Category Aha software development

To get out commands or shortcuts in CLI tools, ollama helps you to get pretty much all answers, completely free and local, if you have a state of the art MacBook with a M processor. However, sometimes it needs different models and options to get the right answers.

To get a concise answer, it is best to set a system message. Usually you get a good answer with these models, ordered from smallest to biggest

• gemma3
• phi4
• codestral
• devstral

❯ ollama run devstral
>>> /set system "Give me just a concise quick response only"
Set system message.
>>> What is the shortcut in vim to maximize a window?
Ctrl-w + _

However, they have their limits. If all of these fail, try with a reasoning model. It takes longer to get an answer, but there chances that they will get you back a different, better result.

• qwq
• deepseek-r1
• qwen3
• deepcoder

❯ ollama run qwen3
>>> /set system "Give me just a concise quick response only"
Set system message.
>>> What is the shortcut in vim to maximize a window?
<think>
Okay, the user is asking for the shortcut in Vim to maximize a window. Let
me think. I remember that Vim has a built-in window management system, but
I'm not sure about the exact command for maximizing. Wait, maybe it's
related to the 'resize' or 'wincmd' commands. Let me recall.
...
Ah! Wait, in Vim, to maximize a window, you can use the command 'Ctrl + w'
followed by 'o' (which toggles the window's size). So the shortcut is 'Ctrl
+ w' followed by 'o'.

Yes, that's the correct answer. So the shortcut is Ctrl + w and then o to
toggle between normal and maximized mode.
</think>

Ctrl + w followed by o (Ctrl + w + o) toggles between normal and maximized
window mode in Vim.

❯ ollama run deepcoder
>>> /set system "Give me just a concise quick response only"
Set system message.
>>> What is the shortcut in vim to maximize a window?
<think>
Alright, so I'm trying to figure out how to maximize a window in Vim. I've
heard that Vim has a lot of shortcuts and commands, but I'm not entirely
sure about all of them yet. Let me think through this step by step.
...
So putting it all together, in Normal mode, pressing Ctrl-w followed by o
(the letter 'o') should maximize the current window by closing any other
splits. That sounds right based on what I remember and have tested before.
</think>

To maximize the current window in Vim by closing other splits, use:

```
Ctrl + w + o
```

Local LLM’s using ollama provide very good results. With the invention of the reasoning models, there are plenty very good reasoning models available on ollama. However, for quick questions, for which you expect a quick answer, the best results deliver non-thinking models, as they do not spam you with tons of thinking steps for a long time before they get to the point. There are many non-thinking models available over ollama too, which run smoothly on a modern MacBook with an M1 or better CPU. I found different models have different strength, so I tend to use the following models for given tasks:

• qwen2.5-coder-14b: for code
• gemma3: for creative writing, RAG, or math
• phi4: for all other technical tasks
• mistral-small3.1: for german-english translations or other non-english language specific queryies