The :! command is a useful way to run external shell commands without leaving
vim. It’s handy for doing things like invoking one-off commands or tasks. What I
didn’t realize until today was that you could trivially paste the output of a
shell command back into the current window’s buffer, using :.! instead.
# What's today's date?
:.!date -u
Thu Aug 2 00:51:13 UTC 2017
# What is my machine's name?
:.!uname -m
carbon.local
It’s a small difference, but a nice improvement to my vim workflow. I hope you find it useful as well.