Book review Mastering Vim Quickly From WTF to OMG in no time



The vim editor is a free and open source text editor. It is a clone of vi text editor. Vim is extremely popular among the Linux, macOS and Unix-like system users. Vim has many commands. It comes with a pretty extensive built-in manual too. One might get lost in the built-in manual. Let us see if “Mastering Vim Quickly From WTF to OMG in no time” can help a new or experienced vim user to increase productivity.



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Book review Mastering Vim Quickly From WTF to OMG in no time

The first chapter talks about vim and shows what one can learn from the book. The second chapter talks about what makes vim confusing to the beginner including steep learning curve.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters are all about vim basics topic such as:

Installing vim 8 Different modes of editing (command mode and insert mode) Getting started with vim Editing file including navigation, searching for text, file management and more.

Now that one is familiar with the vim editor, and it is time to personalize it for fun and profit through the .vimrc file. One can set vim colors, line numbers, interface, indentation, search and many more options. The author talked about creating new project specific .vimrc file. It can come handy when dealing with multiple projects. That was an excellent tip. Another suggestion about using persistent undo was on the spot covered in chapter eight.

The chapter nine to eighteen covered many advanced and useful topics such as:

Effective editing of multiple files Folding Creating shortcuts Visual mode Creating and managing macros for repetitive tasks, i.e., vim automation Vim buffers, registers, windowing system and more

The author talked about giving a boost to productivity in chapter nineteen with many small but handy tips. The final chapter demonstrated usage of vim plugins like how to install and use a vim plugin with vim plugin manager.

Instead of reading the boring manuals, one can go through the hands-on approach of the author. While one cannot learn everything about vim editor in just a single day, the book is written to describe most essential concepts and commands that will make you master of vim. This is a well-written vim book that explains stuff from the ground up, and useful to both beginners and advanced users. It also acts as a kind of reference book for vim. I enjoyed the crystal clear explanations of things. The book is a straightforward guide to VIM, and I recommend to everyone who wishes to learn vim.

Book Info:

* Title: Mastering Vim Quickly: From WTF to OMG in no time

* Author: Jovica Ilic.

* Publisher: N/A.

* Length: 109 pages.

* Target: System administrators, programmers, or hobbyist interested in the vim.

* Rating: 5/5

* Disclaimer: The author sent us a review copy.

* Purchase online at Amazon