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Vim (text editor)

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Vim
Original author(s)Bram Moolenaar
Initial release1991
Stable release8.2.0000[1] (13 December 2019; 4 years ago (2019-12-13)) [±]
Repository
Written inC
PlatformCross-platform
Available inEnglish, Chinese, French, Italian, Polish, Russian[2]
TypeText editor
LicenseFree software, charityware
Websitehttp://www.vim.org/

Vim is a text editor first released by Bram Moolenaar in 1991 for the Amiga computer. Vim was created as an extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code; its full name is Vi IMproved.[3]

While Vim is cross-platform, it is most popular on Unix-like operating systems.[4]

Released under a software license compatible with the GNU General Public License, Vim is free and open source software. The program's license includes some charityware clauses.[5]

Interface

Vim running in a terminal emulator

Like vi, Vim's interface is based not 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.

For many users, Vim may present a steep learning curve, meaning that learning is slow initially but once the user gets a grasp of the basics they progress quickly and their editing becomes more efficient.[6] To facilitate this, Vim has a built-in tutorial for beginners. There is also the Vim Users' Manual that details the basic and more advanced Vim features. This manual can be read from within Vim, or found online.[7]

Vim also has a built-in help facility (using the :help command) that allows users to query and navigate through commands and features.

As a descendant of vi, Vim is modal—a design choice which tends to confuse new users. All editors are modal in the general sense of having to distinguish insert and command inputs, but most others implement that modality through very different methods: command menus (mouse or keyboard driven), meta keys (simultaneous use of multiple keys, usually involving control key (CTRL) or alt key (ALT)), and mouse input. Vim, following vi, is unique in that the entire keyboard is switched into and out of these modes. This allows, but does not require, one to perform all editing functions with no use of the mouse or menus and minimal use of meta keys. For touch-typists and those averse to the mouse, this can be a great benefit in power and efficiency.

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.

Vim script

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.[8] Vim also supports scripting using Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, and other languages.

Bundles

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 that provides a comfortable outliner for users of Unix-like systems.

Features and improvements over vi

Vim is almost fully vi compatible when in compatible mode, but Vim has many enhancements over vi which may or may not be available in compatible mode.[9]

Some of those enhancements include completion, comparison and merging of files (known as vimdiff), a comprehensive integrated help system, extended regular expressions, scripting languages (both native and through alternative scripting interpreters such as Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, etc.) including support for plugins, a graphical user interface (known as gvim), limited integrated development environment-like features, mouse interaction (both with and without the GUI), 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 (horizontal and vertical) and tabbed windows, unicode and other multi-language support, syntax highlighting, trans-session command, search, and cursor position histories, multiple level undo/redo history, and visual mode.

While vi was traditionally only available on Unix operating systems, Vim is very portable; there are versions for AmigaOS (the initial target platform), Atari MiNT, BeOS, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, IBM OS/2 and OS/390, MorphOS, OpenVMS, QNX, RISC OS, Unix, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, etc.[10]

History

Date Version Changes and additions
1988 1.0 Based on Stevie for the Amiga, named Vi IMitation, never publicly released
November 2, 1991 1.14[11] First public release for the Amiga on Fred Fish disk #591
1992 1.22[11] Port to Unix. Vim now competes with vi. This was when Vim became Vi IMproved
August 12, 1994 3.0[11] Support for multiple windows
May 29, 1996 4.0[11] Graphical user interface
February 19, 1998 5.0[11] Syntax highlighting, basic scripting (user defined functions, commands, etc.)
April 6, 1998 5.1 Bug fixes, various improvements
April 27, 1998 5.2 Long line support, file browser, dialogs, popup menu, select mode, session files, user defined functions and commands, tcl interface, etc.
August 31, 1998 5.3 Bug fixes, etc.
July 25, 1999 5.4 Basic file encryption, various improvements
September 19, 1999 5.5 Bug fixes, various improvements
January 16, 2000 5.6 New syntax files, bug fixes, etc.
June 24, 2000 5.7 idem
May 31, 2001 5.8 idem
September 26, 2001 6.0[11] Folding, plugins, multi-language, etc.
March 24, 2002 6.1 Bug fixes
June 1, 2003 6.2 GTK2, Arabic language support, :try command, minor features, bug fixes
June 7, 2004 6.3 Bug fixes, translation updates, mark improvements
October 15, 2005 6.4 Bug fixes, updates to Perl, Python, and Ruby support
May 7, 2006 7.0 Spell checking, code completion, document tabs, current line and column highlighting, undo branches, and more
May 12, 2007 7.1 Bug fixes, new syntax and runtime files, etc.

(Note that some dates are approximate,[12] development releases are not listed, and many minor version releases are not yet included in this list.)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Releases". Retrieved 13 December 2019 – via GitHub.
  2. ^ "Vim in non-English langauges". Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  3. ^ "ICCF Holland - helping children in Uganda". ICCF Holland. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
    comments by Bram Moolenaar here, and many other places.
  4. ^ "Linux Journal: 2003 Readers' Choice Awards". 2003-11-01. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "Linux Journal: 2004 Readers' Choice Awards". 2004-11-01. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); "Linux Journal: 2005 Readers' Choice Awards". 2005-09-28. Retrieved 2006-05-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html#license
  6. ^ Oualline, Steve (2001). Vi IMproved (VIM). Sams. ISBN 0-7357-1001-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ Vim manual at Sourceforge.net
  8. ^ :help vim-script-intro
  9. ^ Vim help system (type ":help" within vim)
  10. ^ ":help sys-file-list"
    "Vim Online: Downloads". Retrieved 2007-01-07.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Moolenaar, Bram (2002-01-15). "Vim, an open-source text editor". Retrieved 2005-10-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Dates were taken from the official Vim FTP site.
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