introduction.markdown @ 56683eb09ecc

[Learn Vimscript the Hard Way][book] is a book for users of the [Vim][] editor
who want to learn how to customize Vim.

It is *not* a guide to *using* Vim.  Before reading this book you should be
comfortable editing text in Vim and know what terms like "buffer", "window" and
"insert mode" mean.

The book is divided roughly into three sections:

* The first covers basic Vim commands that you can use in your `~/.vimrc` file
  to customize Vim quickly and easily.
* The second looks more deeply at Vimscript as a programming language, covering
  things like variables, comparisons, and functions.
* The third walks through the creation of a sample plugin intended for
  distribution to other Vim users.

The book is [copyright][license] 2013 by Steve Losh, all rights reserved.  You
can redistribute it as long as you don't make any changes and don't charge for
it.

The book will always be free to read online.

You can buy an [ebook (PDF, epub, mobi) version][leanpub] for $8 on Leanpub.

You can buy a [paperback copy][paper] for $20 on Lulu.

You can buy a [hardcover copy][hard] for $40 on Lulu.

[leanpub]: http://leanpub.org/learnvimscriptthehardway
[paper]: http://bit.ly/lvsthw-paperback
[hard]: http://bit.ly/lvsthw-hardcover

The source code to the book is available [on BitBucket][hg] and [on
GitHub][git].  If you find any mistakes or feel you could improve it feel free
to send a pull request, but I'm retaining the copyright on the book, so if
you're not comfortable with that I understand.

[book]: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/
[Vim]: http://www.vim.org/
[hg]: http://bitbucket.org/sjl/learnvimscriptthehardway/
[git]: http://github.com/sjl/learnvimscriptthehardway/
[license]: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/license.html