VIM: Vi IMproved!

Text Editor
- not word processor
Great for programmers
- syntax highlighting
- auto-indent
- text-based - supported on most any terminal
URL: http://www.vim.org
Comes with most Linux distros and works on ALL THESE OSs:

AmigaOS, AtariMiNT, BeOS, DOS, MacOS, MachTen, OS/2, RiscOS, VMS, and Windows (95/98/NT4/NT5/2000), A/UX, AIX, BSDI, Convex, DYNIX/ptx, DG/UX, DEC Unix, FreeBSD, HPUX, Irix, Linux [Debian, RedHat, Slackware, SuSE,...], MacOSX, NetBSD, NEXTSTEP, OpenBSD, OSF, QNX, SCO, Sinix, Solaris, SunOS, SUPER-UX, Ultrix, Unixware, Unisys...

Modes

command - move around, cut/paste, save
insert - add text
replace - overwrite text

Navigating in command mode

While navigating in command mode, use the vi keys:

    k
h     l
    j

hjkl: left, down, up, right

This configuration keeps your fingers on those home keys. You can also use the standard arrow keys. Command mode is the default when you enter vim, but if you want to enter it at any time, press esc.

Operations in command mode

opening a file

vim filename
saving a file

open in vim, edit, hit esc to go to command mode, then:
:w, or :wq to save (write) and quit
exiting without saving

:q!
opening multiple files

open first file, enter :split filename and vim will split the screen between the two files
Use CTRL-w-j and CTRL-w-k to switch between the files

More commands

u - undue
CTRL-r - redo
d - delete
dd - delete line
CTRL-v - highlight (block) text
y - yank (copy) highlighted text
yy - copy entire line
p - paste
c - cut
w - moves cursor from word to word
gg LINE_NUM - moves cursor to specified line number

vim supports repeated commands. To repeat a command x times, enter the number of times before the command.

Example: to move down 5 lines, enter:

5j

in command mode.

Searching

To enter a search string, hit the / (slash) key while in command mode.

To substitute one string for another, enter this:

:s/string_to_replace/new_string/

This replaces string_to_replace with new_string if it is found on the line where the cursor is located. The above command will only replace one isntance. To replace all instances on that line, add a g to the end of the command. To do a case-insensitive match, add an i to the command. Like this:

:s/string_to_replace/new_string/gi

To replace very instance in the entire file, use this command:

:%s/string_to_replace/new_string/

vim supports regular expressions for searching and replacing.

Programmers' Friends

syntax highlighting
either enter :syntax on in command mode or put it in your .vimrc file.
autoindent
:set autoindent
shifting
:set shiftwidth=x, where x is your desired width
Highlight a block of text and use the < or > keys to shift it left or right respectively
the text will be shifted by the number of spaces set for shiftwidth

Examples...

Example .vimrc file:

set smartindent
set backspace=0
set ruler
set noshowcmd
set noshowmode
set nobackup
set shiftwidth=4
set showmatch
set noautoindent
set writeany
set incsearch

Presented for the Computer Club at WMU by Wesley Leonard on September 27th, 2001.

Resources: The vim homepage
Learning the vi editor published by O'Reilly & Associates