Linux is becoming popular day by day as an operating system for managing web hosting services among webmasters. Due to its cost effectiveness Linux Hosting services are preferred on a large scale. As Linux is a command driven language, one should be very well familiar with the various editors which are used while operating a linux based computer system. VIM is known as one of the most popular editor among Linux users. VIM editor is an advance version of VI and it plays an important role while handling the different tags. One major advantage of using VIM editor on a Linux server is ‘it consumes very less amount of resources of the system. Surprisingly VIM also works without any interruption on a slow speed network also. There is no use of computer mouse can be experienced while working with the VIM. Many similarities can be found between the Microsoft based ‘‘Notepad’ and VIM.
VIM Operation can be divided into main three modes as following.
Command Mode :- By default you come to this mode when you start the VIM. In this mode, input text is treated as command, most of these commands can be entered with a single text character. One need to take care of upper and lower case while using these commands as they are case sensitive. Few commands can be used with combination or in a prefixed way with qualifiers.
Input Mode :- This mode enables you to use the all characters as a plain text, whichever key (except ‘Esc’) you press is treated as a text input by VIM. The text is not treated a command hence the only way to exit from the Input mode is pressing ‘Esc’ key. By pressing ‘Esc’ key you return to ‘Command Mode’
Last Line Mode :- Commands to the ex editor, on which the VIM is based, can be entered in this mode. You need to type colon ‘:’ from the Command Mode for entering in to Last Line Mode. ‘:’ and your typed text is shown on the last line of your screen and that’s why this mode is called Last Line Mode.