Vim file navigation

vim editor navigation
Pete picture Pete · Sep 18, 2009 · Viewed 89k times · Source

I'm trying really hard to learn vim after using TextMate for the last few years.

I've started to commit some of the in-file navigation to memory but I'm struggling with navigating between multiple files.

In my workflow it is pretty common that I'm flipping between a handful of files pretty regularly (enough files such that split-pane windows become too small).

I'm currently using NERDTree but find drilling down into directories cumbersome as well as constantly using CTRL+W h/CTRL+W l to hop back and forth.

I think I would do better with tabs I can easily toggle between but maybe I need to use a different workflow.

I'd also like a "Go to File..." shortcut like CMD+T in TextMate. I've found fuzzy_file_finder but it requires vim to be built with Ruby bindings which isn't the case the native installs I've worked on.

While I could rebuild the main reason I want to switch to vim is so I can have one editor environment that I know will easily work across any platform.

The options out there are overwhelming any ideas are much appreciated!

Answer

user286754 picture user286754 · Mar 5, 2010

An easy way to browse the file system is the command: 

:Sex

I'm not making this up :)

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