vim - Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor
 

 vim [options] [file ..]
 vim [options] -
 vim [options] -t tag
 vim [options] -q [errorfile]
 
 ex
 view
 gvim gview
 rvim rview rgvim rgview
 

 Vim is a text editor that is upwards compatible to Vi. It
 can be used to edit any ASCII text. It is especially use­
 ful for editing programs.
 
 There are a lot of enhancements above Vi: multi level
 undo, multi windows and buffers, syntax highlighting, com­
 mand line editing, filename completion, on-line help,
 visual selection, etc.. See ":help vi_diff.txt" for a
 summary of the differences between Vim and Vi.
 
 While running Vim a lot of help can be obtained from the
 on-line help system, with the ":help" command. See the
 ON-LINE HELP section below.
 
 Most often Vim is started to edit a single file with the
 command
 
 vim file
 
 More generally Vim is started with:
 
 vim [options] [filelist]
 
 If the filelist is missing, the editor will start with an
 empty buffer. Otherwise exactly one out of the following
 four may be used to choose one or more files to be edited.
 
 file .. A list of filenames. The first one will be
 the current file and read into the buffer.
 The cursor will be positioned on the first
 line of the buffer. You can get to the other
 files with the ":next" command. To edit a
 file that starts with a dash, precede the
 filelist with "--".
 
 - The file to edit is read from stdin. Commands
 are read from stderr, which should be a tty.
 
 label. {tag} is looked up in the tags file,
 the associated file becomes the current file
 and the associated command is executed.
 Mostly this is used for C programs, in which
 case {tag} could be a function name. The
 effect is that the file containing that func­
 tion becomes the current file and the cursor
 is positioned on the start of the function.
 See ":help tag-commands".
 
 -q [errorfile]
 Start in quickFix mode. The file [errorfile]
 is read and the first error is displayed. If
 [errorfile] is omitted, the filename is
 obtained from the 'errorfile' option (defaults
 to "AztecC.Err" for the Amiga, "errors.vim" on
 other systems). Further errors can be jumped
 to with the ":cn" command. See ":help quick­
 fix".
 
 Vim behaves differently, depending on the name of the com­
 mand (the executable may still be the same file).
 
 vim The "normal" way, everything is default.
 
 ex Start in Ex mode. Go to Normal mode with the
 ":vi" command. Can also be done with the "-e"
 argument.
 
 view Start in read-only mode. You will be protected
 from writing the files. Can also be done with
 the "-R" argument.
 
 gvim gview
 The GUI version. Starts a new window. Can also
 be done with the "-g" argument.
 
 rvim rview rgvim rgview
 Like the above, but with restrictions. It will
 not be possible to start shell commands, or sus­
 pend Vim. Can also be done with the "-Z" argu­
 ment.
 

 Type ":help" in Vim to get started. Type ":help subject"
 to get help on a specific subject. For example: ":help
 ZZ" to get help for the "ZZ" command. Use <Tab> and CTRL-
 D to complete subjects (":help cmdline-completion"). Tags
 are present to jump from one place to another (sort of
 hypertext links, see ":help"). All documentation files
 can be viewed in this way, for example ":help syntax.txt".
 

 /usr/share/vim/vim57/doc/*.txt
 The Vim documentation files. Use ":help
 doc-file-list" to get the complete list.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/doc/tags
 The tags file used for finding information
 in the documentation files.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/syntax/syntax.vim
 System wide syntax initializations.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/syntax/*.vim
 Syntax files for various languages.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/macros/vimrc
 System wide Vim initializations.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/macros/gvimrc
 System wide gvim initializations.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/optwin.vim
 Script used for the ":options" command, a
 nice way to view and set options.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/menu.vim
 System wide menu initializations for gvim.
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/bugreport.vim
 Script to generate a bug report. See
 ":help bugs".
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/filetype.vim
 
 /usr/share/vim/vim57/scripts.vim
 Script to detect the type of a file by its
 contents. See ":help 'filetype'".
 
 For recent info read the VIM home page:
 <URL:http://www.vim.org/>
 

 vimtutor(1)
 

 Most of Vim was made by Bram Moolenaar, with a lot of help
 from others. See ":help credits".
 Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by: Tim Thompson, Tony
 Andrews and G.R. (Fred) Walter. Although hardly any of
 the original code remains.
 

 Probably. See ":help todo" for a list of known problems.
 
 Note that a number of things that may be regarded as bugs
 by some, are in fact caused by a too-faithful reproduction
 of Vi's behaviour. And if you think other things are bugs
 "because Vi does it differently", you should take a closer
 look at the vi_diff.txt file (or type :help vi_diff.txt
 when in Vim). Also have a look at the 'compatible' and
 'cpoptions' options.