My fingers are so happy…
Posted by David Chandler on August 3, 2010
Just when I finished remapping Eclipse editing keys on the Mac to satisfy muscle memory, I discover that I could have been using vi keystrokes all along. There are several vi plugins for Eclipse, but vrapper is nice because it works within existing editors (like the Java editor).
On the subject of keystrokes, if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled in Gmail settings, type “?” to get a superb list of all shortcuts. Now if the Wave guys would just get onboard…
I’m liking the Mac thing more and more all the time, especially Terminal (and all the goodness of Unix that comes with it), and especially since discovering that Command+T pops a new tab (although Command+Shift+{} to switch between tabs is a little whacked). My only outstanding Mac complaint is the lack of Shift+F10 to pop a context menu, which, on Windows, allowed me to avoid the mouse almost completely in Eclipse and Windows Explorer. As near as I can tell and read on the forums, the closest equivalents on the Mac still require you to move the mouse.
As a side note, I noticed that another vi fanatic in the office also has an ergonomic keyboard. Hmmm….
TurboManage 
Jim Smart said
Hi
Perhaps take a look at iTerm as a replacement for Apple’s Terminal? – in iTerm it is Command + left/right cursor keys to switch tabs. (That said, iTerm seems to be lacking scrollback key shortcuts, so your mileage may vary)
Best regards
/Jim
David Chandler said
Thanks, Jim. I did take a look at iTerm in response to your previous comment and am quite happy with both. I was hoping you’d post the key equivalent of a right click, but alas, the forums are not encouraging 🙂 Learning a few Finder shortcuts like Cmd+Shift+G and H has vastly improved my user experience, too.
Sam Edwards said
That was one of the biggest things that sold me on the Mac. Having a real terminal during development is priceless.
Jeff said
I’ve been using viplugin for my internal eclipse vi editor. it has been working pretty well, I bought it years ago, but I’m gonna give the vrapper a try. Every now and again I have to restart eclipse.
I could never follow you into the mac development world though. For whatever reason, OSX makes me so angry after about 5 minutes of troubleshooting that my wife’s macbook narrowly escaped being thrown into the wall on several occasions.