Looking for a VIM Book

Question

I have been using vim for about six months now. I know my way around pretty well. I know all of the "basic commands", have defined my own functions and have defined some syntax files.

I was hopping to pickup a book on vim to read in my spare time. There is nothing specific that I want to learn I just want to improve my general knowledge.

I looked on amazon and there are about 7 possibilities. Any recommendations?

Answer 1

Here is a link to a similar question, with pretty good links and suggestions:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/257699/recommendations-for-a-good-vi-reference

Answer 2

How about this one

http://www.truth.sk/vim/vimbook-OPL.pdf

Answer 3

Hacking Vim by Kim Schulz is an excellent reference.

Answer 4

The most recent book about Vim is: "Learning the Vi and Vim Editors" by Linda Lamb, Arnold Robbins and Elbert Hannah. If you click the link over at ICCF Holland, Bram Moolenaar's chosen charity will get the Amazon Associates credit.

I found the vim_use mailing list to be the best resource for learning Vim when I was starting out with Vim and for many years to follow.

Answer 5

Learning the vi and Vim editors from O'reilly is definitely the best book for learning Vim If you're interested, post your email address and I can share you my PDF copy of the book

Answer 6

Hacking Vim 7.2 was released on April 29 of 2010, so it's likely the most up-to-date book. It's an update of Hacking Vim. Slashdot gave it a very positive review last week.

Also, there are a TON of great websites and screencasts about Vim. In the long run these have been the most useful for me, as they tend to present information in digestible, immediately usable chunks:

• Derek Wyatt's Vim screencasts
• vimcasts.org
• Of course, the Vim Tips wiki

Also, one of the best ways to learn Vim is to use the help. I found that installing Fuzzy Finder and mapping the FufHelp command was a huge boon in utilizing the help system. Since it does a letter-by-letter fuzzy find you'll automatically see help articles with similar keywords, which makes navigating easier.

Answer 7

You could try Kim Schulz's updated Vim book titled Hacking Vim 7.2

Answer 8

I have a copy of "Vi IMproved - VIM" by Steve Oualline that I've gotten great use out of some of it may be out of date slightly but I'd still recommend it. ( http://www.amazon.com/Vi-iMproved-VIM-Steve-Oualline/dp/0735710015 )

Also, not meaning to toot my own horn, but there are some tutorials on vim which I wrote listed at http://www.linux.ie/vim that you might find useful.

Answer 9

Take the time to read the manual included with VIM. It's pretty good.