[_TwoFinger]

They mention history expansion, but only briefly. It is a favorite of mine. Learning the full syntax probably doesn't give good ROI these days of mice, but I think the following shortcut notations are worth knowing:

Everything but the last argument:

  % git add -p dir1
  % !!- dir2
  git add -p dir2

Everything but the command:

  % textadept a b c
  % vim !*
  vim a b c

Substitute a string (once):

  % echo helo world
  % ^lo^llo
  echo hello world

First and last arguments:

  % diff path/a/file path/b/file
  % diff !$ !^
  diff path/b/file path/a/file

A cool detail is that even a long quoted string containing spaces is considered a single argument, and it all works fine.

Also, the bangs can be anywhere on the command line, even inside other kinds of expansion; history expansion has highest priority of all.

Edit: the above is csh-style history expansion, available in bash as well.