=== http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=576057

DON'T FORGET VI

LINUX DESKTOP APPLICATIONS --- 10/11/2001

Eric Foster-Johnson

After covering cross-platform editing tools,
I received numerous email responses pointing
out that I had not mentioned the editor vi.
Vi, one of the oldest UNIX text editors, is
still in widespread use and, yes, versions
do exist for Windows and other platforms,
making it a cross-platform tool as well.

Most Linux distributions include at least
one (if not more) enhanced versions of vi,
typically elvis and vim. Of these, vim seems
to get the most votes for the extra editing
features it offers. Vim, short for vi improved,
is available for free at http://www.vim.org.
At the vim download site
(http://www.vim.org/download.html),
you can download versions of vim for Windows,
UNIX/Linux, OS/2, Amiga, Atari, MacOS, BeOS,
VMS, and even DOS, although some of the less
popular platform versions are out of date.
You can download pre-built binary versions
from http://www.vim.org/binaries.html.  You'll
find quite a lot of UNIX and Linux versions
available, and even a Windows CE version.

My co-author on "Teach Yourself Linux", Steve
Oualline, is a vim fan. We wrote an extended
vim tutorial, called the Vim Cookbook, at
http://www.oualline.com/vim-cook.html.
A word of warning, though, vi, even enhanced
by vim, is not for the faint of heart. It works
on the idea of modes with keyboard commands to
switch between modes. For example, typing the
letter "i" enters insert mode, and Esc drops back
into command mode. This use of modes and keyboard
commands can make vi hard to learn for newcomers.
Vi is not a graphical application.

I used vi and clones like vim for years until
I gradually switched to more graphical text
editors. Especially combined with xterm or
other shell windows, you can become really
productive with vi, using the shell window
ability to select and paste.

Eric Foster-Johnson has written 14 books on
Linux, Unix, programming and open source tools.
Eric can be reached at erc@pconline.com
or at http://www.pconline.com/~erc.