![vim-galore](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhinz/vim-galore/master/pics/vim-galore.png)

---

#### [Basics](#basics-1)
- [Buffers, windows, tabs?](#buffers-windows-tabs)
- [Active, loaded, listed, named buffers?](#active-loaded-listed-named-buffers)
- [Colorschemes?](#colorschemes)

#### [Usage](#usage-1)
- [Managing plugins](#managing-plugins)

#### [List of colorschemes](#list-of-colorschemes-1)

#### [List of plugins](#list-of-plugins-1)
- [Fuzzy finders](#fuzzy-finders)
- [Version control](#version-control)

---

## Basics

#### Buffers, windows, tabs?

Vim is a text editor. Everytime text is shown, the text is part of a **buffer**.
Each file will be opened in its own buffer. Plugins show stuff in their own
buffers etc.

Buffers have many attributes, e.g. whether the text it contains is modifiable,
or whether it is associated with a file and thus needs to be synchronized to
disk on saving.

**Windows** are viewports _onto_ buffers. If you want to view several files at
the same time or even different locations of the same file, you use windows.

And please, please don't call them _splits_. You can split a window in two, but
that doesn't make them _splits_.

Windows can be split vertically or horizontally and the heights and widths of
existing windows can be altered, too. Therefore you can use whatever window
layout you prefer.

A **tab page** (or just tab) is a collection of windows. Thus, if you want to
use multiple window layouts, use tabs.

Putting it in a nutshell, if you start Vim without arguments, you'll have one
tab page that holds one window that shows one buffer.

By the way, the buffer list is global and you can access any buffer from any
tab.

#### Active, loaded, listed, named buffers?

Run Vim like this `vim file1`. The file's content will be loaded into a buffer.
You have a **loaded buffer** now. The content of the buffer is only synchronized
to disk (written back to the file) if you save it within Vim.

Since the buffer is also shown in a window, it's also an **active buffer**. Now
if you load another file via `:e file2`, `file1` will become a **hidden buffer**
and `file2` the active one.

Both buffers are also **listed**, thus they will get listed in the output of
`:ls`. Plugin buffers or help buffers are often marked as unlisted, since
they're not regular files you usually edit with a text editor. Listed and
unlisted buffers can be shown via `:ls!`.

**Unnamed buffers**, also often used by plugins, are buffers that don't have an
associated filename. E.g. `:enew` will create an unnamed scratch buffer. Add
some text and write it to disk via `:w /tmp/foo`, and it will become a named
buffer.

#### Colorschemes?

Colorschemes are the way to style your Vim. Vim consists of many components and
each of those can be customized with different colors for the foreground,
background and a few other attributes like bold text etc. They can be set like
this:
```viml
:highlight Normal ctermbg=1 guibg=red
```
This would paint the background of the editor red. See `:h :highlight` for more
information.

So, colorschemes are mostly a collection of `:highlight` commands.

Actually, most colorschemes are really 2 colorschemes! The example above sets
colors via `ctermbg` and `guibg`. The former definition will only be used if Vim
was started in a terminal emulator, e.g. xterm. The latter will be used in
graphical environements like gVim.

If you ever happen to use a certain colorscheme in Vim running in a terminal
emulator and the colors don't look like the colors in the screenshot at all,
chances are that the colorscheme only defined colors for the GUI.

I use [gruvbox](https://github.com/morhetz/gruvbox) for the GUI and
[janah](https://github.com/mhinz/vim-janah) for the terminal.

More colorschemes: [here](#list-of-colorschemes-1)

## Usage

#### Managing plugins

[Pathogen](https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen) was the first popular tool for
managing plugins. Actually it just adjusts the _runtimepath_ (`:h 'rtp'`) to
include all the things put under a certain directory. You have have to clone the
repositories of the plugins there yourself.

Real plugin managers expose commands that help you installing and updating
plugins from within Vim. Hereinafter is a list of commonly used plugin managers
in alphabetic sequence:

- [neobundle](https://github.com/Shougo/neobundle.vim)
- [plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug)
- [vim-addon-manager](https://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager)
- [vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim)

Plug is my favorite, but your mileage may vary.

## List of colorschemes

Here's a list of commonly used colorschemes:

- [base16](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-vim)
- [gotham](https://github.com/whatyouhide/vim-gotham)
- [gruvbox](https://github.com/morhetz/gruvbox)
- [janah](https://github.com/mhinz/vim-janah)
- [jellybeans](https://github.com/nanotech/jellybeans.vim)
- [molokai](https://github.com/tomasr/molokai)
- [railscasts](https://github.com/jpo/vim-railscasts-theme)
- [solarized](https://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized) (or a lighter variant: [flattened](https://github.com/romainl/flattened))
- [tomorrow](https://github.com/chriskempson/vim-tomorrow-theme)
- [vividchalk](https://github.com/tpope/vim-vividchalk)

## List of plugins

#### Fuzzy finders

- [command-t](https://github.com/wincent/Command-T)
- [ctrlp](https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim.git)
- [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)
- [unite](https://github.com/Shougo/unite.vim)

#### Version control

- [fugitive](https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive)
- [gitgutter](https://github.com/airblade/vim-gitgutter)
- [lawrencium](https://bitbucket.org/ludovicchabant/vim-lawrencium)
- [signify](https://github.com/mhinz/vim-signify)
- [vcscommand](https://github.com/vim-scripts/vcscommand.vim)