Other Software Requirements

In Modern Vim, many of the lessons are illustrated with practical examples. You’ll learn best if you actually follow the examples, and in some cases that means you’re going to need to run other programs besides Vim.

JavaScript, Node.js, and npm

Many examples in this book are illustrated using JavaScript, which has become something of a universal language in recent years. Even if JavaScript is not your first choice for a programming language, you probably know enough “pidgin JavaScript” to be able to follow the examples in this book. All of the Vim features that are demonstrated for JavaScript can be adapted for other languages.

If you want to execute the JavaScript examples in this book, you’ll need to install the Node.js^[2] runtime, as well as the package manager npm.^[3] Check out their websites for installation instructions.

Bash Shell (Or Any Shell)

Some of the tips in this book involve running commands in a shell. The examples are written assuming that you use the bash shell, because this is the default shell on many systems.

I don’t mean to suggest that you should be using bash. If you prefer to use zsh, fish, or another shell, that’s cool. You’ve invested time customizing your shell, so you should be prepared to spend a little bit more time adapting my instructions to make them work for your setup. You shouldn’t have any trouble with this, since we only use basic features of the shell.

Git

Throughout this book you’ll find instructions for running git commands, such as clone, init, and commit. You’ll need an up-to-date installation of Git. You can find instructions for installing Git online.^[4]

Ripgrep

The Ripgrep tool by Andrew Gallant^[5] makes a couple of appearances. Much like grep, the primary purpose of Ripgrep is to search files for a pattern, and you’ll see it used this way in Tip 13, ​Searching Files with Grep-Alikes​. Ripgrep also has a neat bonus feature: running ripgrep --files lists all the files beneath the current working directory, minus those that are ignored by your version control system. You’ll see this feature put to use in Tip 7, ​Finding Files Using Fuzzy Path Matching​.

Depending on which platform you’re using, you may be able to install Ripgrep using your package manager. If that doesn’t work, take a look at the release page on GitHub.^[6] There, you’ll find pre-built binaries for Linux and Mac.

Don’t worry if you can’t get Ripgrep to work on your machine. It’s nice to have, but you can get by fine without it.