Rating: 
Summary: Helpful.
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: A great little helper.
Review: A great book. Its very helpful. The only downside was the poor indexing, but since its so short in pages, it doesn't take long to thumb through and fine what you want. Though the price is a little steep for the size of book you get.
Rating:
Summary: A very, very good pocket reference
Review: 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 <tabs> in my source code, and work suggests 4 spaces instead of <tabs>, 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!
Rating:
Summary: Worth the [money]
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Fine if you already know vi.
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: Not Enough Examples
Review: I had to use vi again after having been out of the UNIX environment for 6 years, so I bought this book for a refresher. It is OK, but there are not enough examples and more than half of the book is dedicated to other flavors of vi (elvis, nvi, vim, and vile). I need to supplement this book with stuff from the web - some of which was more useful than the book. So yes the book is cheap and somewhat useful, but the web is free!
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite as helpful as some of the other Pocket References
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: All I needed
Review: I purchased this pocket reference as i needed to do some programming on a unix box and had not used vi before. This book was a total blessing, I was able to get instant answers on what commands I needed. This book helped me get the job done quickly and I no longer pull my hair out when I use vi. Thanks O'reilly !
Rating:
Summary: Great little reference - price a little much though
Review: 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 - [$] for about 66 pages seems a bit much. I just like having this small reference than having to drag my Unix In A Nutshell book around with me.
Rating:
Summary: Great little reference - price a little much though
Review: Just like O'Reilly's other books, this one shows you what you need to know about vi plus the other vi clones out there like VIM and Elvis. I've used Unix for years and it was nice to find this little reference. It's laid out by logical categories which makes finding the commands easy. I should say first 'easy' meaning you've used vi before, just need to lookup the syntax of a command. The last page shows you how to get information on the other vi type editors. I can tell you for sure elvis and vim are open source, which means FREE :-). If you're a total newbie to vi and Unix, I'd suggest the Unix in a Nutshell book. If you just need vi, try Learning the vi Editor. Then the pocket reference can be for quick lookups. The O'Reilly books are great for the 'how do i do ???'. I've used the Nutshell books for years and haven't found a bad one yet. The only reason I couldn't give this 5 stars was the price - [$] 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.
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