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Learning the vi Editor (6th Edition) Review by FILIP Marius
A great book about a great text editor
This book is a fine exposition of the vi editor with a perfect balance between density of information and friendliness of explanation.
The material is divided in two parts:
* Presentation of the vi proper.
* Presentation of the vi clones.
The value of the book resides in the first part (7 chapters). It explains vi so well that it is hard not to understand and like this well-designed editor.
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Vi is an editor of many qualities: portability, price ($0!) and speed. When it comes to speed, file loading is quick, saving is quick, searching is quick, scrolling is quick - everything is quick with this guy!
Everything but... learning. The vi editor has had a bad reputation as being hard to learn and master. The modal behavior scares most people away and the wide range of commands may seem like hard to conquer. This could have been the situation *before* the amazing "Learning the vi Editor" by Lamb & Robbins existed - but now, when the book reaches the 6th edition, there's no excuse.
As "Learning the vi Editor" nicely explains, vi is a layer on top of the ex editor. Ex is a so-called "line-editor", used to edit files in a line-oriented manner. The two modes of vi are nothing else than an expression of this duality. In the so-called 'edit mode', ex is in control. In the so-called 'command mode', vi-proper is in control while redirecting the ':' commands to the underlying ex. Simple, isn't it?
The book exposes this philosophy behind vi with clarity, rigor and friendliness. Once you read this book you realize that, in fact, vi is a simple and perfectly logical editor. It has simple command sintax, simple command semantics and simple command composition rules.
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All this information - and much more - can be found in the first part of "Learning the vi Editor". The second part is dedicated to various vi clones. Here the reader has the liberty to choose depending on which clone he/she feels most comfortable with.
Books which remove confusion and bring light to seemingly arcane areas are rare. "Learning the vi Editor" by Lamb & Robbins is one of them.