Mapping Alt + left|right to move tabs

Question

Ideally, I'd like <A-left> to execute :tabmove -1 and <A-right> to execute :tabmove +1. However, when I put

nnoremap <A-left> :tabmove -1<cr>
nnoremap <A-right> :tabmove +1<cr>

in my .vimrc and try or , vim beeps and moves my cursor one character over in the direction I pressed. However, typing :tabmove -1<cr> directly into command mode gives the desired effect. How can I fix this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Start by viewing the key code your terminal is sending to vim:

$ sed -n l
^[[1;9D 

In the above example, i ran the sed command and pressed Alt + Left.

The ^[[1;9D is the escaped sequence being sent to vim, so we can user that for our mapping.

Add this to your .vimrc

map <Esc>[1;9D :tabn<CR>

Now we can cycle through vim tabs by using Alt + Left