RE: RFC: Beginner's vim tutorial
Jesse Goerz <jgoerz@bellsouth.net> wrote:
I just wrote a beginner's vim tutorial over at
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/text_editing/vim.html
I would appreciate it if the vim guru's would take a look at it
and let me know if I've made any errors or have any suggestions.
What I really need is a co-author who can fill in the gaps. Any
help at all would be great.
--snip-- <
Thanks,
Jesse
I am not a "guru" but I have some comments:
1. THANKS!! I have always considered VI and VIM "impossible" and the
associated docs were absolutely confusing. I am now motivated to go
"climb that mountain"!
2. I have always had problems at the start remembering keyboard commands
on ANY wordprocessor / editor that I have ever tried. VI/VIM has been
especially perplexing because I cannot determine the under-lying logic
used in its design. This means I am constantly in the "help" section
and reading the docs and never get any work done. Eventually I give up
and go to something that I have already learned and use it. Are you
aware of ANY documention that will give a historicaly perspective about
VI/VIM? How did it evolve? Why was this particular set of commands
chosen? Is there any "logic" (neumonics?) available to help remember
important commands for the beginner? (Example: Wordstar's command keys
were layed out in a geometric manner on the keyboard. Once I knew this
I could usually figure out a command sequence and NOT have to refer to
the docs/help menus nearly as much.)
3. I have heard that you will usually find VI or a clone on any
Unix-based computer you run across. It is almost a "universal" editor
in the Unix world. This means learning VI/VIM allows you to perform
editing functions on a WIDE variety of platforms independent of the
underlying arch or specific OS. That is not a "bad" skill to have, IMHO.
Thanks again!
Cheers,
-Don Spoon-
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