VI Books

Linux in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

Ellen Siever, Aaron Weber, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love, Arnold Robbins

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> Linux -> Programming
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> Linux -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Over the last few years, Linux has grown both as an operating system and a tool for personal and business use. Simultaneously becoming more user friendly and more powerful as a back-end system, Linux has achieved new plateaus: the newer filesystems have solidified, new commands and tools have appeared and become standard, and the desktop--including new desktop environments--have proved to be viable, stable, and readily accessible to even those who don't consider themselves computer gurus.

Whether you're using Linux for personal software projects, for a small office or home office (often termed the SOHO environment), to provide services to a small group of colleagues, or to administer a site responsible for millions of email and web connections each day, you need quick access to information on a wide range of tools. This book covers all aspects of administering and making effective use of Linux systems. Among its topics are booting, package management, and revision control. But foremost in "Linux in a Nutshell" are the utilities and commands that make Linux one of the most powerful and flexible systems available.

Now in its fifth edition, "Linux in a Nutshell" brings users up-to-date with the current state of Linux. Considered by many to be the most complete and authoritative command reference for Linux available, the book covers all substantial user, programming, administration, and networking commands for the most common Linux distributions.

Comprehensive but concise, the fifth edition has been updated to cover new features of major Linux distributions. Configuration information for the rapidly growing commercial network services and community update services isone of the subjects covered for the first time.

But that's just the beginning. The book covers editors, shells, and LILO and GRUB boot options. There's also coverage of Apache, Samba, Postfix, sendmail, CVS, Subversion, Emacs, vi, sed, gawk, and much more. Everything that system administrators, developers, and power users need to know about Linux is referenced here, and they will turn to this book again and again.

Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))

Tony Stubblebine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries.

This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular expressions can be an outlet for creativity, for brilliant programming, and for the elegant solution. Regular Expression Pocket Reference offers an introduction to regular expressions, pattern matching, metacharacters, modes and constructs, and then provides separate sections for each of the language APIs, with complete regex listings including:

• Supported metacharacters for each language API
• Regular expression classes and interfaces for Ruby, Java, .NET, and C#
• Regular expression operators for Perl 5.8
• Regular expression module objects and functions for Python
• Pattern-matching functions for PHP and the vi editor
• Pattern-matching methods and objects for JavaScript
• Unicode Support for each of the languages

With plenty of examples and other resources, Regular Expression Pocket Reference summarizes the complex rules for performing this critical text-processing function, and presents this often-confusing topic in a friendly and well-organized format. This guide makes an ideal on-the-job companion.

Learning the vi and Vim Editors

Arnold Robbins, Elbert Hannah, Linda Lamb

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> Unix -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

There's nothing that hard-core Unix and Linux users are more fanatical about than their text editor. Editors are the subject of adoration and worship, or of scorn and ridicule, depending upon whether the topic of discussion is your editor or someone else's. vi has been the standard editor for close to 30 years. Popular on Unix and Linux, it has a growing following on Windows systems, too. Most experienced system administrators cite vi as their tool of choice. And since 1986, this book has been the guide for vi. However, Unix systems are not what they were 30 years ago, and neither is this book. While retaining all the valuable features of previous editions, the 7th edition of Learning the vi and vim Editors has been expanded to include detailed information on vim, the leading vi clone. vim is the default version of vi on most Linux systems and on Mac OS X, and is available for many other operating systems too. With this guide, you learn text editing basics and advanced tools for both editors, such as multi-window editing, how to write both interactive macros and scripts to extend the editor, and power tools for programmers -- all in the easy-to-follow style that has made this book a classic. Learning the vi and vim Editors includes: A complete introduction to text editing with vi: How to move around vi in a hurry Beyond the basics, such as using buffers vi's global search and replacement Advanced editing, including customizing vi and executing Unix commands How to make full use of vim: Extended text objects and more powerful regular expressions Multi-window editing and powerful vim scripts How to make full use of the GUI version of vim, called gvim vim's enhancements for programmers, such as syntax highlighting, folding and extended tags Coverage of three other popular vi clones -- nvi, elvis, and vile -- is also included. You'll find several valuable appendixes, including an alphabetical quick reference to both vi and ex mode commands for regular vi and for vim, plus an updated appendix on vi and the Internet. Learning either vi or vim is required knowledge if you use Linux or Unix, and in either case, reading this book is essential. After reading this book, the choice of editor will be obvious for you too.

VI Editor Pocket Reference

Arnold Robbins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not a useful reference, pocket or otherwise 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

The vi Editor Pocket Reference is a companion volume to O'Reilly's updated sixth edition of Learning the vi Editor, a complete guide to text editing with vi. New topics in Learning the vi Editor include multi-screen editing and coverage of four vi clones: vim, elvis, nvi, and vile. This small book is a handy reference guide to the information in the larger volume, presenting movement and editing commands, the command-line options, and other elements of the vi editor in an easy-to-use tabular format.

Learning the vi Editor (6th Edition)

Arnold Robbins, Linda Lamb

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> Unix -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For many users, working in the Unix environment means using vi, a full-screen text editor available on most Unix systems. Even those who know vi often make use of only a small number of its features. The sixth edition of Learning the vi Editor is a complete guide to text editing with vi. Early chapters cover the basics; later chapters explain more advanced editing tools, such as ex commands and global search and replacement, as well as a new feature, multiscreen editing. Today, there are a number of independently written versions of vi. Besides the original, the book now covers four other versions: nvi, elvis, vim, and vile. For easy reference, the sixth edition also includes a command summary at the end of each appropriate chapter. You'll quickly learn the basics of editing, cursor movement, and global search and replacement, then go on to take advantage of the more subtle power of vi. Using the clones gives you added flexibility and ease of use over traditional vi.

TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac (Pragmatic Programmers)

James Gray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

TextMate is a powerful tool for programmers, web designers, and anyone else who regularly needs to work with text files on Mac OS X. TextMate focuses on pragmatic automation, which means it will save you time time that's always in short supply. See how your lowly text editor can become a hard working member of your staff.

TextMate is a full-featured text editor available for Mac OS X that can greatly enhance your text manipulation skills. TextMate is actually a thin shell over a personalized team of robot ninjas ready to do your bidding. Let's face it, who doesn't want their very own team of robot ninjas?

With TextMate you can do your normal work, but signal the ever-watchful ninjas as you go. At your command, they will launch into action, slicing through text, building repetitive structures of data in the blink of an eye, and much more. They will even post to your blog, handle your IRC conversations, and read your email.

Inside this book you will learn how to teleport instantly to the exact line of the file you need to be on, edit the data with the briefest incantations of power, and banish the end result to the land of your choosing. It's magic, as you can plainly see.

Leave the days of dull work behind. Learn your spells, gain access to your team of robot ninjas, and you too will be able to edit text so effortlessly that everyone watching over your shoulder will be forced to ask, "Wait, how did you do that?"

Vi iMproved (VIM) (Landmark)

Steve Oualline

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Little detail, bad organization, Poor as a reference 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

If you've never used Vi before, this book will help you to get started. But after the first week, it won't be very useful.

I use Vim everyday as a computer programmer, and whenever I need to figure out how to do something, I now just turn to google. The book covers many features of Vim, but in not much detail. The Appendix is sparse and often wrong. And topics are usually scattered in 3 different places in the book.

For example, I don't use macros a lot, but I know they are a simple and powerful feature that many Vim users use all the time. Looking up how to use them took me through 2 sections and 15 minues. And the command involes only 2 keys!

The first two chapters tell you how to get started in VIM with the basic commands - and its easy enough to follow along with. But the other 28 chapters don't help you get much done at all.

Editorial Review:

Real Linux users don't use GUIs. No matter how popular, slick and sophisticated the interfaces become for Linux and UNIX, you'll always need to be able to navigate in a text editor. The vi editor is the original standard UNIX full screen editor. It's been around almost since UNIX began and it has changed very little. To get around the limitations of vi the people at Bram Moolenaar created the vim editor (the name stand for VI iMproved). It contains many more features than the old vi editor including: help, multiple windows, syntax highlighting, programmer support, and HTML support. All of the books published to date focus on vi alone not the expanded vim shipping with every major Linux distribution. In true New Riders' form, the vim reference will be a definitive, concise reference for the professional Linux user and developer. This tutorial takes a task oriented approach allowing you to learn only the commands that make your job easier.

AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual

Jim Elferdink, David Reynolds

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Apple -> Spreadsheets

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Too many writers of books about software let the software determine how they organize the material. If the File menu contains commands A, B, and C, the writers put A, B, and C in the same chapter, regardless of whether they're functionally similar. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is organized more logically, tackling the functional units--including Internet integration, macro programming, and table creation, among others--in separate chapters. It's an approach that makes sense for AppleWorks, in which the spreadsheet module can be used to create tables for word processor documents and all the modules rely on a common graphics editor. For those who want to know what a particular menu command does, there's menu-by-menu documentation in an appendix.

You get the requisite instructions: explicit steps to follow if you want to transpose rows in a spreadsheet, for example, or export button graphics for use in Web pages. Other procedures, like making calculations that refer to cells in multiple spreadsheets, are explained in text. "Workaround Workshop" modules call attention to shortcomings in AppleWorks (such as its two-palette limit when you're working with colors) and explain how to get around them (use a custom palette). Throughout, the instructions are engaging and fun to read. --David Wall

Topics covered: AppleWorks 6, the multipurpose office-productivity suite for Mac OS; the suite's capabilities, comprehensively--including word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, databases, and presentations; how to create documents and databases from scratch, as well as from existing materials.

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF for Dummies

Greg, PhD Harvey

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Editorial Review:

* Covers accessing and distilling PDF files; converting Microsoft Office documents; capturing paper documents and Web pages; printing, annotating, editing and securing PDF files; extracting text and graphics; cataloging and distributing PDF files; creating interactive forms; and building multimedia presentations.
* Readers can convert any document to this universal file format, preserving all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of the source document regardless of the application and platform used to create it.
* PDF files can be published and distributed anywhere: in print, attached to e-mail, on corporate servers, posted on Web sites, or on CD-ROM
* Adobe PDF is the emerging workflow standard in the $400 billion publishing industry and plays a key role in financial services, regulated industries, and government, with more than 155 agencies worldwide sharing Adobe PDF files.

Adobe Acrobat 6.0: Getting Professional Results from Your PDFs

Carl Young

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If you must only have one Acrobat 6 resource, make it this! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Every graphic designer should own this book! Designers constantly send PDFs
that are waaaaay to big, or have missing fonts to my small marketing/pr
firm. I may buy copies for every designer I work with.

The Essential Guide to Acrobat 6.0 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Unlike many books in this category, Carl Young's book is not a rewrite of the Acrobat Help file. He lays out the most common mistakes creators of PDFs make, and then provides step-by-step solutions. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

Create stunning professional-level PDFs with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 for print, the Web, or CD-ROM with expert tips and techniques from one of the best-known authorities in the field, Carl Young. Whether you work in the Standard or Professional editions of version 6.0, the tools you learn here will teach you to take advantage of the dramatic new feature enhancements such as PDF Optimizer, transparency flattener preview, one-touch PDF creation from Microsoft Visio, Project, and AutoCAD, and much more. Learn how to work together with other applications such as Microsoft Word, QuarkXpress, and many more. Discover techniques that will save you time and money. Example PDFs will be available online as well.