How do you prefer to switch between buffers in Vim?

I used to use a combination of tabs and multiple gvim instances, keeping groups of related files as tabs in each instance. So long as I didn't end up with too many tabs in one instance, the tab bar shows you the name of each file you're editing at a glance.

Then I read a post by Jamis Buck on how he switched from TextMate back to vim, and learned some great tricks:

• Ctrl+w s and Ctrl+w v to split the current window
• Ctrl+6 to switch back and forth between two buffers in the same window.
• the awesome fuzzyfinder.vim which gives you auto-completing search of files in your current directory or of buffers you currently have open
• Jamis' own fuzzy_file_finder and fuzzyfinder_textmate, which slightly modify how fuzzyfinder works to behave more like a similar feature in TextMate (as far as I can tell, the difference is that it matches anywhere in the filename instead of only from the start). Watch this video to see it in action.

Now I just have one gvim instance, maximised, and split it into multiple windows so I can see several files at once. I bound Ctrl+F to fuzzyfinder\_textmate, so now if I type (say) Ctrl+F mod/usob it opens up app/models/user\_observer.rb. I almost never bother with tabs any more.

Update 2010/08/07

While fuzzyfinder\_textmate remains awesome, as Casey points out in the comments, it's no longer maintained. Also, it (and/or fuzzyfinder.vim) gets a bit slow and unstable when working with large projects (lots of directories or files), so I've been looking for an alternative.

Fortunately, there seems to be a very nice alternative in the form of Wincent Colaiuta's Command-T plugin. This has very similar (if not slightly better) behaviour to fuzzyfinder\_textmate, but is noticeably faster; it also has nice features like being able to open the found file in a split or vertical split. Thanks (and upvotes!) to David Rivers for pointing to it.

I use the basics - ':ls' + ':bn'/':bp' + ':b <part-of-name>'

I like "ctrl-w s" and "ctlr-w v" to split the window. Then I map the movement keys (h, j, k, l) with ctrl held down to move between the split windows:

" Map ctrl-movement keys to window switching
map <C-k> <C-w><Up>
map <C-j> <C-w><Down>
map <C-l> <C-w><Right>
map <C-h> <C-w><Left>

Having to move my hand over to the arrow keys is annoying.

Next, I set up ctlr-tab to switch between buffers in the current window (like a lot of other environments):

" Switch to alternate file
map <C-Tab> :bnext<cr>
map <C-S-Tab> :bprevious<cr>

These have worked pretty well for me over the last several years although vim always has more secrets than you can know.

imap <A-1> <Esc>:tabn 1<CR>i
imap <A-2> <Esc>:tabn 2<CR>i
imap <A-3> <Esc>:tabn 3<CR>i
imap <A-4> <Esc>:tabn 4<CR>i
imap <A-5> <Esc>:tabn 5<CR>i
imap <A-6> <Esc>:tabn 6<CR>i
imap <A-7> <Esc>:tabn 7<CR>i
imap <A-8> <Esc>:tabn 8<CR>i
imap <A-9> <Esc>:tabn 9<CR>i

map <A-1> :tabn 1<CR>
map <A-2> :tabn 2<CR>
map <A-3> :tabn 3<CR>
map <A-4> :tabn 4<CR>
map <A-5> :tabn 5<CR>
map <A-6> :tabn 6<CR>
map <A-7> :tabn 7<CR>
map <A-8> :tabn 8<CR>
map <A-9> :tabn 9<CR>

The excellent Buffer Explorer, the be has gotten to be such strong muscle memory that I find myself wishing I could use it in other applications. I find it to be extremely fast when actively editing more than two files.

I've spent quite a while building my .vimrc to work with this HTML::Mason project I've been on for four years, so I have an odd mix of tabs and split windows. For your viewing enjoyment:

map ;o :Sex <CR>
map <C-J> <C-W>j
map <C-K> <C-W>k
map <C-l> <C-W>l
map <C-h> <C-W>h
map ;] :tabnext<CR>
map ;[ :tabprev<CR>
map <C-t> :tabe +"browse ."<CR>
map <C-O> :NERDTreeToggle ~/curr/trunk/<CR>

I use tselectbuffer. It's really fast and unlike bufexplorer doesn't take space in your window. It also has a incremental search.I tried minibufexplorer and I found the navigation in the buffer a bit difficult.

i use simple :vsplit with ^W+w/^W+r and :tabnew with Ctrl+Alt+PgUp/PgDown key combinations.