Xcode's Vim Mode - further development?

I severely need the ability to move up/down within lines that have been wrapped across multiple lines without jumping to the next line

I'm still constantly tapping gd to try to jump to definition. That one at least seems like it should be trivial to add.

Xcode vim mode got me really excited, but it is just missing a few commands that I depend on:

• . (repeat, this is crucial)
• Ctrl+v (column/vertical select), and Shift+I (insert in all lines of a vertical select)

And to a lesser degree I also use these often:

• Ctrl+a, Ctrl+x (increment, decrement)
• :w (save because it's annoying to mentally switch between to Cmd+s)
• :%s/<find_exp>/<replace_str>/g

It should be possible and relatively straightforward to add true vim support using Neovim, and given that Xcode 14 disabled plugins and made it impossible to use XVim2, this is increasingly critical. I feel seriously handicapped!

Without these, I have a very hard time using it:

• Macros (q to record, @ to replay)
• Visual mode + g to highlight lines
• %s/foo/bar/g
• . to repeat last command
• Support for even a limited version of .vimrc

After mourning the death of AppCode and XVim, and being highly frustrated with Xcode 13's Vim mode, I started working on a very different approach: a macOS app integrating Neovim in Xcode. The first version is promising and I'm already using it for my daily work.

Come check it out: ShadowVim

Highlights

• This is not a Vim emulation, but real Neovim with macros, ., Ex commands, etc.
• Vim plugins (without UI) work out of the box. Hello vim-surround, argtextobj.vim and whatnot.
• Add key mappings to trigger native Xcode features from Neovim (e.g. "Jump to Definition" on gd).

I imagine for many people, like myself, having Vim support in an IDE is essential for an ergonomic development experience. Please let us know if there's anything we can help with to accelerate the development Vim support in Xcode, whether it be contributions or testing. It would mean the world.

Every Xcode release, I look for vim mode improvements, and, since release, I've seen only 1?

It's very frustrating having to develop without proper Vim support.

Please Apple, either implement Neovim under the hood, or add critical features of vim like the dot command, and macros.

with Xcode16 we got the dot command. yeah, a small step…but a step. thank you, apple.

one more...! 😄

registers are available: use "

works quite well with the option of numerical and named registers.

Excellent! I see this in XCode -> Editor -> [Vim Mode] // As of XCode 16.0. Likely it was in earlier.

It seems like ctrl-i and ctrl-o also works in Xcode 16.1 for jumping forward and backwards in the jump list.

Would love to see macro support soon.