[Vimium + i3 + vim + vscode/vmplugin] Means that I rarely have to reach for the mouse, have a tonne of desktop real estate that's easy to navigate and is way more comfortable.
Just having search, simple navigation and the 'f-feature' in vimium is enough for like 99% of my use cases.
It's such a pleasant and seamless experience to code in the editor, hop on over to the terminal to do w/e, skip on over to the browser to look something up, and go back to code. The muscle memory just takes over. Not to mention all the other benefits like having to track down small icons, sometimes changing window state (e.g. unmaximize, moving things around), and how much more effort using a mouse is over 2-3 keystrokes.
I use the exact same setup. Although I switched to only this year after spending time revisiting my workflow. Its indeed quite a bit faster for doing serious work although when I'm just browsing casually I do use the mouse just to give my fingers a rest.
Too sad the switch to WebExtensions in Firefox totally screwed up these addons.
I was a religious VimFX user and I can tell you that i mourn having lost that. It's like an era of powerful browsing ended. I use the mentioned Vimium addon, but it's not even close to what we had with VimFX.
Does the keyboard shortcuts in Vimium work when the page is loading? No. How nice is it to have keyboard shortcuts that work sometimes? Extremely frustrating.
How about using "o" to get to the address bar (CMD/CTRL+L)? It opens some overlay on the page where I can't access my bookmarks.
I could go on. VimFX is still somewhat maintained, but you have to run an unsecure browser to use it (like WaterFox).
I was super happy that the old XUL extensions could hide UI elements. I used Vimperator and hid everything but the Vimperator status line, and it was awesome. Noticeably more screen real estate and less clutter.
For those looking for that more complete Vim experience, qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) is a good option, IMO.
So true. It's so easy to accidentally "escape" context in which Vimium works. I still use mouse and standard shortcuts like ctrl+l a lot after each such use one has to deliberately click inside a web page to return to proper context.
A lot of actions like tab switching can be done in vimium but sometimes it's a chore.
Bookmarks CAN be accessed via "o" in Vimium :)You can also use "b" to browse just the bookmarks.
I've been using Vim Vixen[0] since the WebExtension switch, and I haven't noticed any missing features. I'd be curious to see how you found it in comparison.
I've been using vi-like shortcut plugins (vimperator, pentadactyl, vimium, vim vixen and many others, currently using tridactyl) for quite a few years now, and its never been quite the smooth experience I hoped for.
Not even talking about interfaces where you'd expect to need to use mouse (javascript components and others), but there is always the page in which the shortcuts will fail, or some input which will be blocked because the plugin is fighting the webpage for focus. Its pretty much what the article says at the conclusion, it helps reducing, but I still view it as a hassle.
Browsers developed with vi-like modes built-in (vimprobable, vimb, qutebrowser) fared better for me, but then there's other issues like incompatibility or lack of plugins which keeps me from fully using them.
> Browsers developed with vi-like modes built-in (vimprobable, vimb, qutebrowser) fared better for me, but then there's other issues like incompatibility or lack of plugins which keeps me from fully using them.
I've had this issue too with qutebrowser. I'm not very familiar with how these things work, but I wonder why plugins written for a given engine (say webkit) wouldn't work on all browsers using that engine. In the case of qutebrowser it uses chromium under the hood, so I would expect extensions that work on chromium to work on qutebrowser, just as most chromium limitations also apply to qutebrowser.
Either browsers have locked things down too tight, or for some other reasons these Vim like plugins are skeletons of their past. And websites are also keen to grab key strokes, e.g. "/" on Github.
I tried Vimium-FF (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/vimium-ff) and many other Vim like add-ons in last 2-3 months (after I decided to give Firefox another try after Pocket; and the possibility of ditching MacOS in my personal usage), but no, these plugins are nearly nowhere as useable as they used to be. Page reloads, redirects, weird behaviours at anything I try to do.
Maybe I can spend hours (over days) and have a perfect config file and maybe, just maybe, it will work as intended but then again it might break with next version or next browser update/upgrade.
My most used features were "/" followed by "n" and "shift+n", "t" -> open and "w" -> close tab, "f", "o" -> getting focus in address bar. I think I will rather give up.
Somehow I don't like to tinker anymore in the personal computer usage scenarios and maybe it's people like me who have caused/convinced companies like Apple to close things down and try to make apps and machines simpler (at which they have failed specularly).
Browsers need a plugin API to allow user interface modifications without allowing user data and network access - somehow. Could be useful for many cases, including accessibility, I imagine.
I'm glad this was posted. I really liked how they introduced only one feature; that was enough to push me to install and get past "I don't know vim, why would I like this". I can press 'f' and type letters to follow links. No vim-ness. Just a nice feature. (You can press "?" to see more features.)
(I used an XUL-based web browser with Emacs keybindings many years ago and loved it. But I had to switch to Chrome, and XUL went away, so I kind of gave up.)
> I can press 'f' and type letters to follow links.
You can get this with standard Firefox, no extension needed. For instance, on the HN main page, hit ' (single-quote) then "vi" then [enter] and you'll follow the link to this article.
I found Surfingkeys far more configurable than Vimium. I too looked at the alternatives and think its the best of the bunch. I'll have to try those mappings, seems like good tweaks.
Vimium is actually quiet a stable project since it's creation in 2009.
Side note: going back on the git history of the project is a great way to see the code evolve. [1] Originally it started with 2 files, but now has blossomed into a project with 100's of files
Pro tip: Set your hint characters to keys you can hit with your off-mouse hand. (e.g., being a right-handed qwerty user, mine are asdqwerzxcvtgb) Now you can keep one hand on the keyboard, the other on your mouse (or coffee, or whatever).
Without a plugin on firefox: hit ' to open a search field that only searches for links, then start typing and hit enter when the correct link is highlighted.
I love the idea of Vim shortcuts in the browser, but I'm becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the permissions these extensions require. I get why it's necessary for them to work, but giving access to all history/tabs/browser data feels a bit intense.
At least current browsers now show/ask for such permissions individually. You probably don't want to know how many permissions things like old XUL/XPCOM extensions would have required had they been forced to ask the user for them individually.
I showed this once to a non-techie friend, and they were excited to use it. My little demo covered the difference between F and Shift+F to show how it is case sensitive, and I navigated through multiple pages without using a mouse. I assured them that they don't need to learn all of its commands, and they can open a cheat sheet on any page just by typing a question mark.
This non-disruptive introduction into Vimium made me think about my old Firefox setup. Back in the XUL days, I was hoarding dozens of add-ons that altered the Firefox UI to the extent that others could not use my browser anymore. They would click on a link and wonder why it is not working while my browser would amass many new tabs at a customized, designated place. The browser worked as I intended, but the extent of my customizations made it unusable for regular Firefox users.
Therefore I think that these new, more limited extension APIs offer an overall better experience for end-users. Maintaining usability for "regular users" should be the upper bound for the amount of customization an extension API provides. If it goes beyond that, it seems to get out of control.
I don't agree. Regular users simply won't know to install those plugins in the first place. Leave the advanced APIs in for those that seek it. Security and maintenance concerns aside, of course.
I used vimium before switching to Surfingkeys for its editor. Turning any text input into a vim box is one of these features that you can't do without once you're used to their convenience.
Note that these extensions have access to all your data on the sites you visit, and while you may trust their developers, a dependency might go rogue without anyone noticing.
I love vimum, use it myself, but my biggest gripe with it (also half-addressed in the article) is that sites with good power-user focused keyboard shortcuts built-in are almost always going to beat a generic plugin like vimium. So you're left with choosing one of two compromise options:
1) Ignore the nice app-native keyboard shortcuts and just use vimium everywhere (Frustrating when single-key shortcuts in the app are multiple drop-down menu clicks with vimium)
2) Disable Vimium on shortcut-rich apps, but deal with the inconsistencies. (Eg clicking on the link in the body of an e-mail in gmail now needs a mouse again)
I really wish vimium had some kind of modifier for "send next key to website", so I could have my cake and eat it too.
I eventually switched away from these extensions because of conflicts with webapps that have their own keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard shortcuts that webapps give you are much more expressive and usable (i.e. in Gmail), but they're never quite able to save you completely from needing a mouse. So you keep switching between vim mode to app shortcuts and back and it's not clear enough which mode you're in.
Really makes me wish that it was easier for developers to choose native desktop development instead of webapp development. Web browsers are compromises all the way down.
Does anyone know of a way to do this OS-wide, so I don’t have to use my mouse to navigate at all? Either macOS or Ubuntu/pop_os. I know most OSes have built in keyboard shortcuts, but Linux distros are often inconsistent from app to app, and besides I’m looking for something that will let me “click” anywhere in an OS without a mouse
“Keep your hands on the keyboard and boost your productivity! Shortcat is a keyboard tool for Mac OS X that lets you "click" buttons and control your apps with a few keystrokes. Think of it as Spotlight for the user interface.”
If you mean specifically a utility to have the window manager or desktop environment send mouse events to applications based on keyboard input, then no I've never heard of such a thing. It certainly might exist, but I suspect that such an approach would be full of incompatibilities. Consider that Vimium works by (among other things) parsing the DOM and making changes to it in real time. What would that look like for a desktop application with a GUI backend that's effectively a black box?
For Linux, the obvious pragmatic answer is to use a tiling window manager (i3, awm, etc) combined with terminal based programs (since they are keyboard driven by default).
Alternatively, you might have some amount of luck configuring lots of keyboard shortcuts in your window manager. You'd have to pick your programs very carefully though since most GUIs just aren't that compatible with being driven by a keyboard.
I've tried Tridactyl, Vimium, Saka Keys, Vimium C, and Vim Vixen. Of these, I found Vimium C to work the best and have the least overhead. Tridactyl added a consistent overhead of around 100 milliseconds when loading page, while Vimium and Vimum C added only about 20 ms of overhead.
In terms of features, I think Tridactyl is the most feature complete, but I found Vimium C to be more enjoyable to use. For example, Vimium C seems to produce better hints (e.g. fewer cases of hints for something you can't click on), when compared to Tridactyl. I also prefer Vimium C's "Vomnibar" over the Tridactyl interface, especially with a bit of tweaking to the theme.
If it is anything like Pentadactyl was, the difference is mainly that Vimium changes very little in Firefox. You, your spouse or your co-worker can still open Firefox and use it, as used to. Yet with pentadactyl, everything is gone: the addressbar, back-button, menu's etc. This might be what you are looking for, though.
That was one reason for me to ditch Pentadactyl (and also vimperator), and use vimium instead. It allows you to keep using Firefox as normal, gradually sliding into the habit of using the keys.
[+] [-] preommr|5 years ago|reply
[Vimium + i3 + vim + vscode/vmplugin] Means that I rarely have to reach for the mouse, have a tonne of desktop real estate that's easy to navigate and is way more comfortable.
Just having search, simple navigation and the 'f-feature' in vimium is enough for like 99% of my use cases.
It's such a pleasant and seamless experience to code in the editor, hop on over to the terminal to do w/e, skip on over to the browser to look something up, and go back to code. The muscle memory just takes over. Not to mention all the other benefits like having to track down small icons, sometimes changing window state (e.g. unmaximize, moving things around), and how much more effort using a mouse is over 2-3 keystrokes.
[+] [-] germ|5 years ago|reply
https://github.com/Zren/plasma-hud
[+] [-] wyclif|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aszen|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hestefisk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unicornporn|5 years ago|reply
I was a religious VimFX user and I can tell you that i mourn having lost that. It's like an era of powerful browsing ended. I use the mentioned Vimium addon, but it's not even close to what we had with VimFX.
Does the keyboard shortcuts in Vimium work when the page is loading? No. How nice is it to have keyboard shortcuts that work sometimes? Extremely frustrating.
How about using "o" to get to the address bar (CMD/CTRL+L)? It opens some overlay on the page where I can't access my bookmarks.
I could go on. VimFX is still somewhat maintained, but you have to run an unsecure browser to use it (like WaterFox).
[+] [-] lillesvin|5 years ago|reply
For those looking for that more complete Vim experience, qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) is a good option, IMO.
[+] [-] szszrk|5 years ago|reply
A lot of actions like tab switching can be done in vimium but sometimes it's a chore.
Bookmarks CAN be accessed via "o" in Vimium :)You can also use "b" to browse just the bookmarks.
[+] [-] desmap|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] midgetjones|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://github.com/ueokande/vim-vixen
[+] [-] jyoshi|5 years ago|reply
Not even talking about interfaces where you'd expect to need to use mouse (javascript components and others), but there is always the page in which the shortcuts will fail, or some input which will be blocked because the plugin is fighting the webpage for focus. Its pretty much what the article says at the conclusion, it helps reducing, but I still view it as a hassle.
Browsers developed with vi-like modes built-in (vimprobable, vimb, qutebrowser) fared better for me, but then there's other issues like incompatibility or lack of plugins which keeps me from fully using them.
[+] [-] vladvasiliu|5 years ago|reply
I've had this issue too with qutebrowser. I'm not very familiar with how these things work, but I wonder why plugins written for a given engine (say webkit) wouldn't work on all browsers using that engine. In the case of qutebrowser it uses chromium under the hood, so I would expect extensions that work on chromium to work on qutebrowser, just as most chromium limitations also apply to qutebrowser.
[+] [-] crossroadsguy|5 years ago|reply
Some nice people have kept one alive for Safari as well https://github.com/televator-apps/vimari but there's only so much they can do. It's almost useless.
I tried Vimium-FF (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/vimium-ff) and many other Vim like add-ons in last 2-3 months (after I decided to give Firefox another try after Pocket; and the possibility of ditching MacOS in my personal usage), but no, these plugins are nearly nowhere as useable as they used to be. Page reloads, redirects, weird behaviours at anything I try to do.
Maybe I can spend hours (over days) and have a perfect config file and maybe, just maybe, it will work as intended but then again it might break with next version or next browser update/upgrade.
My most used features were "/" followed by "n" and "shift+n", "t" -> open and "w" -> close tab, "f", "o" -> getting focus in address bar. I think I will rather give up.
Somehow I don't like to tinker anymore in the personal computer usage scenarios and maybe it's people like me who have caused/convinced companies like Apple to close things down and try to make apps and machines simpler (at which they have failed specularly).
[+] [-] pletnes|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrockway|5 years ago|reply
(I used an XUL-based web browser with Emacs keybindings many years ago and loved it. But I had to switch to Chrome, and XUL went away, so I kind of gave up.)
[+] [-] JoshTriplett|5 years ago|reply
You can get this with standard Firefox, no extension needed. For instance, on the HN main page, hit ' (single-quote) then "vi" then [enter] and you'll follow the link to this article.
[+] [-] krmbzds|5 years ago|reply
Here's my Surfingkeys configuration as an ex-Vimium user:
It makes open in new tab behave like Vimium and f work like a toggle.Hope this helps someone looking for a better option migrating from Vimium.
[0] https://github.com/brookhong/Surfingkeys
[+] [-] chansiky|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] victor106|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gitgud|5 years ago|reply
Side note: going back on the git history of the project is a great way to see the code evolve. [1] Originally it started with 2 files, but now has blossomed into a project with 100's of files
[1] https://github.com/philc/vimium/commit/aff9db2640db9aa02858d...
[+] [-] rideontime|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ractive|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cassepipe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tao_oat|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WorldMaker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pacamara619|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hs86|5 years ago|reply
This non-disruptive introduction into Vimium made me think about my old Firefox setup. Back in the XUL days, I was hoarding dozens of add-ons that altered the Firefox UI to the extent that others could not use my browser anymore. They would click on a link and wonder why it is not working while my browser would amass many new tabs at a customized, designated place. The browser worked as I intended, but the extent of my customizations made it unusable for regular Firefox users.
Therefore I think that these new, more limited extension APIs offer an overall better experience for end-users. Maintaining usability for "regular users" should be the upper bound for the amount of customization an extension API provides. If it goes beyond that, it seems to get out of control.
[+] [-] stevenhuang|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GrantZvolsky|5 years ago|reply
Note that these extensions have access to all your data on the sites you visit, and while you may trust their developers, a dependency might go rogue without anyone noticing.
[+] [-] Sodman|5 years ago|reply
1) Ignore the nice app-native keyboard shortcuts and just use vimium everywhere (Frustrating when single-key shortcuts in the app are multiple drop-down menu clicks with vimium)
2) Disable Vimium on shortcut-rich apps, but deal with the inconsistencies. (Eg clicking on the link in the body of an e-mail in gmail now needs a mouse again)
I really wish vimium had some kind of modifier for "send next key to website", so I could have my cake and eat it too.
[+] [-] solatic|5 years ago|reply
Really makes me wish that it was easier for developers to choose native desktop development instead of webapp development. Web browsers are compromises all the way down.
[+] [-] bewo001|5 years ago|reply
The first time I accessed the web it was with telnet info.cern.ch which was line mode browser that worked like this plugin, a key per link.
[+] [-] zoltar|5 years ago|reply
Ever want to copy all the links in a column of a table to the clipboard? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXCnRBkHDY
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] penguin_booze|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madmax108|5 years ago|reply
Thanks for the tip!
[+] [-] auslegung|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] miles|5 years ago|reply
“Keep your hands on the keyboard and boost your productivity! Shortcat is a keyboard tool for Mac OS X that lets you "click" buttons and control your apps with a few keystrokes. Think of it as Spotlight for the user interface.”
[+] [-] Reelin|5 years ago|reply
For Linux, the obvious pragmatic answer is to use a tiling window manager (i3, awm, etc) combined with terminal based programs (since they are keyboard driven by default).
Alternatively, you might have some amount of luck configuring lots of keyboard shortcuts in your window manager. You'd have to pick your programs very carefully though since most GUIs just aren't that compatible with being driven by a keyboard.
[+] [-] drampelt|5 years ago|reply
https://vimacapp.com/
[+] [-] asselinpaul|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl
[+] [-] YorickPeterse|5 years ago|reply
In terms of features, I think Tridactyl is the most feature complete, but I found Vimium C to be more enjoyable to use. For example, Vimium C seems to produce better hints (e.g. fewer cases of hints for something you can't click on), when compared to Tridactyl. I also prefer Vimium C's "Vomnibar" over the Tridactyl interface, especially with a bit of tweaking to the theme.
[+] [-] berkes|5 years ago|reply
That was one reason for me to ditch Pentadactyl (and also vimperator), and use vimium instead. It allows you to keep using Firefox as normal, gradually sliding into the habit of using the keys.
[+] [-] floitsch|5 years ago|reply
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ctrl-access/glmoeh...
The idea was copied from Konqueror.
[+] [-] rolandog|5 years ago|reply
I loved using Konqueror back when I used Kubuntu. It has a lot of great features that I wish were more commonly available.