Unit 3--Configuring Files and Playing with Vim

Like everyone has been mentioning on the discussion forum, I really enjoyed the vim tutor experience. It was nice to have a place to practice commands without feeling like I could mess anything up by doing the wrong thing. My favorite thing I learned from the tutorial was using % to move to matching parenthesis or brackets. I can see this coming in handy to make sure that all parenthesis are closed in a program!

Also the quit without saving command (:q) reminds me of a little face that’s screaming because you quit without saving. The quit and save command (:wq) is a little bird who is happy you wrote the file (that’s what the “w” stands for) and then quit. Similarly, I liked that the tutorial explained that the command for copy is “y” for “yank”. I am much more likely to remember a command if it is rooted in a familiar word or concept.

I have looked at a few vim cheat sheets and encyclopedias online. Clearly, using vim can be as simple or sophisticated as you want. I am interested in becoming more of a vim virtuoso!

Configuring the files per the assignments went well for me. I was paranoid, so I took a few snapshots, but I only had to use one once. The first time I tried to configure Aptitude the /etc/apt/sources.list file was blank! I don’t know what happened, but when I loaded from my snapshot that I took before beginning the configuration, everything worked out fine.

Configuring my Mac is very different from configuring in Linux. On my Mac, I usually mess with settings using “System Preferences” which is a graphical representation of all of the different areas of my computer. I have never had to figure out terminal-level commands for my Mac. If I want to learn how to modify something, I usually Google it, and end up with directions of what pre-determined option to select, or a new application or program to purchase. It is a much more “hands off” approach that modifying settings using the CLI.

Also, somewhat relatedly, thank you Professor Fulton for referencing that XKCD comic (http://xkcd.com/149/)! When I fist read that one years ago, I had no idea what “sudo” meant. Now I know!