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From: nancym@microsoft.UUCP (Nancy McGough)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: minimum vi command set, was: Wanted: Easy, Full-screen Editor
Message-ID: <58374@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 90 03:04:31 GMT
References: <1990Oct4.153022.13721@news.iastate.edu> <1846@calmasd.Prime.COM> <1990Oct9.013103.18799@mthvax.cs.miami.edu>
Reply-To: nancym@microsoft.UUCP (Nancy McGough)
Distribution: na
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 67

In article <1990Oct9.013103.18799@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes:
>What do you REALLY need to use vi?
>
>	cursor keys
>	<ESC>
>	i		(forget a,I,A)
>	x
>	u		(optional)
>	J		(maybe)
>	ZZ
>Sure they're LOTS of things that will go slowly with only the
>above, but is there any text you cannot enter or edit?

When I first learned vi, the only way I could get from command mode to
input mode was with i and it drove me crazy when I wanted to input text
after the last character on a line -- I would use i to insert before
the last character, retype the last character, then type the new text,
then switch to command mode and use x to delete that pesky last character
which was no longer the last character.  My point is -- I think that
"a" should be included in a minimal set of vi commands!

Here's what I'd recommend for a minimal set:

ESC  Command Mode
h    left   
j    down
k    up
l    right
x    delete character
i    Input Mode, insert before character
a    Input Mode, append after character
o    Input Mode, insert on a new line below current line
:wq  write (save edits) and quit
:q!  quit without saving edits

For a little more power (in no particular order):

I    Input Mode, insert at beginning of current line
A    Input Mode, append to end of current line
O    Input Mode, insert on a new line above current line
R    Input Mode, replace text until ESC is pressed
r    Input Mode, replace character then return to Command Mode
u    undo last command
dd   delete line into buffer
dw   delete word into buffer
D    delete to end of line into buffer
Y    yank copy of current line into buffer
P    put buffer contents before 
p    put buffer contents after 
cw   change word until ESC is pressed
^    move to beginning of current line
$    move to end of current line
w    move forward a word
b    move back a word
J    join next line with current line
xp   exchange current character and next character
:1   move to line 1
:$   move to the last line
CTRL+b  move back a screen
CTRL+f  move forward a screen

Note that you can prepend (is that a word?) a number to many of 
these commands.  For example, 5dd deletes 5 lines.

I think I got carried away here . . .!

nancy