On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 11:59:36AM EDT, Eric Weir wrote: > Thanks, Chris. I was going to say I had no idea there was > a user-manual---until I took a look at the pdf version. In fact, I had > a hard copy of the book, but got rid of it because I couldn't > understand it. I went looking for it but found that, alas, I have > indeed gotten rid of it. May have get myself another copy. The pdf is > too maddening to navigate around in.
Ah, see.. you didn't even know it was there.. but not to worry, I used Vim for 2-3 years before I ran into it.. by accident. :-) The pdf version.. or worse a hard copy of the Vim help are IMHO useless because the Vim help was never meant to be read as a book in the first place.. for one thing, as you justly remarked.. you cannot navigate it.. I was not suggesting you sit down and read the entire user manual over a period of 10+ hours.. I set myself a fairly loose schedule.. like week one chapter one, etc. opened a tab and split the screen vertically with the manual displayed on the left and a playground scratch buffer on the right, read a couple of paragraphs.. practised what I read in the scratch buffer as well as the Vim command line.. tried to be creative or just curious and explored other possibilities.. followed some of the links to the reference manual.. googgled for answers when something was not entirely clear or I felt I could do with a second opinion.. etc. > I take to heart what you say about studying, not just reading through. > At this point I have a hard time imagining myself doing this with the > entire thing, all at once. I can certainly imagine doing that with the > chapters and sections that cover my current level of skill and > introduce me to some new useful skills. And returning to it > periodically to get myself onto a new level. Not all at once.. for me at least.. it's been a slow process. CJ -- AHH! The neurotic monkeys are after me! -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php