13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All I needed, July 3, 2000
This review is from: VI Editor Pocket Reference (Paperback)
I purchased this pocket reference as i needed to do some programming on a unix box and had not used vi before. This book was a total blessing, I was able to get instant answers on what commands I needed.
This book helped me get the job done quickly and I no longer pull my hair out when I use vi. Thanks O'reilly !
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite as helpful as some of the other Pocket References, April 6, 2001
This review is from: VI Editor Pocket Reference (Paperback)
I own four of the O'Reilly pocket references, and of them, this is (sadly) the least useful to me. I am already fairly skilled with the vi (and vim) editor and I was trying to pick up small pointers and tips that would increase my efficiency with the editor. I do a lot of programming with vi, and I know there are some things that I am not doing that could be saving me time.
Perhaps the best comparison for this book would be the OReilly Sed & Awk pocket reference. That is really a fantastic little book that offers a cohesive and brief introduction to the editor.
This book, instead, reads like a list of commands with very brief descriptions with, seemingly, little scheme or order. It is easier to read the manpage. Sadly, I have not found much use for this book yet.
So it might be good to have around if you were trying to do something on a system without manpages, or if you were willing to dedicate the time to figure out the organization of this book (whcih I frankly doubt there is). But in the long run, I think most people (even those seasoned vi(m) users out there) will better benefit from buying the parent book.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the [money], January 16, 2003
This review is from: VI Editor Pocket Reference (Paperback)
I always only knew enough of vi to get me in and out of it without getting frustrated. A very basic understanding such as the commands i, a, o, dd, dw, Y and P. Actually, those were just about all I used except for wq! I did all of my coding in GUI IDE's and such... Mainly 'Moleskine' (which is a very very nice editor, by the way).
Recently, I realized that I hate having to always remove my hands from the keyboard every time I wanted to cut and paste or even scroll down the page. I decided to move on to vi. I tried elvis and vim. Since I don't like true <tabs> in my source code, and work suggests 4 spaces instead of <tabs>, then I had to go with vim because elvis didn't have the expand tab option.
Anyway, I'm amazed at what vim (and elvis too) can do! I started out reading the vim and elvis docs and saw a whole slew of things it can do. This is going to save me a lot of time and effort when coding! I got some nice syntax highlighting set up in vim (to match how elvis does it... just black and white. easy on the eyes.) and learned a lot of about the editor.
I figured that I wouldn't remember everything there was to know about the vi commands and such, so I went out and bought this book. Over the past 2 days I have been diving into it at least 10 times a day to discover if there are any commands or to get the right syntax for the ones I remember. This is already worth the [money] I spent on it!! I've learned a lot of things from it already.
I'd say if you are a seasoned vi user, this book isn't going to be of much help to you. Also, if you are a new user to VI, you need to get a full tutorial such as the parent book to this so they can walk you through some things. This book is just a *Pocket Reference*! Meaning, if you forget a commands syntax, this is a good thing to have on your desk so you can grab it quickly! It's not going to teach you squat about vi if you don' t know how to even enter Insert mode! However, if you're like me and you only know enough to get you in and out of vi, pick this book up! You'll be amazed at the commands you have been missing and the commands that will help you very very much! VI beats a GUI editor for efficiency and productivity, hands down!
Now, back to coding!
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