Wednesday 5/29 - Let's Be :normal Together

WHAT:  St. Louis Vim Geeks
       - Unusually :normal
       - CoVim - Alone Together, Naturally

WHERE: CAIT - The Center for the Application of Information Technology
       Classroom 24
       5 N. Jackson Ave, St. Louis, Missouri 63105

WHEN:  Wednesday, May 29th, at 6:30pm (that's tonight!)

RSVP:  http://www.meetup.com/vimgeeks/

---

Unusually :normal

The :normal command just doesn't get enough love. It's very useful—okay, practically mandatory—in Vim scripts, but that's not anywhere near the whole story. Steven Pritchard has been busily (re) discovering all sorts of uses for it lately, and will show us several examples (that he promises are "only slightly contrived") of its power. You might be surprised at how flexible this supposedly-simple command can be when combined with commands you already know.

CoVim - Alone Together, Naturally

Vim is eminently lovable, but one downside of loving it so much is that you become painfully aware of its (dare I say it) limitations. A pet limitation of mine: the lack of collaborative editing. Yes, yes, I know you can use screen or tmux to share a terminal session, but I want my keymaps, and my colorscheme, and my window layout, not whatever lowest-common-denominator subset my collaborator and I have barely agreed upon.

CoVim claims to solve this problem. Here's the description from one of its creators:

CoVim is a Vim Plugin that adds real-time collaboration to your favorite text editor. Think Google Docs for Vim.

Features:

• Allows multiple users to connect to the same document online
• Displays collaborators with uniquely colored cursors
• Works with your existing configuration
• Easy to set up & use
• And More!

It is difficult to express how much I want all those claims to be true, so we're going to put them to the test, starting with "Easy to set up & use."

Drinks and Food and Stuff

If you RSVP, then we'll have enough food to eat and drinks to drink, so don't forget to let us know you're coming. We'll also have a freebie or two from the nice folks at O'Reilly.

When and Where

We'll be meeting at 6:30pm on Wednesday, May 29th (a.k.a, tonight), in the usual place:

CAIT (The Center for the Application of Information Technology)
Classroom 24
5 N. Jackson Ave
St. Louis, Missouri 63105

CAIT on Google Maps

Forsyth MetroLink Station

CAIT also provides detailed driving directions and parking information . (Don't worry about the parking permit stuff. It doesn't apply to us.)

Make sure you RSVP!

See you tonight!
Bill

No meeting this evening (April 24th)

Just wanted to let everyone know that we won't be having a meeting tonight. We'll be back on the regular schedule next month. Thanks, Bill

Wednesday 3/27 - Stealing^WLearning from Sublime Text

WHAT:  St. Louis Vim Geeks
       - A Whirlwind Tour of Sublime Text from Josh Weaver
       - Grab Bag & General Tomfoolery

WHERE: CAIT - The Center for the Application of Information Technology
       Classroom 24
       5 N. Jackson Ave, St. Louis, Missouri 63105

WHEN:  Wednesday, March 27th, at 6:30pm

RSVP:  http://www.meetup.com/vimgeeks/

---

A Whirlwind Tour of Sublime Text from Josh Weaver

Vim users know a good idea when they see one -- that's how most of us ended up on Vim in the first place, after all -- and sometimes those ideas come from other text editors. In our ongoing quest to keep people asking "Why are you talking about <some editor that isn't Vim> at a Vim Geeks meeting?" we've got Josh Weaver to introduce us to Sublime Text. Sublime is a relative upstart in the world of programmers' text editors, and it's attracted a lot of positive attention of late.

Josh recently moved from using mostly-Vim to mostly-Sublime, and is going to give us a tour of Sublime, as well as his rationale for making it his editor of choice. He said to be sure to mention that he "welcomes questions," and I have no doubt we'll oblige, perhaps more than he anticipates. :-)

Grab Bag & General Tomfoolery

You know that part of the meeting where people ask questions, share tips and tricks, talk about new plugins they've discovered, and talk about what they'd like to see or do at upcoming meetings? That's the part we'll do after we're done pumping Josh for things we can steal from Sublime Text.

Free Food, Drink, and Swag

We'll have good stuff to eat and good stuff to give away, as long as you promise to RSVP so we know how much we'll need.

When and Where

We'll be meeting at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 27th. Here's the address:

CAIT (The Center for the Application of Information Technology)
Classroom 24
5 N. Jackson Ave
St. Louis, Missouri 63105

CAIT on Google Maps

Forsyth MetroLink Station

CAIT also provides detailed driving directions and parking information . (Don't worry about the parking permit stuff. It doesn't apply to us.)

Make sure you RSVP!

See you Wednesday,
Bill