Learning the vi Editor
 

Sometimes, it becomes necessary to create a cron script or tinker with files on the server slightly. Most linux servers have an editor called vim that you can use. It is a decent text editor, but if you have never used it before, it can be overwhelming. In fact, I have had my board for 2 years now, and I have just now got brave enough to play with vim.

On some systems, at the shell you can type vimtutor and take a quick tutorial on how to use the editor. However, not all systems have the tutorial set up correctly, and not everybody wants to take a tutorial "long-distance" as it were.

The nice thing is, vim is available for Windows and can be downloaded here:

http://www.vim.org/download.php

There is an installation .exe file which sets vim up in a heartbeat on your PC. It also sets up a GUI version, but you will want to practice using the command line version.

By default, it is installed in the c:\vim directory. The tutorial is found in the c:\vim\vim61 directory. So, at a dos prompt, change to that directory and then type vimtutor. It's that simple. In a matter of minutes, you will learn how to open files, save files, quit without saving, insert and delete characters, and more. Then, after practicing on your local machine, you are ready to edit any files you need on your server.

Give it a shot. It's really not that hard once you learn the commands.

Amy

what about pico?

Haven't tried it. Normally on unix machines I would use emacs, but that doesn't seem to be a default app installed on most hosts.

Amy

[high]* filburt1 bows down to Pico while mooning vi in the process ;)[/high]

Off to download pico and play :D I'll be back with an informed opinion later. ;)

Amy