I use this book as a reference all too often. The authors do a good job at laying this book out, and the secrets of vi are all released in this book. I recommend this book mainly because of it's size. It's small enough to keep on the corner of your desk to reference when you need it.

If you use the vi editor often, you won't need this book. If, however, you're like me and use it once in a while to make changes in Linux system files, it can come in handy when you can't remember a command or two.

Also, the cover is darn cute! :-)

So basically this is a quick reference to the vi editor, with additional chapters covering all the other text-based editors that are based on vi (like vim, for instance).

This book has a major deficiency as a reference: you can't easily find a specific topic. The book has no index and the table of contents is too high-level to help you find a particular topic (for example, "vi Commands" as a table of contents entry isn't really going to help you locate a particular command).

The level of detail that is presented varies widely throughout the book. For example, Chapter 4 gives multi-sentence descriptions of the substitute command and regular expressions. Chapter 1 lists each command line option with a brief one-sentence description. Chapter 7 lists the vi options with no descriptions (the name of the option is often not self-explanatory--what does "magic" or "beautify" do?). If something is worth listing in this book, at least give it a brief description.

A quibble is with the four chapters on vi clones. It would have been nice if the author briefly described each of the clones and pointed out their strengths and weaknesses. These four chapters occupy over half of the book, so adding an extra overview paragraph to each chapter would not have significantly added to the bulk of the book.

On the positive side, I found the lists of command line options and vi commands useful.

Instead of buying this book, I would recommend searching for the various vi quick reference guides available on the Web for free. Some might argue that I'm expecting too much from a "pocket reference" and that it is intended for experienced users. My view is that the book could have been so much more useful. As it is, I do not feel the cost of the book is justified by its content.

This is a handy little book to have around if you use the "vi" text editor and haven't mastered all the commands. Or if you use a different text editor regularly, but find yourself in a place that has only vi. I have about 5 of the O'Reilly Pocket reference books and find them handy reminders for languages, etc. This book is not intended to "teach" a person how to use vi. It is what it says, a "reference" to jog your memory or possibly find how to cut and paste text or one of the numerous functions systems folks wind up doing at times. I do prefer a different editor but vi is ubiquitous.

This is the first time I've given any book five stars. That's because this is the best pocket quick reference of VI you're going to find. The information is presented as concisely as it can be and still remain accessible. Other, terser (and, yes, less expensive) quick reference cards for VI are too cryptic to be useful, in my opinion.

If you don't already know VI, try an on-line tutorial (there are plenty) or buy the more complete "Learning VI" book from O'Reilly to get you started. After you've acquired the basics, periodically refer to the Pocket Reference to add yet another "I didn't know VI did that" command to your toolkit.

I always only knew enough of vi to get me in and out of it without getting frustrated. A very basic understanding such as the commands i, a, o, dd, dw, Y and P. Actually, those were just about all I used except for wq! I did all of my coding in GUI IDE's and such... Mainly 'Moleskine' (which is a very very nice editor, by the way).

Recently, I realized that I hate having to always remove my hands from the keyboard every time I wanted to cut and paste or even scroll down the page. I decided to move on to vi. I tried elvis and vim. Since I don't like true in my source code, and work suggests 4 spaces instead of , then I had to go with vim because elvis didn't have the expand tab option.

Anyway, I'm amazed at what vim (and elvis too) can do! I started out reading the vim and elvis docs and saw a whole slew of things it can do. This is going to save me a lot of time and effort when coding! I got some nice syntax highlighting set up in vim (to match how elvis does it... just black and white. easy on the eyes.) and learned a lot of about the editor.

I figured that I wouldn't remember everything there was to know about the vi commands and such, so I went out and bought this book. Over the past 2 days I have been diving into it at least 10 times a day to discover if there are any commands or to get the right syntax for the ones I remember. This is already worth the [money] I spent on it!! I've learned a lot of things from it already.

I'd say if you are a seasoned vi user, this book isn't going to be of much help to you. Also, if you are a new user to VI, you need to get a full tutorial such as the parent book to this so they can walk you through some things. This book is just a *Pocket Reference*! Meaning, if you forget a commands syntax, this is a good thing to have on your desk so you can grab it quickly! It's not going to teach you squat about vi if you don' t know how to even enter Insert mode! However, if you're like me and you only know enough to get you in and out of vi, pick this book up! You'll be amazed at the commands you have been missing and the commands that will help you very very much! VI beats a GUI editor for efficiency and productivity, hands down!

Now, back to coding!

Just like O'Reilly's other books, this one shows you what you need to know about vi plus the other vi clones out there like VIM and Elvis. I've used Unix for years and it was nice to find this little reference. It's laid out by logical categories which makes finding the commands easy. I should say first 'easy' meaning you've used vi before, just need to lookup the syntax of a command. The last page shows you how to get information on the other vi type editors. I can tell you for sure elvis and vim are open source, which means FREE :-).

If you're a total newbie to vi and Unix, I'd suggest the Unix in a Nutshell book. If you just need vi, try Learning the vi Editor. Then the pocket reference can be for quick lookups. The O'Reilly books are great for the 'how do i do ???'. I've used the Nutshell books for years and haven't found a bad one yet.

The only reason I couldn't give this 5 stars was the price - [$] for about 66 pages seems a bit much. I just like having this small reference than having to drag my Unix In A Nutshell book around with me.

I didn't find this reference any good UNTIL I knew vi well. It is OK for a quick look up to remember a command; but to learn something new or more than you already know forget it. I have a coffee mug with vi commands on it that is far more helpful. Because of this experience, I am reluctant to buy others in this series (e.g. Python Pocket Reference).

This is a nice little pocket review. It's basically something you can get anywhere on the web packaged and bound with a pretty cover with an O'Reilly animal on it. I isn't really special in any way, but it's all that it is advertised.

I own four of the O'Reilly pocket references, and of them, this is (sadly) the least useful to me. I am already fairly skilled with the vi (and vim) editor and I was trying to pick up small pointers and tips that would increase my efficiency with the editor. I do a lot of programming with vi, and I know there are some things that I am not doing that could be saving me time.

Perhaps the best comparison for this book would be the OReilly Sed & Awk pocket reference. That is really a fantastic little book that offers a cohesive and brief introduction to the editor.

This book, instead, reads like a list of commands with very brief descriptions with, seemingly, little scheme or order. It is easier to read the manpage. Sadly, I have not found much use for this book yet.

So it might be good to have around if you were trying to do something on a system without manpages, or if you were willing to dedicate the time to figure out the organization of this book (whcih I frankly doubt there is). But in the long run, I think most people (even those seasoned vi(m) users out there) will better benefit from buying the parent book.

Recently it became absolutely necessary that I use a text based editor, such as emacs of vi, and thanks to this book, I've chosen vi. It explains quickly the commands and what to do with them. VI itself is very counterintuitive, and this little book provides the necessary help to change any file in any way as quickly as you'd like. I highly recommend it to have next to your computer when you use vi - even hardcore vi users might find its hints useful and figure out new ways of accomplishing certain tasks.

The price is a little bit too much for a book this size, and technically you can get all the information about vi commands online, but if you like your computer stuff explained to you on paper, this is it. Have fun using vi!