I was at the store the other day buying some backslashes when I noticed a funny thing on the shelf beside the checkout: a book titled Practical Vim. What an odd title, I thought. If a person wants above all a practical text editor, I'm not sure Vim’s what I'd recommend. For one thing, it uses up backslashes at a truly staggering rate – but maybe that's just me. If you don't type stuff like :%s/\v\((\d+)\/(\d+)\/(\d{4})\)/\3-\1-\2 all the time, like I do, it's probably not so bad. And that's even with “very magic” switched on! At least Practical Vim tells you to use “very magic”, according to the blurb on the back. Good advice – ‘practical’, even – although I wouldn't shell out 30 bucks for it. I sure don't envy those who don't know about “very magic”, though. Just imagine their backslash bills! In this economy!