1_intro_and_history.txt

VIM: The Ruby of Text Editing

What Vim is:
  - Powerful
  - Smart
  - Lightweight (< 10mb memory)
  - Configurable
  - A modal editor
  - Universal
  - What all the Rails cool kids use now.
  - A tool to increase your programming speed.

What Vim isn't:
  - Easy to learn
  - Good for novices
  - Pre-Configured
  - "It just works"
  - A hot new trend

Differences from Textmate:
  - Vim is about commands, Textmate about shortcuts.
  - Vim is modal, Textmate is always in insert mode.
  - Vim is must be learned, Textmate must be memorized.
  - Vim is not preconfigured, Textmate "Just works".
  - Vim is available on all OS (including Windows), Textmate is OSX only.
  - Vim has 30 years of history behind it and probably 30 more ahead. Textmate has 6 years of history, and has not been updated for the last 4.
  - Vim is open source, Textmate is proprietary.
  - Vim is not ideal for a novice, Textmate is a great editor for novices.

About GVim, MacVim, Vim, Vi, EX, etc.

  - Vi is thirty years old.
  - Installed by default on every *nix os.
  - Vi and its brood are Screen editors, the only kind of editor we are used to.
  - Ex is now part of Vi, was/is a Line editor.
    - Understanding Ex gives you insight into Vi/Vim.
    - Ex was used before displays, when everything was printed.
    - You gave it a line number and an operation and it executed it and printed the result.
    - Used for many Vim commands today.

Modal Editing
  - There are very few modal editors, with Vim the most popular.
  - Based on the idea that most of the time you are editing/changing/refactoring text, not creating it for the first time.
  - Vim has 4 primary modes: Insert, Normal, Visual, Command Line.
  - Insert
    - What most people are used to, any letter you type is added to the document.
    - Lots of ways to get into insert mode.
    - In GVim when in insert mode your cursor looks like: |
    - It all Vi clones when in insert mode you will see -- INSERT -- in the last line of your editor.
  - Normal
    - The is the mode Vim puts you in by default.
    - Can be entered by hitting escape from any mode.
    - The more you get used to vim the more time you spend in normal mode.
    - Used for moving around the document and manipulating text.
  - Visual
    - Allows you to select and manipulate blocks of text.
    - Has two 'sub modes' line and block.
    - Visual is accessed from normal by pressing v.
    - Visual line can be accessed by V (shift-v).
    - Visual block can be accessed by Ctrl-v
    - In Gvim you can make selections with the mouse to enter Visual mode.
    - Last line will say -- VISUAL -- or -- VISUAL LINE -- or -- VISUAL BLOCK -- when you are in them.
  - Command line
    - Can only be entered by typing a colon : when in normal mode.
    - Is used for saving, opening and navigating files.
    - Also used for search, search/replace, etc.