Even if the file was just 1 line, after exiting vim, the display shows the first line, with rest all the and I see the command prompt at the bottom of screen. It will launch a familiar graphical program, much like Notepad from Windows. When I close it, the part of file that was present on the display while I was in vim still shows up at the display, and all the previous Terminal display get's scrolled up. If you just need to edit some text and don't care much beyond that, try typing gedit filename.txt instead. If you have interest in linux beyond basic desktop usage, it's worth investing time learning a decent command line text editor like Vim or Emacs. It is known for its high level of customization and ease of use, and it is especially useful for C++.

Vim is a cross-platform text editor with a wide array of features that make it ideal for programming and development tasks. Vim in particular has a steep learning curve, and does actually take some initial effort to get used to. Using the Vim editor to compile C++ programs on Linux systems is a powerful way to maximize speed and efficiency. It's conversational and easy to understand, which is due to it's IRC/instant-messaging format.įinally, there are some like aendruk who simply don't want to use advanced command line text editors. This is the best vim tutorial I've ever worked through. This is a keyboard graphic that shows you what each key does depending on if you're in edit mode, command mode, or visual mode:

Alongside jondavidjohn's answer, here are two links that have indispensable information about using vim.

Quit mac terminal vim