What is vi?

Answer 1

I can at least tell you the VI is the standard editor used on a lot of Unix platforms. However, it is so clunky that the joke is the name is an abbreviation for "Virtually Impossible".

Vi has a steep learning curve and is not obvious to the casual user. For example, Vi has two modes: Insert mode and Command mode. A user starts in command mode by default, and has to type either 'a', 'i' or the insert key to change to insert mode. In insert mode, a user is free to type the document. To go back to command mode, a user should type the [esc] key.

Command mode is very useful for performing operations that are imposible to do in more modern editors. For example, a user could delete x lines of text by typing xdd, where x is the number of lines to delete. Many more shortcuts like these are available in the editor.

To save a document, a vi user would go to Command mode, type :w (for write), :x (x will save the document and exit the application). To quit without saving, a user would type :q (for quit). However, if the document has been modified since it was last opened, Vi will complain. In order to bypass this security feature, type an exclamation point after the command, such as :q!.

Years ago being able to navigate successfully in VI was seen as a kind of badge of honor among programmers, sort of "REAL programmers know how to edit text in VI while wimps use [fill in the blank]". In practice, however, using a slow and difficult tool to perform a straightforward job is really more a mark of stubbornness than of any great ability. There are many other better editors out there. I'm partial to UNI-XEDIT, a clone of IBM's XEDIT editor that provides a full-featured interface and an intuitive scripting language.

However, after a steep learning curve, VI is a very powerful editor.

Answer 2

une vie is a life so vies is the plural -lives

Answer 3

The phrase is vis a vis, from French, meaing 'face-to-face'.