Like Vi(m), there are standard keybindings mapped to common commands, plus the ability to create your own. My fingers never have to leave the keyboard to navigate the Web, unless I have to interact with certain plugins.
Vimperator reads its configuration from a ~/.vimperatorrc file when it launches. I keep this in version control like the rest of my dotfiles, so I can deploy it to any machine for a reproducible environment. It supports setting Firefox preferences (about:config settings), bookmarks, search engines, etc. I have mine set to remove all the browser chrome, so Firefox has looked almost exactly the same to me since 2009.
For example, I have a bookmark defined for Hacker News in ~/.vimperatorrc:
Now I can open Hacker News by typing 'oh' ('th' if I want it to open in a new tab), then 'f<n>' to follow a link where <n> is the number highlighted over the link (which decreases if you start typing some letters found in the link text).
Now I can type 'ogvimperatorrc' to find interesting configurations on GitHub.
The tab completion is great, so don't feel you have to limit keywords to a single letter.
I'll be really sad if/when Vimperator becomes incompatible with Firefox. At least there are other extensions or browsers that provide some of the same functionality.
Another way to perform similar operations: Firefox's bookmarks support very similar keywords (or maybe the same ones). For example, to use a bookmark keyword to HN:
1) Create a bookmark to Hacker News
2) In the bookmark's properties, in the keyword field,
type: h
3) In Firefox's main UI, type ALT+D to move focus to
the URL field, then type: h
To search Github (I'm assuming the URL in the parent is correct):
1) Create a new bookmark
2) In the address field, type:
https://github.com/search?q=%s
(in case it's not obvious, you can use the
%s variable in any URL)
3) In the keyword field, type: g
Then you want to search Github:
4) In Firefox's main UI, type ALT+D to move focus to
the URL field
5) In the URL field, type: g foobar
You'll soon see a Github search for foobar
Vimperator reads its configuration from a ~/.vimperatorrc file when it launches. I keep this in version control like the rest of my dotfiles, so I can deploy it to any machine for a reproducible environment. It supports setting Firefox preferences (about:config settings), bookmarks, search engines, etc. I have mine set to remove all the browser chrome, so Firefox has looked almost exactly the same to me since 2009.
For example, I have a bookmark defined for Hacker News in ~/.vimperatorrc:
Now I can open Hacker News by typing 'oh' ('th' if I want it to open in a new tab), then 'f<n>' to follow a link where <n> is the number highlighted over the link (which decreases if you start typing some letters found in the link text).I can create searches, as well:
Now I can type 'ogvimperatorrc' to find interesting configurations on GitHub.The tab completion is great, so don't feel you have to limit keywords to a single letter.
I'll be really sad if/when Vimperator becomes incompatible with Firefox. At least there are other extensions or browsers that provide some of the same functionality.