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From: jmccarty@euclid.ucsd.edu (Jon McCarty)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: minimum vi command set, was: Wanted: Easy, Full-screen Editor
Message-ID: <3858@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 14 Oct 90 05:09:37 GMT
References: <1990Oct4.153022.13721@news.iastate.edu> <1846@calmasd.Prime.COM> <1990Oct9.013103.18799@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
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In various articles, lots of people write:
>>>My employer needs a simple, full screen editor that will run on a VAX 8250
>>>running BSD 4.3-tahoe.  
>>Reconsider vi for this.  Just don't try to teach them everything
>>all at once.  
>
>My thoughts exactly.
>What do you REALLY need to use vi?

I've had the dubous pleasure of teaching hundreds of squealing freshmen
how to use VI as a Unix lab assistant over the last couple of years,
and I had a lot of success with a 5 minute presentation ("You ever used
a computer word-processor before?  No?  Good, that's less un-learning!")
and this print-out:

** BEGIN WASTED BANDWIDTH **
                              A QUICK GUIDE TO VI
                              -------------------
      Command Mode                        |       Insert Mode
      ------------                        |       -----------
                                          |
 Move       k                             |
 Keys:    h   l                           |
            j                             |
                                          |
 i - insert before (left of) cursor \     |
                                     >----+---->  (Now you can Type!)
 a - insert after (right of) cursor /     |
                                          |
 x - delete one character             <---+-----
                                          |  hit the [ESC] key to go back
dd - delete one line                      |  to command mode
                                          |
ZZ - Save & Quit                          |
                                          |
 u - undo last change                     |


Note:  You can delete multiple characters or lines by prefixing the appropriate
       command with a number, for example, type  5dd  to delete 5 lines.

** END WASTED BANDWIDTH **

The 'i' vs. 'a' distinction turns out to be real important, 'cuz you
need to be able to add to the end of a line.  I usually throw 'J' in
there too.
----
Jon
internet: jmccarty@ucsd.edu
bitnet: jmccarty@ucsd