Learning the VI and VIM Editors: Text Processing at Maximum Speed and Power

By Arnold Robbins, Linda Lamb, Elbert Hannah

Book Overview

There's nothing that hard-core Unix and Linux users are more fanatical about than their text editor. Editors are the subject of adoration and worship, or of scorn and ridicule, depending upon whether the topic of discussion is your editor or someone else's.

vi has been the standard editor for close to 30 years. Popular on Unix and Linux, it has a growing following on Windows systems, too. Most experienced system administrators cite vi as their tool of choice. And since 1986, this book has been the guide for vi.

However, Unix systems are not what they were 30 years ago, and neither is this book. While retaining all the valuable features of previous editions, the 7th edition of Learning the vi and vim Editors has been expanded to include detailed information on vim, the leading vi clone. vim is the default version of vi on most Linux systems and on Mac OS X, and is available for many other operating systems too.

With this guide, you learn text editing basics and advanced tools for both editors, such as multi-window editing, how to write both interactive macros and scripts to extend the editor, and power tools for programmers -- all in the easy-to-follow style that has made this book a classic.

Learning the vi and vim Editors includes:

A complete introduction to text editing with vi: How to move around vi in a hurry Beyond the basics, such as using buffers vi's global search and replacement Advanced editing, including customizing vi and executing Unix commands

How to make full use of vim: Extended text objects and more powerful regular expressions Multi-window editing and powerful vim scripts How to make full use of the GUI version of vim, called gvim vim's enhancements for programmers, such as syntax highlighting, folding and extended tags

Coverage of three other popular vi clones -- nvi, elvis, and vile -- is also included. You'll find several valuable appendixes, including an alphabetical quick reference to both vi and ex mode commands for regular vi and for vim, plus an updated appendix on vi and the Internet.

Learning either vi or vim is required knowledge if you use Linux or Unix, and in either case, reading this book is essential. After reading this book, the choice of editor will be obvious for you too.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059652983X
• ISBN13: 9780596529833
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 494 Pages
• Weight: 1.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 9.1" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

This book covers vi, nvi, elvis, vim, and vile.

vi (visual) is probably one of the most flexible editors (notice it is an editor, not a word processor) that one can use. There are several ways to accomplish the same common tasks. There are so many ways, in fact, that most people learn just a subset of commands and string them together to do their editing instead of learning the more exotic commands. The advantage of an editor, besides speed and simplicity, is that you will not inadvertently place visually hidden code in the program, as you can easily do with a word processor. People got so used to these editors on DOS-based environments. You can still use the command line editor after the colon at the bottom of the screen. When you find and use the abilities of vi, you will wonder what you would do without it. This book is a great starting place, and you may never need another. The Topics include: - Basic editing - Moving around in a hurry - Beyond the basics - Greater power with ex - Global search and replacement - Customizing vi and ex - Command shortcuts - Introduction to vi clones’ extensions - The nvi, elvis, vim, and vile editors - Summary of vi and ex commands - Vi and the internet The examples are quite clear and plentiful. At the time of this review, there are 8 editions. However, earlier editions still function but are a tad dated.