Changing default key bindings in vim

manpreet Best Answer 3 years ago

After attempting to use vim a number of times, I'm always been put off by its default key bindings. After some research, I decided to remap the default keys to more sane ones (at least for my tastes). I have a few questions about changing bindings that I could not find answers to through Google.

1. Is there a way to map a key to an action rather than another key. For example:
   :noremap a h 
   will bind the a key to move the cursor left. Is there something along the lines of 
   :noremap a move-cursor-left 
   or
   :noremap a :move-cursor-left 
   so I can read my config file afterwards?

2. Is there a way to unbind all of the default key bindings? I've tried :mapclear but it doesn't seem to work, although it might just be clearing non-default bindings. Unmapping every key manually is not an option. If possible, I would like to export the defaults to a file so I can edit them as I need.

3. Is there another language I can use to write my own commands for vim other than vim-script? I haven't actually looked into this one so much though. If I can bind an external executable to a command, that would be good enough.

4. I haven't given up on vim although I would like to ask if there are any vim-like alternatives out there. My Google searches came up with nothing actively developed. If the above cannot be done, or reasonably hacked together, I would like to find a fully configurable, modal, command line text editor that can.