~ / insert / delete-while-typinglesson 2/7

Fix it without leaving: <C-h>, <C-w>, <C-u>

Delete a character, a word or the whole line from inside Insert mode.

?how it works

No need to leave Insert mode to fix what you just typed. Three Ctrl keys delete backwards from the cursor:

<C-h> deletes one character, exactly like <BS>.
<C-w> deletes the word before the cursor. Punctuation counts as its own word, so foo.bar takes three presses.
<C-u> deletes everything before the cursor on the line, but keeps the indent.

They're also the quickest way to redo the end of a line: A<C-w> puts you at the end with the last word already gone.

<C-w> and <C-u> stop once at the spot where you entered Insert mode, so the first press only removes what you just typed. Press again to eat into the older text.

Bonus: <C-w> and <C-u> do the same job in most terminal shells.

⌨keys

`<C-h>`	delete the character before the cursor (like <BS>)
`<C-w>`	delete the word before the cursor
`<C-u>`	delete everything before the cursor on the line (keeps the indent)

Nin neovim

Out of the box Neovim maps <C-w> to <C-g>u<C-w> and <C-u> to <C-g>u<C-u> (see :h default-mappings). The <C-g>u starts a new undo step first, so if one of them deletes too much, u after <Esc> brings the text back while keeping what you typed before it.

3 drills

Swap the last word: The last word is wrong. Jump to the end with A, delete the word with <C-w>, and type the right one.
Words and punctuation: Replace the end of the line, punctuation included. Remember that <C-w> treats a run of punctuation as its own word.
Rewrite the line, keep the indent: Replace the whole statement on the indented line. <C-u> clears it in one press and leaves the indent alone.

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