Chapter 4. Text Editing: Emacs and VI

Emacs
Short Presentation
Getting Started
Handling buffers
Copy, Cut, Paste, Search
Quit emacs
Vi: the ancestor
Insert Mode, Command Mode, ex Mode...
Handling Buffers
Editing Text and Move Commands
Cut, Copy, Paste
Quit Vi
A last word...

As stated in the introduction, text editing[9] is a fundamental feature when using a UNIX® system. The two editors we are going to take a quick look at are a little difficult to use initially, but once you understand the basics, each one can prove to be a powerful tool. This is particularly because of the numerous edit modes available which provide specific editing features for a great variety of file types (perl, C++, XML, etc.).



[9] To edit text” means to modify the content of a file containing only letters, digits, and punctuation symbols. It contains no layout information such as fonts, quadding, etc. Such files may be e-mail messages, source code, documents, or even configuration files.