Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor.
Vim stands for Vi IMproved. From the Vim website:
Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems.
Vim is often called a "programmer's editor," and so useful for programming that many consider it an entire IDE. It's not just for programmers, though. Vim is perfect for all kinds of text editing, from composing email to editing configuration files.
The most confusing aspect of Vim (and vi) is that it is a modal editor, meaning that it has different modes. In Normal mode, dd would delete a line, but in Insert mode, dd simply inserts dd into the text.
Free Vim books
- A Byte of Vim - Swaroop C H
- Vi Improved -- Vim (PDF) - Steve Oualline
Documentation
- Searchable help documentation
Screencasts
- Vim Tutorial Videos - Derek Wyatt
- Vimcasts - Drew Neil
Online resources
- A dedicated Stack Exchange for vi and Vim
- Learn Vimscript the Hard Way - Steve Losh
- Vim Regular Expressions 101
