Beginning Vi

Filed in archive Utilities on July 6, 2007

In my Introduction to Programming class this semester, I made it a point to teach the student how to use "vi". Yes, whilst there are text editors and IDEs, Computer Science students must be comfortable working with "vi". My students Cursed me last Thursday, their first day at using the powerful editor on Solaris 10, but at the end, they resigned to the fact that they will be stuck with "vi" for the rest of the semester. To help them cope with their nightmare, I found this beginner's guide to vi and share it with them. :)

Why is "vi" important? Well, if you are using Linux, it is one of the lightweight editors that can be streamed remotely via a simple console or terminal window. Accessing remote Linux computers and servers and tweaking configuration files is easier on vi than on any other editor.

Don't worry, they are also learning how to use Netbeans. :)