When I teach a class that is using Linux, I always encourage the students to use the Vi editor, rather than something simple like gedit, just because Vi is so powerful AND you can use it on a terminal. But, the students are often confused by Vi, and because I’ve used it for so long and it’s just second nature to me, I’m surprised at how many students don’t use the great features of Vi and just use it like gedit. So, I thought it would be a good idea to start a series of tips on using Vi, and this is the first one.
This week’s tip: Read the manual! There’s a great manual written way back in the either the late 70s or early 80s by Bill Joy, the creator of Vi. It’s called An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi, and if you work through that, you’re going to know more than probably 95% of the people who use Vi. Anyone who wants to start using the true power of Vi should read this manual. Actually, even as someone who has used Vi since 1982, everytime I re-read the manual I always find some command that I had forgotten about.
Be warned, though, that some of the things described are more relevant to a 1970s timesharing system than today’s computers: do we really have to worry about editing on slow terminals nowadays??? But, for the most part, this is a great manual.
You should be able to do a google search for the manual, or it’s available in the FreeBSD documentation at http://docs.freebsd.org/44doc/usd/12.vi/paper.html.
This is part of a series of tips on using Vi. To see the complete series, click here.