Now that I have been using Vim for a couple of months I feel very comfortable with it. Thanks to someone in my last class who has been a Vim user for years, I have started to use Vim for more than just editing (more on that in a later post). Vim has permeated a lot of the applications that I use:

• Firefox
• Visual Studio
• Word
• SQL Server Management Studio

Anyone who knows me well is aware of the fact that I am a keyboard junkie who is obsessed with keeping my hands as close to home row as possible! This is why for the longest time I have not used the ALT-Insert Resharper shortcut, but rather ALT-R-C-G-I, which is the traversal path to get to the ReSharper generate dialog.

Some of the features that I love about ReSharper also require the use of arrow keys, features such as:

• Go to next member/tag
• Go to previous member/tag
• Move code up
• Move code down
• Go to next usage
• Go to previous usage

I use ViEmu in studio, but also use ReSharper for the awesome features it provides. As cool as the above ReSharper features are, I have never liked having to reach for the arrow keys (or memorize the menu traversal path) when editing with ReSharper. A couple of days ago I decided to use AutoHotkey to allow me to tweak the keyboard so that I could perform all of the above operations using the exact keystrokes as ReSharper except replacing the use of the arrow keys with the appropriate Vim alternative (H,J,K,L). So now I can do the above as follows:

• Go to next member/tag
• Original - Alt + Down Arrow
• Now - Alt + J
• Go to previous member/tag
• Original - Alt + Up Arrow
• Now - Alt + K
• Move code up
• Original - Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Up Arrow
• Now - Ctrl + Shift + Alt + K
• Move code down
• Original - Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Down Arrow
• Now - Ctrl + Shift + Alt + J
• Go to next usage
• Original - Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow
• Now - Shift + Alt + J
• Go to previous usage
• Original - Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow
• Now - Shift + Alt + J
• Generate Code
• Original - Alt - Insert
• Now - Alt + I

Only the go to next usage functions got a key replacement (Shift instead of Ctrl). Of course, none of the scripts affect the original ReSharper shortcuts, so when I am pairing with someone proficient with ReSharper and not Vim, they do not have an issue as they don't need to use the alternatives (and I can hit the shortcut to temporarily disable ViEmu also). They can carry on using the original ReSharper shortcuts. Notice that I also did the Generate Code so that now I can just hit ALT + I to do the same thing as ALT - Insert (no flight path for the hands at all!!). The nice thing is that now I can pull off all of the above functionality without having to leave home row and I get the benefit of consistent Vim style navigation.

Here are the scripts (simplified for brevity):

;=============================
;Process Go to next member/tag
;=============================
$!J::
    Send, !{Down}
return

;=================================
;Process Go to previous member/tag
;=================================
$!K::
    Send, !{Up}
return

;==========================
;Process Move Code Up
;==========================
$^+!K::
    Send, ^+!{Up}
return

;==========================
;Process Move Code Down
;==========================
$^+!J::
    Send, ^+!{Down}
return

;==========================
;Process Go to next usage
;==========================
$+!J::
    Send, ^!{Down}
return

;==========================
;Process Go to previous usage
;==========================
$+!k::
    Send, ^!{Up}
return

;==========================
;Process Generate Code
;==========================
$!I::
    Send, !{Insert}
return

Develop With Passion!!