Navigate the World Wide Web using keyboard-driven web browsers or add-ons with Vim key bindings.
Overview
As developers using Vim/Neovim, you definitely get used to a mouseless development workflow. In my previous article, I talked about some niche Neovim plugins, including Firenvim which allows you to embed Neovim in a browser. In this article, let’s explore keyboard-driven web browsing using the familiar Vim key bindings.
Web Browsers
Let’s started by going through browsers that support keyboard-driven web browsing natively.
qutebrowser
Perhaps this is one of the most popular options for developers. qutebrowser is a keyboard-focused browser with a minimal GUI. It’s based on Python and PyQt5. It is free software, licensed under the GPL.
The key bindings should look familiar to Vim users.
And if you type “:” you can go into the Command mode.
As it supports keyboard-driven web browsing natively, the experience is very smooth.
qutebrowser is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Vimb
Vimb is a WebKit-based web browser that behaves like the Vimperator plugin for Firefox and has usage paradigms from the great editor, Vim. The goal is to build a completely keyboard-driven, efficient, and pleasurable browsing experience.
