Vim

Vim (Vi improved) is a text editor based on vi. It can be used from the command line or as a standalone application with graphical user interface.

Application installation
To install Vim with both the ncurses-based interface (for the terminal - ) and the graphical interface (for the X Window System - ), install :

There is also an experimental Qt interface called.

If the X Window System support is not needed, just install :

Extensions
The category app-vim provides a lot of additional syntax definitions, plugins and other Vim related stuff.

Use  or   to get an overview of available packages in the app-vim category:

Getting started
Vim has a built-in tutorial which should require around 30 min to go through. Start it using the  command:

Modes
Vim has 3 modes:
 * Command mode: Keystrokes are interpreted as commands
 * Insert mode: Keystrokes are interpreted as text (except a few special commands)
 * Visual mode: Visual mode supports you by selecting some text. It behaves a lot like command mode

Using Vim like ex or ed from the command line
Add '#' to begin of each line of file.txt:

From vim command mode:

Change file encoding
Change encoding of file to UTF-8:

Reload file in UTF-8 from vim command mode:

External resources

 * Vim Documentation Includes Manuals (aka ":help" and Free VIM OPL Book), FAQS, HOWTO's, Tutorials, in HTML, PDF, PS formats.
 * VIM Scripts/Plugins
 * Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition O'Reilly  Print ISBN: 978-0-596-52983-3, Ebook ISBN: 978-0-596-15935-1