Learning the vi and Vim Editors, Seventh edition, July 2008, by Arnold Robbins, Elbert Hannah and Linda Lamb is both a tutorial for beginners and a reference for experienced users. vi and several of its clones are covered in this edition: nvi, elvis, Vim, and vile. Chapters 9 through 15 cover Vim. Chapters 16, 17 and 18 cover nvi, elvis and vile, respectively. Including the index and appendices the book is 470 pages.
The authors recommend that the reader know how to:
• Enter Unix commands
• Change directories
• List files in a directory
• Create, copy and remove files
• Be familiar with grep and wildcard characters
The Safari online edition of the book is free for the first 45 days and a useful companion to the hard copy. I prefer the outline numbering style of separating paragraphs and subparagraphs in the online book to the non-numbered style used in the hard copy.
Explanations and examples are built upon a file called practice that is modified using the commands being explained. Most chapters end with a summary of the salient points including effective tabular presentations where applicable.
I would like to see more information about Vim interfaces for Python and Ruby as referenced in Chapter 12.
The writing style is pleasant and relaxed thus keeping the reader's interest while navigating examples of the many steps and options available in this powerful editor. The index is 24 pages, very good for a book of 446 pages and compares very favorably with other recently used texts. However the book binding and paper quality could be better. I have another recently purchased O’Reilly book that has not withstood frequent use as well as books from other publishers.
Regardless of the above criticisms this is an excellent guide for the person willing to put forth the effort to become a power user of vi and its clones.
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