Open Source

Vim

Vim is a text editor first released by Bram Moolenaar in 1991. Vim was created as an extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source c... More

Project Details

AUDIENCE : developers
LICENSE : Vim License
OPERATING SYSTEM : bsd
posix : unix : win32 : other operating systems : Linux : PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE : C
TITLE SYNONYMS : Vim
LATEST VESRSION : 7.2

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Vim: Master The Basics

by Shelly King on July 17th 2009 at 05:04 PM

There are more text editors for Linux than you can shake a stick at. Every man and his dog seems to have had a go at one. The ones written by dogs usually involve a lot of sniffing around the connectors at the back of the computer and are probably best ignored, but that still leaves quite a lot - emacs, kedit, gedit, kwrite, kate, mousepad, leafpad, fte, joe, jed, nano, pico... the list goes on.

But the one that most Unix and Linux professionals prefer is the grand-uncle of them all, Vi, and its younger brother, Vim. (Vim stands for "Vi improved" and is a 1991 Vi rewrite produced by Bram Moolenar.

The original Vi was written by Bill Joy back in 1976. Vim is the editor used in this tutorial, although the core command sets of Vi and Vim are identical.) One reason for Vim's popularity is that you can edit efficiently with it even if you don't have a graphical desktop - for example, if you've taken the machine down to single-user run level for maintenance, or if it's a server machine that doesn't have a desktop installed.

Now, Vim isn't the easiest editor to learn - it's practically impossible to figure it out without reading at least a little documentation. Nor does it offer instant gratification.

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The Best!

by Vikram Solanki on February 25th 2008 at 03:19 AM

The best editor out there - hands down. Don't bother with anything else. Once you get the commands it is more powerful than anything else out there!

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Vim Gives to Charity and Gives Back to Donors

by Lisa Hoover on Jul 28, 2009

2 comments

It's no secret that open source community members have big hearts when it comes to giving. From beard-shaving for Tasmanian devils to raising funds that put computers in the hands of impoverished children, charity seems to know no bounds.

Longtime users of the popular open source text editor Vim may already be aware of the charitable generosity of its creator Bram Moolenaar. For those who aren't, it just may persuade someone -- even a diehard Emacs fan -- to give up his or her current editor of choice.

Plugins Bring Vanilla Gedit a Spicy Kick

by Kristin Shoemaker on Mar 23, 2009

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Many people are surprised to find that with all the writing I do, hardly any is done with a traditional word processing application. Between smart quotes, file extension quirks, and publications and websites having slightly different formatting requirements, I find it's quicker and easier to use a text editor.

The two computers I use most run Linux -- the laptop runs Ubuntu, while the desktop is a "distribution nomad" that changes frequently. One great thing about Linux is that the platform has no shortage of capable text editors. Some lend themselves more to writing code and heavy-duty programming than others (such as Vim and Emacs) while others straddle the plain text document/programming editor line.

Lately, primarily because I've been slow to install my usual cross-over text editor of choice, Geany, I took a closer look at the plugins available for GNOME's "came with the desktop" editor, Gedit. The default plugins (and those found in the "extra" packages) make the plain vanilla editor far more appealing and useful for hardcore writers and casual programmers alike.