October 2012
346 pages
7h 40m
English
In the beginning, there was ed. ed begat ex, and ex begat vi, and vi begat Vim.
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.
Read now
Unlock full access