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Command Line Basics: Intro to Vi/Vim

Video by Addison BerryJuly 27, 2010 - 5:40am

This video introduces you to the Vi (and Vim) editor. Vi is the most common text editor that you will have available to you on *nix systems so it pays to at least learn the basics in case you end up somewhere where that is all you have to use. Vim is also actually a very serviceable editor which many people (mostly hardcore geeks) use as their day to day editor. We'll talk briefly about Vi versus Vim, then open a file, move around, and close the the file. Our next video will dive more into editing files with Vi.

Note: There are a lot of editors out there on various systems, notably emacs, nano, and pico. Vi is considered the lowest common denominator (i.e. it is the most commonly available one), which is why it is the one being covered in the command line basics series. It is also the editor that I use personally, so is the one I am most familiar with. Please limit editor war discussions to other threads on the internet that are meant for them.

Comments

pat (not verified) on July 27, 2010 - 5:20pm

Super handy!

Great video. While I've used vi/vim for ages, picked up a few things from this. Very well done. Great job!

I always have a hard time remembering the various commands, like I ALWAYS forget go to beginning and end of line commands. I used to have a cheat sheet printed and taped up by my screen. ;)

By chance, is there a "lorem ipsum" plug-in, add-on for vim somewhere?

  • reply
Manuel Garcia (not verified) on July 27, 2010 - 5:55pm

Great initiative

Hey Addison,

I think it's a great idea to do some videos about vim, it's a very powerful editor if you get the hang of it!! productivity++

If I may, I'd like to recommend an only (free) book which I'm sure people will find to be an excelent resource:
http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Vim
Do a chapter a day, and you'll endup a vim ninja!

Greetings!

P.S. I hope you'll come to next year's Drupalcamp Spain also!

  • reply
Bohdan Ganicky (not verified) on July 28, 2010 - 2:43am

Mentioning the "G" as a

Mentioning the "G" as a shortcut to "end of document" I would also mention "gg" as a shortcut to "top of document".
Glad to see you're promoting this powerful editor, thanks!

  • reply
Anonymous (not verified) on August 6, 2010 - 3:42am

Terminal color scheme?

Great video Addison!

I've got a banal question which is offtopic: What is the background color value of your terminal window? It looks very eye friendly, I'd like to try it out.

  • reply
August 7, 2010 - 9:49am Addison Berry

Terminal color

The terminal screen color in the video is #021533 set at 90% opacity.

  • reply
Anonymous (not verified) on August 8, 2010 - 3:06am

Thanks

I tried really hard to recreate the color before I asked in the thread but I couldn't get it. Thanks for the info!

  • reply
gmclelland (not verified) on August 20, 2010 - 9:19am

Here is a great video series

Here is a great video series on vim. Hope it helps

http://vimeo.com/6999927

  • reply

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