kakoune/VIMTOKAK

Vi(m) to Kakoune:
=================

Kakoune is inspired heavily by Vim, it strives to be as efficient as Vim,
more consistent and simpler. A big difference is that a lot of special
features in Vim just become regular interactions of basic features in
Kakoune.

Operations and moves are reversed in Kakoune. First select whatever text
you want to operate on, and then use an modifying operation. That makes
things more consistent (Vim needs a separate x and d operation because
of the operator -> move order, Kakoune only needs the d operation). That
also allows more complex selections.

delete a word:
 * vim: dw
 * kak: wd

delete a character:
 * vim: x
 * kak: d or ;d (; reduces the selection to a single char)

copy a line:
 * vim: yy
 * kak: xy

global replace:
 * vim: :%s/word/replacement<ret>
 * kak: %sword<ret>creplacement<esc>

Explanation: '%' selects the entire buffer, 's' opens a prompt for a
regex, <ret> validates the regex and replace the selection with one
per matches (hence, all occurences of word are selected). 'c' deletes
the selection contents and enter insert mode, replacement is typed
and <esc> goes back to normal mode.

Note that the Kakoune version is one key less, and is not a special
feature per se, but just a nice way Kakoune features work together.

replace in current curly braces block:
 * vim: viB:s/word/replacement<ret>
 * kak: <a-i>Bsword<ret>creplacement<esc>

Here again, we need to rely on another Vim special feature, visual
mode.

join line with next:
 * vim: J
 * kak: alt-J

delete to line end:
 * vim: d$
 * kak: alt-ld or Gld

some classic vim moves are not bound to the same key, this is due to Kakoune
using shifted moves to append to selection, so moves that were bound to non
alphabetic chars had to change.

* % become m (for matching), however m will replace selection with the next
  block, if you want to get a selection from current point to next block end,
  you should use <space>M (<space> clears the selection to one character)

* 0 and $ became alt-h and alt-l. Another binding is gh and gl.

:[gv]/re/cmd
to emulate :g or :v, use % to select the whole buffer, alt-s to get
one selection by line, and then alt-k or alt-K in order to keep only the
selections matching (or not matching) the entered regex.