[HN Gopher] Look ma, no mouse: Vimium
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Look ma, no mouse: Vimium
Author : code-faster
Score : 97 points
Date : 2020-10-06 18:18 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (codefaster.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (codefaster.substack.com)
| tao_oat wrote:
| 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.
| pacamara619 wrote:
| Which is one of the many reasons why people should seriously
| consider using only free software.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| 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.
| rickyc091 wrote:
| I'm in love. I was able to navigate to hacker news, use F to
| click into the comments. Use J to read a bit, then jumped back to
| the top of the page and used F to highlight the text box to start
| typing this comment. Pair Programming is about to get a whole lot
| more interesting.
| krmbzds wrote:
| I settled with Surfingkeys after I tried Vimium, Vimium C,
| Pentadactyl and Vimperator.
|
| Here's my Surfingkeys configuration as an ex-Vimium user:
| map('F', 'gf'); Hints.characters = "asdgqwertzxcvb";
|
| 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
| Sodman wrote:
| 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.
| bovine3dom wrote:
| > 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.
|
| Tridactyl has this, bound to ctrl-v by default. Implementation
| is here [1] if anyone wants to try to add it to Vimium.
|
| [1]:
| https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl/blob/5e8f94ff06bd5f14...
| wcoenen wrote:
| > 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 thought that was what "insert mode" was used for. Hit i to go
| into insert mode, ESC to get out.
| Sodman wrote:
| As a daily vim (editor) user, I had no idea that's what
| insert mode did in this context! I had never used it in
| vimium before. Thank you!!!
| _ikke_ wrote:
| Yes, exactly. It also allows you to specify keys that it
| should ignore per site (so that the webapp always receive
| them), or even completely disable vimium for a site (or just
| specific pages on a site). By default, it's not active on
| gmail for example.
| jrockway wrote:
| 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.)
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| > 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.
| code-faster wrote:
| Oh that's cool, thanks for the tip
| jyoshi wrote:
| 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.
| zoltar wrote:
| For the second time this week on here, I feel compelled to
| recommend https://krabby.netlify.app/
|
| Ever want to copy all the links in a column of a table to the
| clipboard? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXCnRBkHDY
| rideontime wrote:
| 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).
| [deleted]
| djklanac wrote:
| It's the best extension I've installed. I only wish it would
| permit single hand navigation as a setting (e.g. left hand only
| with right on mouse all the time)
| stevebmark wrote:
| This is a good reminder that even engineers who think they are
| analytical and evidence based are subject to dogma. There has
| never been any study showing that not using your mouse improves
| coding speed. Use Vim if you want, I do, but don't state it's
| more efficient at writing code.
| barbs wrote:
| The article is about a browser plugin, it doesn't state
| anywhere that Vim is more efficient at writing code.
| gitgud wrote:
| 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
|
| [1]
| https://github.com/philc/vimium/commit/aff9db2640db9aa02858d...
| preommr wrote:
| I absolutely love vimium. Such a great tool.
|
| [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.
| paulintrognon wrote:
| What do you mean by "vmplugin" ?
| RMPR wrote:
| Not OP but they are probably talking about the vscode
| extension that provides Vim keybindings
| https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim
| aszen wrote:
| 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.
| SuperPaintMan wrote:
| My setup is pretty close to yours, I've found this tool to be
| absolutely invaluable as an alternative to digging through
| menus :)
|
| https://github.com/Zren/plasma-hud
| as_keyof_typeof wrote:
| Hm, I like this a lot. However in regard to RSI, is it more
| intensive to stay on the keyboard or to frequently use the mouse?
| Or is it the act of switch from keyboard to mouse that causes
| injury, and that maybe if you could do everything with the mouse,
| that could work to?
| floitsch wrote:
| I wrote a Chrome extension with a similar purpose.
|
| https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ctrl-access/glmoeh...
|
| The idea was copied from Konqueror.
| hs86 wrote:
| 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.
| stevenhuang wrote:
| 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.
| diehunde wrote:
| I use a lot of shortcuts when browsing and when I have to switch
| from MacOS to Linux is always a pain in the ass because they
| change and is not easy to remap all of them.
|
| Maybe trying something like this would alleviate this issue for
| me.
| tjchear wrote:
| Along the same vein, I made a vi-like editor for editing webpages
| - not to minimize mouse usage, but to increase productivity with
| tons of shortcut keys and commands. https://vivpage.com/
| GrantZvolsky wrote:
| 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.
| asselinpaul wrote:
| anyone know how vimium compares to tridactyl on firefox?
|
| [0] https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl
| YorickPeterse wrote:
| 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.
| bovine3dom wrote:
| FWIW - mostly for other interested readers - in Tridactyl we
| made hints which might be useless grey recently. They
| correspond to JavaScript events and are sometimes the only
| way to click a button.
|
| If you want Vimium-style behaviour where these elements are
| not hinted you can just do `:bind f hint -J`.
|
| We also have a Vimium-style theme which you can access with
| `:colours shydactyl`. The theme could do with some polishing
| if anyone's interested.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| I'm curious about your first paragraph but I don't
| understand it, can you rephrase?
|
| DOM elements which trigger JS event on click which are not
| identified by shortcut tools has always annoyed me, us much
| that I even tried to fix it myself so I'm very interested
| if tridactyl has
| bovine3dom wrote:
| Disclaimer: I didn't write this code.
|
| This runs at page load - https://github.com/tridactyl/tri
| dactyl/blob/5e8f94ff06bd5f14.... If you keep pulling that
| thread you'll find we use it to populate an array of
| elements with interesting event listeners on them. We can
| then put hints on those elements. We simply fire fake
| mouse events on those elements if they are chosen.
|
| The code could definitely be improved - a major annoyance
| to me is that the JavaScript hints ignore CSS selectors.
| berkes wrote:
| 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.
| bovine3dom wrote:
| Tridactyl is much less extreme than Pentadactyl, at least out
| of the box. Probably the "worst" thing we do is override
| Ctrl-A and Ctrl-F.
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(page generated 2020-10-06 23:00 UTC)