Linux

12    Vim

The focus of this chapter is the Vi editor and its open-source implementation, Vim (Vi Improved). These editors are relatively difficult to learn, as is the Emacs editor presented in the next chapter. But this effort is worth it if you frequently edit text, program code, configuration files, and the like—that is, if a text editor is a constant and indispensable tool for you.

Vi and Emacs have the advantage that the programs can be executed in text mode in a console if required—that is, also in an SSH session. That is why administrators in particular prefer Vi or Emacs to modern editors that necessarily require a graphical user interface.

That still leaves us with the question of all questions: Vi or Emacs? The programs are primeval rocks ...