I wrote a book, on Vim, called: Mastering Vim Quickly: From WTF to OMG in no time.
I want to tell you a bit about it.
Yes I am. The first time I saw a Vim master in action, I thought: “WTF is this guy doing with his code?!”
Once I realized how easy that was, my next thought was: “OMG I have to try this!”
There was no really a good book on Vim. Not for me.
Just like You are, I’m very busy too. I don’t wanna spend days on reading 300 page long books on Vim.
I don’t need to know 1000 different ways do X in Vim, one or two is enough!
I don’t want MORE information. I want LESS information, but I want the RESULTS.
There was no book like this – so I had to write one. Here’s what some of my readers had to say on this note:
Your book gave me the push I needed to explore Vim a bit further, and I now use it for much more than coding: from managing my notes and useful links on ViwWiki, to draft emails, to pretty much anything which requires editing text (including CSV, JSON, etc.). And after many months I still go back to MVQ for reference.” – Cesare Tagliaferri, CTO at tsc.ai
This book is exactly what I searched for. You start with things every “vimmer” must know from very beginning. For example: changing text in visual mode. So important staff I found just a couple of weeks ago. I wish I knew it before. Thank for your good work. – Arie Ender
I’m glad you asked! Stay with me here, read the three points below, it’s important:
1. I’m a learning addict, so I know A LOT about learning and our psychology.
While learning any skill, there is a period of time in which you’re horribly unskilled, and you’re painfully aware of that fact. The same applies when learning Vim.
But there’s a simple way to overcome this. The biggest obstacle you will face in your quest to learn Vim is yourself. Once you’re aware of it, even Vim becomes easy.
2. The core principles and the most important features:
One of the beautiful things about learning Vim is the fact that you don’t need to know everything. You only need to understand a few critically important concepts that provide most of the value.
If you invest the time and energy necessary to learn these concepts, you’ll easily be in the top 1% of the human population when it comes to productivity in coding/programming/text editing.
3. Good structure, many practical examples + screencasts
Over the years I’ve collected, distilled and refined my findings on Vim into the concepts and best tips which are presented in Mastering Vim Quickly. Think of this book as a filter.
Instead of trying to absorb all of the Vim knowledge—and there’s really a lot out there—use this book to get what matters the most.
PLUS: Screencasts you can get cover most important examples from the book, step by step. Each of them is only 1-3 minutes long, and without sound. This means you can listen to music while learning Vim! See one of them below.
– Mastering Vim Quickly book in PDF, MOBI and EPUB – purposefully written to be a quick read (~100 pages only!)
– 19 short and to the point screencasts covering the most important examples from the book
– Learning to Learn Effectively bonus book in PDF (14 pages)
– Introduction to Vim Plugins bonus book in PDF (15 pages)
Sure! I can send you ToC + 4 chapters from Mastering Vim Quickly and bonuses, free of charge.
What’s your email?
Of course it is. Warning: you might become advanced in Vim very quickly!
I loved the way that the content is spread across the book. I mean that it’s half a tutorial and half a vim-thesaurus. It does not tell you everything. I you want to find out more, you have to search for it explicitly. I do recommend this book because it’s a batteries-included book about Vim. No more, no less. I would really like this book to be sold in hard copy as well. :)” – Nick M.
Absolutely. But you don’t have to trust me, see what some of the advanvced Vim users said about my book:
@MasteringVim as someone who first started using vi in 1989 I thought I was pretty good but your book is a masterpiece ! The learning continues.. thank you
— Stu Bevan (@lalabert) February 22, 2018
The book and videos
Bonus books
It is a great book packed with lots of productivity tips. By the end you will never want (or need) to exit the vim text editor.
— Gregory D. Horne (@GregoryDHorne) November 23, 2017
@jovica Thank you for taking the time to write @MasteringVim I’ve been a casual vim user for a year-ish but this is exactly what I needed to commit to getting better with it. ? your approach to learning vim and learning in general. ? ???
— ??BenGitsCode?? (@BenGitsCode) November 18, 2017
I just finished @MasteringVim . It’s a great book. Thanks @jovica
— __init__.py (@yonatancony) February 9, 2018
Thanks to the @MasteringVim book by @jovica, i was finally able to exit Vim, and even add some more awesome tweaks to my setup pic.twitter.com/MMyok9VbLO
— Andri Steiner (@andristeiner) November 27, 2017
Finally, one I knew of! I consider myself pretty experienced with vim, still, I learn something new every time I open your book. Glad to support your work, keep it up!
— Cesare Tagliaferri (@taglia) May 1, 2018
Someone who cares about me a lot, gave me the @MasteringVim book… Not only I hype but inmediately I just started to read, now I can’t count how many times I said “OMG”… And I read just first 30 pages, I can’t stop! Thanks @jovica for such amazing book!
— Ch1nux Par1bus (@ch1nux) July 19, 2018
This trick is so good damn cool!!! I’ve buyed the book and it’s worth every penny! #vim https://t.co/XOhNpmt2wW
— Michael Topal (@h4ckt1c) March 8, 2018
Wow, this easy tip made my day #vim, thanks @masteringvim @jovica pic.twitter.com/pkzT6ultK8
— Oscar M. (@oscarmlage) December 8, 2017
I am reading Mastering VIM Quickly by @jovica and loving it ?https://t.co/f48FMa0wZT
— Frankie (@FrankiChurri) May 23, 2018
This tip was adapted from @MasteringVim, an awesome book by @jovica ??. You should check it and subscribe for free chapters on your email!
— Jonas B. Rossi (@rossijonas) April 26, 2018
Muahahaha! I have not been this excited about a book in a very long time! Thanks @MasteringVim pic.twitter.com/GhfOsVWqHa
— Marco Peereboom (@marco_peereboom) September 7, 2018
The book includes all of the content presented in screencasts. Screencasts do not cover every single chapter nor every single example. They are created to cover the most important Vim features and concepts, and meant to be used together with the book.
This is the first edition of Mastering Vim Quickly. It’s going to be a long term project. The plan is to update the book (and other materials) once a year. Current version (v1.1) is published on April 2018, 5 months after the first publication. No matter how much I tried, I’m sure there are still some typos and errors left in there. If you find one, let me know please!
Here’s what I think: Money-back guarantee means failure. I’m offering you something better:
My main goal with this project is to help You learn Vim. I don’t want to sell Mastering Vim Quickly to people who don’t want to commit to anything. I want people who are committed to results, to buy my book.
Because I strongly believe: until someone is committed, information is just a waste of time.
That’s why, there are no refunds. By not allowing a refund I can be sure you actually will read Mastering Vim Quickly. And you will probably read it with much greater attention, so you can absorb all the precious stuff you have in there.
This is investment in yourself. Getting a refund means you failed in your main goal – learning Vim. I’m here to help you learn Vim, not play money games with you :)
I know that if you have NO CHOICE but to make this work–and take the maximum out of this book, you will learn Vim.
The author of Mastering Vim Quickly is Jovica Ilic. Sysadmin. Fan of Vim and Gentoo.
You have questions? Get in touch: [email protected]