Episode 69 - Vim Basics

[Chess]

In this episode: a new sponsor for Linux Reality, O'Reilly Media -- please be sure to use the coupon code "LREL40" for 40% off your purchases on the O'Reilly website; a new release of Slackware 12.0; a pretty high-level discussion of Vim to introduce folks to the basic movement and editing commands; email listener feedback.

http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-69-vim-basics/

[rfquerin]

Chess,

I commend you on your bravery. I remember we spoke months ago about doing a Vi/Vim episode and laughed about what a challenge it would be. I'll see how you made out during my commute home tonight.


RQ

[thelastknowngod]

hooray! haha. i love vim. hopefully this turns on new people to an awesome text editor.

[rfquerin]

Yeah, I've been a Vim fan for quite a while too. I found that the only way to get comfortable with it is to use it for everything you can.

If you use Firefox, you can use the add-on called 'It's All Text' which puts a nice little edit button at the bottom right of any text box on a web page - like the one I'm typing into right now. You configure it to launch any text editor you want (like VIM) and you enter your text into the editor. When you hit save in the editor (ie. :w in vim)  it automatically pastes that text into the web text box. Great for entering blog comments, forum posts and the like. Plus, it forces you to become familiar with the editor.

It works for most web text entry boxes although they've got to be plain text formatted. For instance it works for Gmail, but only if you're in plain text mode (not rich text) - but you should be in plain text mode anyway right?

The add on is at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4125

[thelastknowngod]

that does sound pretty cool. i use opera though. oh well. i know i use gvim for pretty much everything though. i have a section in my fluxbox menu that i have labeled Config. then i have the fluxbox config files set you open with gvim. generally i use gvim so i dont have to go searching for the right command online if im doing something unusual. otherwise its still vim.

Example:

Code:

[submenu] (config)
      [exec] (key bindings) {gvim ~/.fluxbox/keys}
[end]

[davijordan]

Chess:
   Thanx for another useful podcast.  Your broadcasts are one of the few I do save. I think my brother gave me an old vt52 unix terminal as a joke, but I connected it to my nslu2. As you say it does not have function keys. I plan to use the vim tutorial you suggested to take more advantage of vim. Since the terminal boots up and shuts down faster than anything, I am beginning to use that terminal more and more.
    At the local bookstore the linux bookshelves seem to be always empty. Yet there are a lot of unsold books from that other OS. I just picked up some O'Reilly books and they are great. I have a book that I really want and will check for it online.
   Lastly, K12ltsp is awesome. We have hooked up everthing from old diskless pentium I/II''s, mac g3's, and thin clients such as the compaq t30's without any real technical expertise. They all work great. But I think that that Edubuntu,Xubuntu server, Karoshi, and some other distros are pre-configured to install ltsp. Although you can add ltsp to existing set-ups. There are are some great news feeds and web sites that are available for ltsp.

[rfquerin]

Chess,

One other thing, now that you've started down the slippery slope. I'm gonna have to ask for a podcast on regular expressions too.

RQ

[Chess]

@rfquerin - regular expressions are a pretty difficult topic... I know I struggle with them!  :-)

BTW, I really like your inkscape tutorial site.  Really great stuff!

[ameurux]

Many thanks to you Chess, just another useful Episode I was waiting for.

Keep up the great work.

.deb

[N74JW]

Hello Chess,

Congrats on the sponsorship.  I love O'Reilly Press and also own many of their titles.

The vim episode was the best example of vi/vim tutelage.  I find vim to be a real pain in the @ss!  Much prefer pico or nano.

Thanks and congrats...

/N

[rfquerin]

@rfquerin - regular expressions are a pretty difficult topic... I know I struggle with them!  :-)

BTW, I really like your inkscape tutorial site.  Really great stuff!

Thanks for the compliment Chess. It's been great fun (and a surprising amount of work) for heathenx and I. We're still fiddling with encoding choices and formats but it's coming along.

I listened to the episode on the way home tonight and you did a great job. I was thinking that I would have to send you an email about the vimtutor but dang, didn't you then go and include it at the end. Good stuff.

One other thing worth mentioning is that Gvim is cross-platform. So those of us using XP at work don't have to go without our vim fix there either. Works exactly the same.

Again, good job.

[Deinumite]

So im thinking of picking up some books from that website....

any suggestions? probably a programming book.

ive done Java, C++ and PHP in high school (and QBASIC ages ago...and some Visual Basic i forgot)

i think ill stick with C++ for now as it seems to be pretty widely used, but which books on that site should i get hah?

[ajlewis2]

So im thinking of picking up some books from that website....

You might like Safari http://safari.oreilly.com/

I have the 9.95 a month version and that is all the reading material I can use.  The nice thing is that you can search all the books with it to find information and if you want to read a book, you just put it on your bookshelf. 

[Deinumite]

I think i want the actual physical version of it if im on a computer i get easily distracted (digg, joystiq, this forum etc)

im thinking of getting a C book....and maybe the two reference books or something...hmmm

[Deinumite]

I think ill get the C and C++ pocket reference book, and then the C in a nutshell book.

should keep me busy for a while hah