



The advantage and power of vi is the ability to use it successfully with only knowing a small subset of the commands. Most users of vi feel a bit awkward at the start, however after a small amount of time they find the need for more command knowledge.

The following tutorial is assuming the user has completed the quick tutorial (above) and hence feels comfortable with vi . It will expose some of the more powerful features of ex / vi from copying text to macro definitions. There is a section on ex and its settings which helps customize the editor. This tutorial describes the commands, rather then taking you set by set through each of them. It is recommended you spend the time trying the commands out on some example text, which you can afford to destroy.

This tutorial does not expose all the commands of vi though all of the commonly used commands and more are covered. Even if you choose to use an alternative text editor, it is hoped you will appreciate vi and what it offers those who do choose to use it.





Ross Biro

Thu May 25 10:45:54 PDT 1995