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Vimb – Vim-Like Web Browser (fanglingsu.github.io)
80 points by provaz on March 7, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 44 comments




VimFx too - It's basically a clone of Vimium for Firefox, meaning it alters Firefox far less than Vimperator/Pentadactyl. There was previously a Firefox add-on that shared the name Vimium, but it doesn't seem to be maintained anymore.


Also KeySnail for Firefox: https://github.com/mooz/keysnail/wiki

It calls itself Emacs-like, but true to Emacs form, one of the default configurations gives Vim-like bindings instead of Emacs ones.


IMHO pentadactyl is the most usable of the lot. Webkit has some awful quirks with certain websites. Duolingo doesn't play audio at all.



pentadactyl seems to be dead these days(hasn't worked in the last several Firefox releases), so for Firefox i moved back to vimperator.

http://www.vimperator.org/vimperator


It's just their build system and S3 setup that's broken. I make Pentadactyl builds nightly for anyone who wants to use them, located here[0].

[0]: https://www.rylee.me/~rylee/dactyl-builds/


Last update was yesterday. http://5digits.org/nightlies

And I am using it with latest firefox with no problem. :)


And vimprobable.


If you're looking for just some great keybindings, and the ability to choose links on a page with your keyboard, I suggest checking out Vimium for Chrome. It changed my life.


Thanks! I have a friend that raves about Vimperator for FireFox. But I use Chrome and hadn't got to looking for an analog yet.

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/vimperator


Please note that gp is correct in that "if you're only looking for..." -- in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to vimperator. Partly because of extension interaction differs between firefox and chrome, and partly... well the "flavour" just feels different.

Vimperator's hinting-mode (press 'f' and start typing text in link to follow a link, and/or type the number -- and while initially all links are enumerated, when you type a few letters, only matching links remain highlighted) -- feels really odd at first, but then just feels great.


Vimperator's one of those extensions I tried out on a lark ... and after a couple of hours of awkwardness, discovered was absolutely fantastic.


My buddy has used both and he said the same thing. But I'm not ready to switch back to FF :/


Any particular reason/extensions that makes you prefer Chrome/chromium?

I generally use FF for most everything, and reserve chromium for those few poorly designed sites that fights hard against noscript/adblock - like facebook after their move away from input-fields and to js/ajax input (They use it for stuff like changing (part of) a friends name into a mention, etc). And for youtube (mostly because the horrible ui is useless without a mouse anyway, and lets me keep youtube in a window while I browse in FF).

[ed: and occasionally for web dev/debug -- not so much because ff web dev tools aren't good -- mostly because they interact somewhat poorly with vimperator]


> Any particular reason/extensions that makes you prefer Chrome/chromium?

For me the reason is the omnibar (short prefixes for search engines, eg. w for wikipedia, ddg for duckduckgo), the developer tools and vimium (ok, I just learned there are similar plungins for firefox), why I use chrome/chromium.


Firefox has let you assign keywords to search engines for a long time, I think possibly before Chrome even existed.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address...


Fwiw vimperator works with search shortcuts on firefox, so you can:

  :o g google search term
  :o w wikipedia search term
Etc. 'o' is 'open' and you get the typical url bar search.


As someone else has said, the ombibar is one of the main things. But what originally attracted me to it is the slim profile. (As an example of how much I care about this, I run windows in 'classic' theme mode, because it's the slimmest.) Firefox has a bigger header and has two search bars and I have to disable the menus to slim it down but then if I want access to them I have to re-enable them which is a pain.


Funny with vimperator and either :set gui=none or none,tabs the opposite is true. I run xmonad, so hardly any frames/decorations etc.


Pentadactyl is just disabled on the web tools, for what it's worth.


I've been using vimperator for wow a while now.it's a real shame it can't hide the address bar any more. It just sits there stealing real estate.


:set gui=none,tabs

[ed: that works for me, anyway]

[ed2: Just realized that I'm running Debian Jessie (testing) on this box, and was running "stock" iceweasel. But upgrading to Aurora (38) the address bar stays hidden (but there appear to be some other glitches -- that might be because of a mish-mash of libraries between mostly stock Jessie and just pulling in Aurora from mozilla.debian.net]

[ed3: definitely some gui glitches, so I don't recommend trying Aurora with vimperator right now - but looks like the address bar shouldn't be a problem either way.]

[ed4: with vimperator nightlies, things seem to work as they should with iceweasel/firefox aurora]



I'm working on a new JS framework that using a heavily modified Vim to allow you to write programs using only punch cards. But for it to work you have to be wearing a t-shirt that's one size too small and a scarf. It's not even done yet I'm already working a re-write in GO and Rust.


I just installed it. This might become my replacement for dwb, which sadly seems to no longer be developed.

I also use Firefox with Vimperator and I've tried Vimium on Chrome, but both are obviously tacked on.


Tacked on, yes, but I'm not clear on what vimb does that Vimperator doesn't do, or couldn't do, in Firefox. The integration of Vimperator is pretty damn good.


Will vimperator currently accept commands over a socket?


Just wanted to thank provaz for this. I was hoping my recent emacs-based browser submission might turn up other similar projects.


I see a lot of talk about Vimperator here.

Vimperator's pretty good, but you people really need to check out Pentadactyl.


I was using Pentadactyl about a year ago but I don't remember why it was better than Vimperator.

A few days ago I switched back to Firefox and Pentadactyl wasn't available for FF36. So I'm back to Vimperator + Tree Style Tab + Toolbar Autohide. Its a terrific setup, can't recommend it enough.


Pentadactyl's ("5digits"?) build system is broken, and they haven't released a stable version recently. I publish my own personal builds from the unmodified source at this location[0], if you're interested.

[0] https://www.rylee.me/~rylee/dactyl-builds/


Any highlights on how the two differ today? I seem to recall briefly using pentadactyl as vimperator broke something, perhaps "it's all text!". I don't understand how people can stand vimium - but that's probably because I've grown used to vimperator more than anything else.


I've never used Vimperator. I do know that Pentadactyl is far, far better than any solution I've ever used on Chrome because of how well integrated Firefox extensions can be and how limited Chrome extensions are (can't run on Chrome Store pages, can't run on builtin pages, can't run on file URLs, can't launch external programs, etc).


Their own nightlies started working again recently: http://5digits.org/nightlies


I gave another try to pentadactyl the other day, and, to be honest, I expected way more from it. I prefer vimperator by far.


Pentadactyl is dead with the last several versions of firefox.


It's just their build system that's broken -- the code itself is fine; and works with the latest Fx. I'm using Firefox 36.0.1 right now with the builds I publish. The source is pulled and the extensions built every single night at midnight CST. Builds are located here[0].

[0]: https://www.rylee.me/~rylee/dactyl-builds/


Anything similar for OS X?


Have you tried this? It runs on some BSDs, so I expect there's a chance it'll run on OS X too.


GTK is the issue here. It's Mac OS X support is not stellar.


I use the Vimperator add-on for Firefox.


qutebrowser is my favourite now since it uses qtwebkit. https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser


Reading from a socket is exciting!




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