Vi iMproved (VIM): Amazon.ca: Steve Oualline: Books

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Book Description

Real Linux users don't use GUIs. No matter how popular, slick and sophisticated the interfaces become for Linux and UNIX, you'll always need to be able to navigate in a text editor. The vi editor is the original standard UNIX full screen editor. It's been around almost since UNIX began and it has changed very little. To get around the limitations of vi the people at Bram Moolenaar created the vim editor (the name stand for VI iMproved). It contains many more features than the old vi editor including: help, multiple windows, syntax highlighting, programmer support, and HTML support. All of the books published to date focus on vi alone not the expanded vim shipping with every major Linux distribution. In true New Riders' form, the vim reference will be a definitive, concise reference for the professional Linux user and developer. This tutorial takes a task oriented approach allowing you to learn only the commands that make your job easier.

From the Back Cover

Real Linux users don't use GUIs. No matter how popular, slick and sophisticated the interfaces become for Linux and UNIX, you'll always need to be able to navigate in a text editor. The vi editor is the original standard UNIX full screen editor. It's been around almost since UNIX began and it has changed very little. To get around the limitations of vi the people at Bram Moolenaar created the vim editor (the name stand for VI iMproved). It contains many more features than the old vi editor including: help, multiple windows, syntax highlighting, programmer support, and HTML support. All of the books published to date focus on vi alone not the expanded vim shipping with every major Linux distribution. In true New Riders' form, the vim reference will be a definitive, concise reference for the professional Linux user and developer. This tutorial takes a task oriented approach allowing you to learn only the commands that make your job easier.

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Best book on Vim, April 27 2004

By

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Vi iMproved (VIM) (Paperback)

I keep going back to this book again and again and that is one of it's strengths. It lays down a foundation of understanding, and then as you grow with the editor you go back to it to learn a little more about how you can customize your environment.

I particularly like the chapter 8 which covers abbreviations, keyboard mapping, and initialization files. It's well written and the effect is that I have saved a lot of time on my common workflows.

Upside, this book has made me a better Vim user. Downside is that the book could be even better than it is. The organization could be a bit stronger and there could be more expansive reference material. That being said. If you are a Vim user it is definitely worth the money.

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3.0 out of 5 stars we need a competing book that is better organized, Jan 1 2004

By

anonymous object "knowledgelover" (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vi iMproved (VIM) (Paperback)

I have used this book in a Windows environment; a few years of on-again-off again coding. I agree with the reviewer who found the book very disorganized. I am ordering the old edition of the O'Reilly book on the vi editor (a very small book, better than the newest edition and less than 5 bucks) because I found it more helpful than this book (!!).

I will try to go through it (yet) again, because I like vim, and recognize its power. I just downloaded TextPad and tried it for the first time in probably 4 years, and I am running back to vim after less than an hour of TextPad (the "dd" command of vim to delete a line has become essential to me :) ).

So, buy the book, but use the web and the excellent listserv to understand vim.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable!!, Sep 26 2003

By

Ankush Varma (Washington DC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vi iMproved (VIM) (Paperback)

Vim is an exceedingly powerful, but somewhat esoteric text editor. You can make it do almost *anything*, provided you know how. I found this book to be indispensable in doing that, since it presents everything in an organized way.

This book does not replace a good google search or the online documentation. Instead its a great way to learn what Vim can do, and how to get about it. A must for any programmer's bookshelf.
Vi rules!

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Opens the Door To Free Editor For Life On Any Platform
This book was the ticket to admission to the Linux world. To use Linux, one must immediately be competent with a text editor that runs on Linux. Read more

Published on July 16 2003 by R. B. DOE

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't like the long command name
One main reason people use vi/vim is that by using few key strokes you can do your editing job. In this book, author choose to teach you how to do things using the longest command... Read more

Published on Aug 29 2002 by C. Liu