Did you know VIM could do THIS?!

This is a summary of both the content of the youtube video by typecraft and also the various tips and examples in the comments below.

From The Video

• rot-13: g? apply rot-13 to alphabetical chars
• random data: :r! head -c 128 /dev/urandom
  • Also :r! head -c 128 /dev/urandom | xxd -p to convert to hex
• web browsing: :e https://pt2.allsup.co/ (uses curl or libcurl or wget)
• convert to html: TOhtml
• hex edit files: not actually vim, but a consequence of being able to pipe through a command and replace with the output
  • :%!xxd to convert to hex, and :%!xxd -r to convert back.
• ex mode: Q though this doesn't work in neovim
• filter through shell commands: select with V, then :!jq for example. vim will pipe the selected lines through the command and replace the selection with the output.
  • v10j:!sort will sort the 11 lines starting from the cursor (start at cursor line and stop ten lines down from cursor line), or v10j:!sort -R to shuffle lines.
  • v...:!bash will treat the selected lines as a bash script, execute it and replace with the result.
• math in insert mode: <C-r>= and type some expression
• use vim as a diary: :r! date
• help 42: :help 42 is an easter egg. Try it.

From The Comments

• bang bang: !! is shorthand for :.!. So e.g. select lines with some JSON and then !!jq will pretty print int.
  • !!bc will treat the line as a math expression and evaluate it.
• visual insert: go into visual mode with v, then :r!ls will insert the output. So essentially v!ls.
• open named file: gf opens in editor, including downloading web links; gx opens using xdg-open.
• C-[: <C-[> is an alternative to escape. possibly easier to type since esc is a longer distance from home position.
• increment/decrement: C-a to increment first number on the line at or after the cursor; C-x to decrement.
• smile: :smile is an easter egg in neovim.