VI + Firefox = Vimperator

I accidentally stumbled onto this addon while cruising the web last Friday, and i decided to give it a try.

Vimperator

Vimperator is a free browser add-on for Firefox, which makes it look and behave like the Vim text editor. It has similar key bindings and you could call it a modal web browser, as key bindings differ according to which mode you are in.

The addon tries to remove the need to use the mouse while your surfing the web and it succeeds at that with the occasional exception (on Firefox 2.0.x i have trouble with Gmail).
Unfortunately the help system is not that great and it fails to tell you from start how to select and open links, while it expects you to do so. So here are some quick notes:

• f – hints mode for links, press f then enter the number (i get letters instead of numbers in my netbook) of the link you wish to open
• F – hints mode for Links, opens in new tab
• o – press o and enter url to open, enter disconnected words to search google, enter yahoo word to search word in yahoo or use tab to autocomplete and see history
• t – the sames as o but opens in new window
• :hist filter – allows you to search the history
• y – copy the current tab url
• Y – copy selected text
• Ctrl-V – one command passthrough, bypasses vimperator to make sure your keys go directly to the browser. to past just Ctrl-V twice

I also found the mandatory cheat-sheet on a forum on the web. Check the reference links for more info.

• Vimperator HomePage
• Cheat Sheet Post (scroll down since the first links seem to have died or click here)