Errata

Very minor.

The examples for z call out "Enter", ".", and "-". For completeness(symmetry?), I would suggest noting that "+" is a synonym for "Enter".

Note from the Author or Editor:
change the entry for:
z [ENTER]

by additionally adding:
z+

resulting in:

z[ENTER]
z+

A nit, really.

The "n|" will just move to the end of the line (as opposed to adding spaces to the end) if the number, "n", is greater than the number of characters on the line.

I suppose this should be obvious but it does surprise some when they encounter it for the first time.

The text states two ways to override the view mode by adding an exclamation point to the write command.

The second example should be followed by the punctuation. It should be ":wq!", not ":wq"

:/pattern/=
Print the line number of the first line that matches *pattern*.

should be changed to:

Print the line number of the next line that matches *pattern*.

(first --> next)

This is a minor technical mistake. The example in the sentence below is technically wrong. There is a space between the ().

For example, [:;A-Za-z( )] will match four different punctuation marks, plus all letters.

so it should be:

For example, [:;A-Za-z()] will match four different punctuation marks, plus all letters.

or

For example, [:;A-Za-z( )] will match four different punctuation marks, and spaces plus all letters.

Note from the Author or Editor:
change:


For example, [:;A-Za-z( )] will match four different punctuation marks, plus all letters.

to:


For example, [:;A-Za-z()] will match four different punctuation marks, plus all letters.

While the problem with example 12 is that the given solution is just not optimal, the problem with example 13 is that the given solution is wrong.


Example 12
----------
Using

:%s/^ *//

instead would achieve the same task faster and IMHO cleaner.


Example 13
----------
The given solution

:%s/\(.*\) *$/\1/

does _not_ delete all spaces at the end of every line; since * is a greedy quantifier and the regex is parsed left to right, only one space at the end is deleted.

My favourite solution would be

:%s/ *$//

instead.

Note from the Author or Editor:
reader is correct, the example 13 should be corrected per his/her instructions as example 13 is wrong.

reader is also correct that in his/her opinion the suggested alternate substitution is cleaner. however, since example 12 is ostensibly correct (it does what it says it does), leave that one unchanged.

For vim (and probably vor elvis, but I can't check ATM) the description of the action is wrong:

``... When set, long lines simply go off the edge of the screen. ...''

This should read:

``... When unset, long lines simply go off the edge of the screen. ...''

Note: set vs. unset.

Note from the Author or Editor:
verified this behavior as described in reviewer's comments for vim.

change "When set" in the vim table entry to "When unset"

"A casual inspection of this directory (using the standard Unix word count tool, wc -c *.txt) shows 129 files comprising almost 122,000 lines of documentation!"

I believe the command used to obtain the line count was "wc -l *.txt".

Note from the Author or Editor:
erratum confirmed, change:

"A casual inspection of this directory (using the standard Unix word count tool, wc -c *.txt) shows 129 files comprising almost 122,000 lines of documentation!

to:

"A casual inspection of this directory (using the standard Unix word count tool, wc -l *.txt) shows 129 files comprising almost 122,000 lines of documentation!

The note begins: "One of the authors? favorite ways to use the CTRL-W + and CTRL-W - commands is by mapping each to keys, both keys adjacent. The + key is a convenient choice. Though it is already the Vim 'up' command, that behavior is redundant and little used by veteran Vim users (who use the k command instead)."

There are two problems with this. + does not move the cursor up a line; it moves the cursor to the first non-blank character on the line BELOW. Therefore, + is not equivalent to the k command; it is equivalent to the j^ command sequence.

Note from the Author or Editor:
submitter is correct, the '-' key is a nuanced different behavior in that not only does it move cursor up one line, but also moves cursor to first non-blank char in line.

I consider it very minor but there could be a parenthentic sentence (though I'm not sure I recommend it).

change:

Though it is already the Vim 'up' command, that behavior is redundant and little used by veteran Vim users (who use the k command instead)."

to
Though it is already the Vim 'up' command, that behavior is redundant and little used by veteran Vim users (who use the k command instead)." (NOTE: the '-' key does, in addition to moving cursor one line up, also moves cursor to first non-blank char in that line -- this is a slightly different behavior than 'k' key.)

In table 11-8, the commands to "Move to last buffer" are given as
:bfirst
:sbfirst

(These are listed in two places, correctly for the first instance, but incorrectly for the second instance.)

Note from the Author or Editor:
the entry on p190 where description is "Move to last buffer..." should have its left-hand-side changed from:
:bfirst
:sbfirst

to:
:blast
:sblast

set foldcolumns=n
should be
set foldcolumn=n

BTW, the short form of foldcolumn, fdc

Note from the Author or Editor:
submitter is correct:
page 246, center of tip box, line:

set foldcolumns=n

should be:

set foldcolumn=n

Type ~~ (toggle case for all characters in the current line).

should read:

Type g~~ (toggle case for all characters in the current line).

Note from the Author or Editor:
change:
Type ~~ (toggle case for all characters in the current line).

to:
Type ~~ (toggle case for all characters in the current line). (Note that this is the usage for changing case in line when vim option "tildeop" is set, otherwise the command would be "g~~".)

``First, make sure to get rid of all folds by typing zD [...]''

This should be zE instead of zD.