Having trouble creating PHP file in terminal

[Woody619]

Hello all! I am relatively new to Linux and the whole LAMP environment. I was following this excellent guide . When it came to make the info.php file I ran into a problem.

I write the code: vi /var/www/info.php
When I hit enter I get a blank screen with a descending line of blue tildes (~) on the left side. I figured this was creating a new php file and I insert my code into it.

I went to start the code, but it would not allow the less than (<) sign to be used as a character. When I hit the question mark (?) it allowed me to type, but each time would give an error.

Is there something I am missing from this step?

Thanks in advance!

[Woody619]

Nevermind. I installed emacs and it works fine!

[Ben]

Argl

you have to switch to the Insert Mode by hitting "i". then enter your code, hit :w to just write, :wq (or :x) to save and quit.

it's not the newest one, but here is a vi manual: http://www.cs.fsu.edu/general/vimanual.html
Maybe google will help you find a more recent one, in case you use vi once again