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Learning the vi Editor (6th Edition) Review by P. Mukherjee
A must buy if you want to master vi
I have been using vi/vim for about six years, but had never gotten to the next level. This was mainly because I had kept my usage limited to a small subset of vi (which is even smaller for vim). And it's not just me - I have seen many people who use vi this way. The other reason is the fact that vi has a steep learning curve. And even when you learn something new, you have to use it often, as otherwise there is a good chance that you will forget it. I knew how powerful vi can be as a text editor, but somehow never used it to its full potential. Sometimes I used to search on the internet for vi/vim tips and stuff, and finally realized that all this learning will be much more effective if I have a book that has all the information in one place. I guess most people will think twice before buying a book on a text editor (at least, I did), whereas they won't hesitate if it was a book on a programming language. But an editor like vi, which is quite difficult to master, does need a book. Once you learn it, you will be amazed to see how powerful it is.
About the book, it is perhaps the best resource for someone at the beginner/intermediate level to learn about vi. There are not many books around on the subject, but this book does a great job. It is divided into two parts. The first part teaches vi and the second part talks about a few vi clones (including vim). The book (especially the first part) is organized in a very nice way. Things are presented in a certain order. Each chapter/section builds on the previous chapter/section. The second part deals with different clones of vi, like nvi, elvis, vim and vile. Of these, I use only vim, which is basically is superset of vi. The chapter on vim does a good job of discussing the essential features of vim in some details, although its not complete by any means. With vim having such a huge number of features, it demands a separate book for itself.
All in all, this is a great book. It is a worthwhile investment to make. You will end up doing things in minimum time and with just a few keystrokes. As another reviewer has said, vi is addicting. Use it and you will see for yourself!