Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

In the beginning, there was ed. ed begat ex, and ex begat vi, and vi begat Vim.

The Old Testament of Unix

Chapter 5Command-Line Mode

Vim traces its ancestry back to vi, which is where the modal editing paradigm was conceived. In turn, vi traces its ancestry back to a line editor called ex, which is why we have Ex commands. The DNA of these early Unix text editors is preserved in modern Vim. For some line-oriented tasks, Ex commands are still the best tool for the job. In this chapter, we’ll learn how to use Command-Line mode, which exposes us to the vestiges of ex.