What happens if you don't set keymap "gg", "G", etc? Would they not work, or...? (Currently not on a *nix machine to be able to test it out, or else I wouldn't ask such a simple question :P)
"G" works with a number for recalling shell history. For example, "4G" recalls the fourth command in the shell history. However, "G" alone without a number does not work as it does in vi (jump to last line). I suppose that was the desired functionality.
It makes sense for "gg" to be absent, as it is not a vi command. It is a "vimism". The typical vi command for moving to the first line is "1G".
My guess is, that you redefine them to mean the semantically same in a new domain. What I mean is that gg and G lets you go to the top of the file and to the bottom of the file, right? But on the command-line, what is the top of your file? And what is the bottom?
I can only speak for the Emacs capabilities of readline: all commands which would usually change the line (previous/next-line, beginning/end-of-buffer) will use the history as the buffer. All of them preserve the line you are currently typing, which will be the end of the buffer.
As well as ~/.inputrc (which I have "set editing-mode vi" within), there is also ~/.editrc which has support for the editline library (which some repls use). I have my ~/.editrc set to the following to give me a vim-like editing environment
As a vim user for everything, I once tried to use the vi mode in bash and zsh, but quickly got back to emacs style cause I couldn't do what I was used to (mostly Ctrl+P/N,A/E,R,W/U).
Is there someone here who would tell me how he uses the vi mode in a shell/readline program so I could try again?
Hit "<esc> k", then it's like vi, k/j to go up down the history buffer, l/h to move right and left (and of course, w, b, fx etc...), cx/dx/ etc... to change/delete (x if a movement command) etc...
"<esc> /pattern" to search back in the history buffer
The only tricky one for bash is "<esc> =" for file completion.
"Pentadactyl was once called Vimperator, initially written by Martin Stubenschrott, then developed and maintained by Doug Kearns, Kris Maglione, and several other invaluable contributors. Doug and Kris, the primary Vimperator developers for several years, have left the Vimperator project and now develop and maintain Pentadactyl in its stead."
Unfortunately, Pentadactyl is not very active at this point. There haven't been new nightly builds in months, and there hasn't been a proper release in nearly a year.
set editing-mode vi
$if mode=vi
set keymap vi-command
"gg": beginning-of-history
"G": end-of-history
set keymap vi-insert
"jj": vi-movement-mode
"\C-p": history-search-backward C-L: clear-screen