Review of 'Learning the vi and Vim Editors' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
After farting about with numerous text editors and IDEs, I decided that on the cusp of turning old I should settle down and start learning the granddaddy of serious text editors. Learning vi and Vim has been around for rather a long time, and gets revisions every decade or so for new features where appropriate.
The material presented in the book is excellent. The first third deals with vi features, present in vi and all the clones. Navigating, searching, and ex are all covered in enough depth to understand enough of what is going on without feeling completely swamped. This thorough grounding in vi is important, as the clone specific features build on this feature set.
The second third is then taken up with discussing the various clones, with the most attention paid to vim. Again, information is well presented, each clone being taken in turn and its features handled …
After farting about with numerous text editors and IDEs, I decided that on the cusp of turning old I should settle down and start learning the granddaddy of serious text editors. Learning vi and Vim has been around for rather a long time, and gets revisions every decade or so for new features where appropriate.
The material presented in the book is excellent. The first third deals with vi features, present in vi and all the clones. Navigating, searching, and ex are all covered in enough depth to understand enough of what is going on without feeling completely swamped. This thorough grounding in vi is important, as the clone specific features build on this feature set.
The second third is then taken up with discussing the various clones, with the most attention paid to vim. Again, information is well presented, each clone being taken in turn and its features handled in a sensible way. Window handling, completion, developer tools, session, indenting, etc all covered. If you don't remember everything in this book (and there's no way you will), you will at least remember seeing it and having a good idea where it is. :help is always there.
The third section is ancillary information, indicies, etc. The user friendly comic is a nice touch, and Vigor makes an appearance.
There is a good split in emphasis between editing text and editing code. Features for both are well explored, and the author presents both in a useful way. This is not really a book for novice coders, but is most definitely a worthwhile investment for existing coders, looking to get to grips with Vim. There's a very good reason this has been one of the standard texts on the subject for a few decades.