clutter ('.pyc', '.git', '.hg', '.svn', '.bzr')
• Treat NERDTree more like a panel than a split.

This plugin is a tool for dealing with pairs of "surroundings." Examples of surroundings include parentheses, quotes, and HTML tags. They are closely related to what Vim refers to as text-objects. Provided are mappings to allow for removing, changing, and adding surroundings.

Details follow on the exact semantics, but first, consider the following examples. An asterisk (*) is used to denote the cursor position.

 Old text                  Command     New text ~
 "Hello *world!"           ds"         Hello world!
 [123+4*56]/2              cs")        (123+456)/2
 "Look ma, I'm *HTML!"     cs"<q>      <q>Look ma, I'm HTML!</q>
 if *x>3 {                 ysW(        if ( x>3 ) {
 my $str = *whee!;         vlllls'     my $str = 'whee!';

For instance, if the cursor was inside "foo bar", you could type cs"' to convert the text to 'foo bar'.

There's a lot more, check it out at :help surround "})}"

Automatically places closing symbols such as brackets and paretheses.

• To preview, :Mw
• Note - Mac only

• this fixes the strange underscore emphasis issue for syntax highlighting
• this allows vim to autodetect .md files as markdown

Zoom in on a particular viewport

• To invoke, <leader> z

Extends '%' functionality.

• To use, :Ack

• this does syntax checking
• if you see the red arrors, do :Errors to see the syntax errors

• the most useful command is: :Gblame

• move the cursor to the line you want to comment out, then use <leader> cc

• this [vimcast]{https://vimcasts.org/episodes/aligning-text-with-tabular-vim/} explains it best:
• To align the via the :s in each line, select the lines and do <leader> a:

• to toggle the sidebar: <leader> tt