Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition

Preface to the 6th Edition

The 6th edition of Learning the vi Editor brings the book into the late 1990s. In particular, besides the "original" version of vi that comes as a standard part of every UNIX system, there are now a number of freely available "clones," or work-alike editors. Many of them have improvements over the original vi. One could thus say that there is now a "family" of vi editors, and this book's goal is to teach you what you need to know to use them.

What's New

The following features are new for this edition:

• Many minor corrections and additions have been made to the basic text.

• For each chapter where it's appropriate, there is a command summary at the end.

• New chapters cover each vi clone, the features and/or extensions common to two or more of the clones, and multiwindow editing.

• The chapter for each vi clone describes a bit of that program's history and goals, its unique features, and where to get it.

• The new appendix describes vi's place in the larger UNIX and Internet culture.

Versions

The following programs were used for testing out various vi features:

• The Solaris 2.6 version of vi for a "reference" version of UNIX vi

• Version 1.79 of Keith Bostic's nvi

• Version 2.0 of Steve Kirkendall's elvis

• Versions 5.0 and 5.1 of Bram Moolenaar's vim

• Versions 7.4 and 8.0 of vile, by Kevin Buettner, Tom Dickey, and Paul Fox

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, thanks to my wife Miriam for taking care of the kids while I was working on this book, particularly during the "witching ...