This is a slim book which provides a summary of the features of the vi editor. The Solaris 2.6 version is the 'reference' implementation, but the book also covers the four popular clones vim, elvis, nvi and vile.

Each chapter concentrates on a particular aspect of vi, such as 'vi commands' or 'substitution and regular expressions'. Simpler features are usually described in a single sentence, but some more complex topics get several paragraphs to themselves. Each vi clone covered has its own chapter describing its particular features.

The book is actually a companion to O'Reilly's Learning the vi Editor and therefore makes no attempt to be a tutorial. Nevertheless, for anyone who has mastered the basics of editing using vi, it should be a useful reference. Being so short, it's easy to read through from cover to cover to get a feel for some of the more advanced features of vi and then look up the detailselsewhere.

If you use vi or one of its clones and are looking for a convenient reference, this is definitely worth considering.