Question

I want to learn to use vim. The thing is simple : I don’t know any of its shortcuts. So I don’t want to bother learning them, I want to define my own, for every command !

1. Is there a way to disable all the commands, and only enable those I’ve set ?
2. How to redefine the most basic commands ? like insert, move up, move left, exit insert mode… ? I’ve found a lot of tutorials about specific commands, but none about the most basic ones.

Thanks

Edit : Please… Can I get a real answer, instead of “are you sure ?”

Edit 2 : The main reason for this is that I’m on a dvorak keyboard, so it’s not like the shortkeys are mapped to the letters I see… This makes it difficult :p. And second, I want to be super efficient… Like mapping the up, down, left and right key to “j, k, l, ;”, it will enable me to edit a file without moving my hands around. Finally, I HATE when I type a wrong key, and I don’t know what vim (or any other tool) did because it was a shortcut/command but I don’t know what it did because I don’t know it yet. And why learn shortcuts when you can make your own, that you can remember better… I’m french so some letters are not mapped in my mind like it would be for english speakers.

Answer 1

It is possible to purge only that shortcuts that were defined using *map, built-in commands are overridable, but not purgable. If you need to disable particular command you will have to do noremap <Key> <Nop>, the following code should disable them all (but note that it is overriding, not removing anything):

function s:hsescape(str)
    return substitute(substitute(substitute(substitute(a:str,
                \      ' ', '<Space>',         'g'),
                \      '|', '<Bar>',           'g'),
                \     "\n", '<CR>',            'g'),
                \'\c^<\%(buffer\|silent\|expr\|special\)\@=', '<LT>', '')
endfunction
for s:mode in ['n', 'x', 'o']
    for s:char in map(range(0, 0x7F), 'nr2char(v:val)')
        execute s:mode.'noremap '.s:hsescape(s:char).' <Nop>'
    endfor
endfor
for s:mode in ['s', 'i', 'c']
    for s:char in map(range(0, 0x3F), 'nr2char(v:val)')
        execute s:mode.'noremap '.s:hsescape(s:char).' <Nop>'
    endfor
endfor

Note that this should be immediately followed by code that defines some mappings (or removes some of <Nop> ones) or you will render your vim useless.