Vim is a text editor written by Bram Moolenaar and first released publicly in 1991.
Based on the ideas of the vi editor common to Unix-like systems, Vim is designed for
use both from a command-line interface and as a standalone application in a graphical
user interface.
Vim is free and open source software and is released under a license that includes some
charityware clauses, encouraging users who enjoy the software to consider donating to
children in Uganda.
The license is compatible with the GNU General Public License.
Although Vim was originally released for the Amiga, Vim has since been developed to be
cross-platform, supporting many other platforms.
In 2006, it was voted the most popular editor amongst Linux Journal readers.
History Bram Moolenaar began working on Vim for the
Amiga computer in 1988.
Moolenaar first publicly released Vim in 1991.
Vim was based on an earlier editor, Stevie, for the Atari ST, created by Tim Thompson,
Tony Andrews and G.R.
Walter.
The name "Vim" is an acronym for "Vi IMproved" because Vim is an extended version of the
vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code.
Originally, the acronym stood for "Vi IMitation", but that was changed with the release of Vim
2.0 in December 1993.
A later comment states that the reason for changing the name was that Vim's feature set
surpassed that of vi.
Interface
Like vi, Vim's interface is not based on menus or icons but on commands given in a text user
interface; its GUI mode, gVim, adds menus and toolbars for commonly used commands but
the full functionality is still expressed through its command line mode.
Vi tends to allow a typist to keep their fingers on the home row, which can be an advantage
for a touch typist.
Vim has a built-in tutorial for beginners.
There is also the Vim Users' Manual that details Vim's features.
This manual can be read from within Vim, or found online.
Vim also has a built-in help facility that allows users to query and navigate through
commands and features.
Customization Part of Vim's power is that it can be extensively
customized.
The basic interface can be controlled by the many options available, and the user can define
personalized key mappings—often called macros—or abbreviations to automate sequences of keystrokes,
or even call internal or user defined functions.
There are many plugins available that will extend or add new functionality to Vim.
These complex scripts are usually written in Vim's internal scripting language vimscript.
Vim also supports scripting using Lua, Perl, Python, Racket, Ruby, and Tcl.
There are projects bundling together complex scripts and customizations and aimed at turning
Vim into a tool for a specific task or adding a major flavour to its behaviour.
Examples include Cream, which makes Vim behave like a click-and-type editor, or VimOutliner,
which provides a comfortable outliner for users of Unix-like systems.
Features and improvements over vi Vim has a vi compatibility mode but when not
in this mode Vim has many enhancements over vi.
However, even in compatibility mode, Vim is not 100% compatible with vi as defined in
the Single Unix Specification and POSIX.
Vim has nevertheless been described as “very much compatible with Vi”.
Some of Vim's enhancements include completion, comparison and merging of files, a comprehensive
integrated help system, extended regular expressions, scripting languages including support for
plugins, a graphical user interface, limited integrated development environment-like features,
mouse interaction, folding, editing of compressed or archived files in gzip, bzip2, zip, and
tar format and files over network protocols such as SSH, FTP, and HTTP, session state
preservation, spell checking, split and tabbed windows, unicode and other multi-language
support, syntax highlighting, trans-session command, search and cursor position histories,
multiple level and branching undo/redo history which can persist across editing sessions,
and visual mode.
Availability Whereas vi was originally available only on
Unix operating systems, Vim has been ported to many operating systems including AmigaOS,
Atari MiNT, BeOS, DOS, Microsoft Windows 95Me2000Server 2003Server 20088, IBM OS/2 and OS/390, MorphOS,
OpenVMS, QNX, RISC OS, Unix, Linux, BSD, and Mac OS.
Also, Vim is shipped with every copy of Apple OS X.
Independent ports of Vim are available both for Android and iOS.
Release history See also
Comparison of text editors Editor war
List of text editors List of Unix programs
Vimperator Pentadactyl
References
External links Official website
Online Vim documentation Online Vim help pages
Vi IMproved - Vim, by Steve Oualline and errata.
Books Vim Introduction and Tutorial
Vim tips and tricks for advanced users on Benjamin Kuperman home page