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VI Editor Pocket Reference (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: preceding regular expression, tag stack, substitute command, Command Function, Editor Pocket Reference, Tag Stacks Tag (more...)

3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The vi Editor Pocket Reference is a companion volume to O'Reilly's updated sixth edition of Learning the vi Editor, a complete guide to text editing with vi. New topics in Learning the vi Editor include multi-screen editing and coverage of four vi clones: vim, elvis, nvi, and vile. This small book is a handy reference guide to the information in the larger volume, presenting movement and editing commands, the command-line options, and other elements of the vi editor in an easy-to-use tabular format.

About the Author

Arnold Robbins, an Atlanta native, is a professional programmer and technical author. He has worked with Unix systems since 1980, when he was introduced to a PDP-11 running a version of Sixth Edition Unix. He has been a heavy AWK user since 1987, when he became involved with gawk, the GNU project's version of AWK. As a member of the POSIX 1003.2 balloting group, he helped shape the POSIX standard for AWK. He is currently the maintainer of gawk and its documentation. He is also coauthor of the sixth edition of O'Reilly's Learning the vi Editor. Since late 1997, he and his family have been living happily in Israel.

Product Details

Paperback: 66 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (March 15, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565924975
ISBN-13: 978-1565924970
Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,137 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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#4 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Software > Word Processors & Editors > VI
#21 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Word Processing
#35 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > Unix

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
preceding regular expression, tag stack, substitute command, tag commands, tags file

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Command Function, Editor Pocket Reference, Tag Stacks Tag, Option Function, Edit-Compile Speedup Program

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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	70% buy the item featured on this page: VI Editor Pocket Reference 3.9 out of 5 stars (17) $9.95
	10% buy Learning the vi and Vim Editors 5.0 out of 5 stars (6) $23.09
	8% buy Linux Pocket Guide 4.5 out of 5 stars (41) $9.95
	6% buy Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition 4.4 out of 5 stars (59) $23.07

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All I needed, July 3, 2000

By	Rak (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

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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18 of 21 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

By	Alex J. Avriette "Alex Avriette" (Arlington, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the [money], January 16, 2003

By	Dean Jones Jr. (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Small Book, Big Help
I use this book as a reference all too often. The authors do a good job at laying this book out, and the secrets of vi are all released in this book. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Rob K

3.0 out of 5 stars Necessary? Maybe.
If you use the vi editor often, you won't need this book. If, however, you're like me and use it once in a while to make changes in Linux system files, it can come in handy when... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Mfragin

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a useful reference, pocket or otherwise
This book has a major deficiency as a reference: you can't easily find a specific topic. The book has no index and the table of contents is too high-level to help you find a... Read more

Published on October 7, 2006 by David M. Ng

5.0 out of 5 stars Vi - your answers
Great Vi book for Unix Beginners. It gives great examples to use the command being inquired.

Published on March 20, 2006 by Audie N. Nicdao

5.0 out of 5 stars Commandline editor guide
This is a handy little book to have around if you use the "vi" text editor and haven't mastered all the commands. Read more

Published on January 31, 2006 by J. Henson

5.0 out of 5 stars A very, very good pocket reference
This is the first time I've given any book five stars. That's because this is the best pocket quick reference of VI you're going to find. Read more

Published on August 17, 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little reference - price a little much though
Just like O'Reilly's other books, this one shows you what you need to know about vi plus the other vi clones out there like VIM and Elvis. Read more

Published on October 27, 2002 by E. Chapa

2.0 out of 5 stars Fine if you already know vi.
I didn't find this reference any good UNTIL I knew vi well. It is OK for a quick look up to remember a command; but to learn something new or more than you already know forget it... Read more

Published on January 8, 2002 by W. J. Vovil

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice little pocket review
This is a nice little pocket review. It's basically something you can get anywhere on the web packaged and bound with a pretty cover with an O'Reilly animal on it. Read more

Published on January 6, 2002 by J. Thomas Dyess

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Enough Examples
I had to use vi again after having been out of the UNIX environment for 6 years, so I bought this book for a refresher. Read more

Published on April 6, 2001 by D. Taylor

› See all 17 customer reviews...

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