--- a/acknowledgements.markdown Tue Nov 06 17:59:25 2012 -0500
+++ b/acknowledgements.markdown Sat Nov 10 13:45:43 2012 -0500
@@ -1,8 +1,15 @@
Acknowledgements
================
-I'd also like to thank the following GitHub users who sent pull requests to
-correct typos:
+First I'd like to thank [Zed Shaw][] for writing [Learn Python the Hard Way][]
+and making it freely available. This book's format and writing style is
+directly inspired by it.
+
+[Zed Shaw]: http://zedshaw.com/
+[Learn Python the Hard Way]: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/
+
+I'd also like to thank the following GitHub users who sent pull requests,
+pointed out typos, raised issues, and otherwise contributed:
* [Psycojoker](https://github.com/Psycojoker)
* [manojkumarm](https://github.com/manojkumarm)
--- a/introduction.markdown Tue Nov 06 17:59:25 2012 -0500
+++ b/introduction.markdown Sat Nov 10 13:45:43 2012 -0500
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
[Learn Vimscript the Hard Way][book] is a book for users of the [Vim][] editor
who want to learn how to customize Vim.
-Before reading this book you should be comfortable using Vim and know what terms
-like "buffer", "window" and "insert mode" mean.
+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:
@@ -24,12 +25,12 @@
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 for now, so
-if you're not comfortable with that I understand.
+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]: /
+[book]: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/
[Vim]: http://www.vim.org/
[hg]: http://bitbucket.org/sjl/learnvimscriptthehardway/
[git]: http://github.com/sjl/learnvimscriptthehardway/
-[license]: /license.html
+[license]: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/license.html
[leanpub]: http://leanpub.com/learnvimscriptthehardway
--- a/license.markdown Tue Nov 06 17:59:25 2012 -0500
+++ b/license.markdown Sat Nov 10 13:45:43 2012 -0500
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
License
=======
-This book is copyright (C) 2012 by Steve Losh.
+This book is copyright (C) 2012 by Steve Losh, all rights reserved.
You are free to distribute this book to anyone you want, so long as you do not
charge anything for it, and it is not altered. You must give away the book in
--- a/preface.markdown Tue Nov 06 17:59:25 2012 -0500
+++ b/preface.markdown Sat Nov 10 13:45:43 2012 -0500
@@ -6,60 +6,58 @@
That text gets turned into numbers and those numbers bump into other numbers
and *make things happen*.
-To get our ideas out of our heads and create the chunks of text we call
-"programs" we use text editors. Full-time programmers will easily spend tens of
-thousands of hours of their lives interacting with their text editor doing many
-things:
+As programmers, we use text editors to get our ideas out of our heads and create
+the chunks of text we call "programs". Full-time programmers will spend tens of
+thousands of hours of their lives interacting with their text editor, during
+which they'll be doing many things:
-* Getting raw text from brains into computers.
+* Getting raw text from their brains into their computers.
* Correcting mistakes in that text.
* Restructuring the text to formulate a problem in a different way.
-* Recording how and why something was done a particular way.
+* Documenting how and why something was done a particular way.
* Communicating with other programmers about all of these things.
Vim is incredibly powerful out of the box, but it doesn't truly shine until you
take some time to customize it for your particular work, habits, and fingers.
This book will introduce you to Vimscript, the main programming language used to
-customize Vim. You'll be able to mold Vim around your own personal text editing
-and make the rest of your time in Vim more efficient.
+customize Vim. You'll be able to mold Vim into an editor suited to your own
+personal text editing needs and make the rest of your time in Vim more
+efficient.
Along the way I'll also mention things that aren't strictly about Vimscript, but
-are more about learning and being more efficient in general. Learning Vimscript
-isn't going to help you much if you wind up fiddling with your editor all day
-instead of working, so you have to strike a balance.
+are more about learning and being more efficient in general. Vimscript isn't
+going to help you much if you wind up fiddling with your editor all day instead
+of working, so it's important to strike a balance.
The style of this book is a bit different from most other books about
programming languages. Instead of simply presenting you with facts about how
Vimscript works, it guides you through typing in commands to see what they do.
-Frequently the book will lead you into dead ends before explaining the "right
+Sometimes the book will lead you into dead ends before explaining the "right
way" to solve a problem. Most other books don't do this, or only mention the
-sticky issues *after* showing you the solution.
-
-This isn't how things typically happen in the real world, though. Most of the
-time you'll be whipping up a quick piece of Vimscript and run into a quirk of
-the language that you'll need to figure out. By stepping through this process
-in the book instead of glossing over it I hope to get you used to the process of
-dealing with Vimscript's silliness so you're ready when you find other edge
-cases. Practice makes perfect.
+sticky issues *after* showing you the solution. This isn't how things typically
+happen in the real world, though. Often you'll be writing a quick piece of
+Vimscript and run into a quirk of the language that you'll need to figure out.
+By stepping through this process in the book instead of glossing over it I hope
+to get you used to dealing with Vimscript's peculiarities so you're ready when
+you find edge cases of your own. Practice makes perfect.
Each chapter of the book focuses on a single topic. They're short but packed
-with information, so don't just skim them. If you really want to learn the most
-you can you need to *type in* all of the commands.
-
-You may already be an experienced programmer who's used to reading code and
+with information, so don't just skim them. If you really want to get the most
+out of this book you need to actually type in all of the commands. You may
+already be an experienced programmer who's used to reading code and
understanding it straight away. If so: it doesn't matter. Learning Vim and
Vimscript is a different experience from learning a normal programming language.
-**Type in *all* the commands.**
+You need to **type in *all* the commands.**
-**Do *all* the exercises.**
+You need to **do *all* the exercises.**
There are two reasons this is so important. First, Vimscript is old and has
a lot of dusty corners and twisty hallways. One configuration option can change
-how the entire language works. By typing *every* command in *every* lesson
-exercise and doing *every* exercise you'll discover problems with your Vim build
-or configuration on the simpler commands, which will be easier to diagnose and
+how the entire language works. By typing *every* command in *every* lesson and
+doing *every* exercise you'll discover problems with your Vim build or
+configuration on the simpler commands, where they'll be easier to diagnose and
fix.
Second, Vimscript *is* Vim. To save a file in Vim, you type `:write` (or `:w`
@@ -70,7 +68,8 @@
I hope you'll find this book useful. It's *not* meant to be a comprehensive
guide to Vimscript. It's meant to get you comfortable enough with the language
-to write some simple plugins, read other people's code (with regular side-trips
-to `:help`), and recognize some of the common pitfalls.
+to mold Vim to your taste, write some simple plugins for other users, read other
+people's code (with regular side-trips to `:help`), and recognize some of the
+common pitfalls.
Good luck!