Vim

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Vim (Template:IPAc-en;[1] a contraction of Vi IMproved) is a clone, with additions, of Bill Joy's vi text editor program for Unix. Vim's author, Bram Moolenaar, based it on the source code for a port of the Stevie editor to the Amiga[2] and released a version to the public in 1991. 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.[3] The license is compatible with the GNU General Public License through a special clause allowing distribution of modified copies "under the GNU GPL version 2 or any later version".[4]


Actually, GNU nano is easier than vi (Vim) to use. Install and use nano instead of vi.

Vim (text editor)


Since its release for the Amiga, cross-platform development has made it available on many other systems. In 2006, it was voted the most popular editor amongst Linux Journal readers;[5] in 2015 the Stack Overflow developer survey found it to be the third most popular text editor,[6] and in 2019 the fifth most popular development environment.[7]

History

Vim's forerunner, Stevie (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts), was created by Tim Thompson for the Atari ST in 1987[8][9] and further developed by Tony Andrews[8][10] and G.R. (Fred) Walter.[11][12]

Basing his work on Stevie, Bram Moolenaar began working on Vim for the Amiga computer in 1988, with the first public release (Vim v1.14) in 1991.[13][14]Template:Better source needed

At the time of its first release, the name "Vim" was an acronym for "Vi IMitation", but this changed to "'Vi IMproved" late in 1993.[15]

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Date Version Changes and additions
June, 1987 N/A Tim Thompson releases Stevie (ST editor for VI enthusiasts), a limited vi clone for the Atari ST, posting the source on Usenet.[8][9]
June, 1988 N/A Tony Andrews improves Stevie, and ports it to Unix and OS/2, releasing version 3.10 on Usenet.[8][10]
1988 1.0 Bram Moolenaar creates Vi IMitation for the Amiga, based on Stevie, never publicly released
November 2, 1991 1.14[16] First public release for the Amiga on Fred Fish disk #591[17]
1992 1.22[16] Port to Unix, never publicly released.[15] Vim now competes with vi.
December 14, 1993 2.0[18] This is the first release using the name Vi IMproved.[15]
August 12, 1994 3.0[16] Support for multiple windows
May 29, 1996 4.0[16][19] Graphical user interface
February 19, 1998 5.0[16][20] 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 New syntax files, bug fixes, etc.
May 31, 2001 5.8 New syntax files, bug fixes, etc.
September 26, 2001 6.0[16][21] Folding, plugins, multi-language, etc.
March 24, 2002 6.1 Bug fixes
June 1, 2003 6.2 GTK2 and libgnome2 support, 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[22] Spell checking, code completion, tab pages (multiple viewports/window layouts), current line and column highlighting, undo branches, and more
May 12, 2007 7.1 Bug fixes, new syntax and runtime files, etc.
August 9, 2008 7.2[23] Floating point support in scripts, refactored screen drawing code, bug fixes, new syntax files, etc.
August 15, 2010 7.3 Lua support, Python3 support, Blowfish encryption, persistent undo/redo
August 10, 2013 7.4[24] A new, faster regular expression engine.
September 12, 2016 8.0[25] Asynchronous I/O support, jobs, lambdas, etc.
May 18, 2018 8.1[26] Terminal window support and terminal gdb plugin.
December 13, 2019 8.2[27] Popup windows, text properties.

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Interface

File:Vim.png
Graphical Vim (gVim) under GTK+ 2.
File:Vim-opened-files-and-registers.png
Code at the top (Go), opened files, registers ("clipboard manager" and macros history)

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 (and by extension Vim) tends to allow a typist to keep their fingers on the home row, which can be an advantage for a touch typist.[28]

Vim has a built-in tutorial for beginners called vimtutor. It's usually installed along with Vim, but it exists as a separate executable and can be run with a shell command.[29] There is also the Vim Users' Manual that details Vim's features and a FAQ. This manual can be read from within Vim, or found online.[30][31]

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

File:Vim-search-copen-quickfix.png
Search (grep) inside Vim across files on disk, without plugins

Modes

Vim has 12 different editing modes, 6 of which are variants of the 6 basic modes.[32] The basic modes are:

  • Normal mode – used for editor commands. This is also the default mode, unless the insertmode option is specified.
  • Visual mode – similar to normal mode, but used to highlight areas of text. Normal commands can be run on the highlighted area, for instance to move or edit a selection.
  • Select mode – works similarly to visual mode. However, if a printable character, carriage return, newline or line feed is entered, Vim inserts the character, and starts insert mode.[33]
  • Insert mode – similar to editing in most modern editors. In this mode, buffers can be modified with the text inserted.
  • Command-line or Cmdline mode – supports a single line input at the bottom of the Vim window. Normal commands (beginning with :), and some other keys for specific actions (including pattern search and the filter command) activate this mode. On completion of the command, Vim returns to the previous mode.
  • Ex mode – similarly to Cmdline mode, prompts for command input at the bottom of the window. On completion of the command, Vim prompts for another Ex mode command.
File:Vim-commands-history.png
Commands history below: we can edit every command and/or run it again

Customization

Vim is highly customizable and extensible, making it an attractive tool for users who demand a large amount of control and flexibility over their text editing environment.[34] Text input is facilitated by a variety of features designed to increase keyboard efficiency. Users can execute complex commands with "key mappings," which can be customized and extended. The "recording" feature allows for the creation of macros to automate sequences of keystrokes and call internal or user-defined functions and mappings. Abbreviations, similar to macros and key mappings, facilitate the expansion of short strings of text into longer ones and can also be used to correct mistakes. Vim also features an "easy" mode for users looking for a simpler text editing solution.[35]

There are many plugins available that extend or add new functionality to Vim, such as linters, integration with Git, showing colors in CSS. These complex scripts are usually written in Vim's internal scripting language, vimscript (also known as VimL),[36] but can be written in other languages as well.

File:Vim-javascript-with-plugin-gitgutter.png
Vim editing JavaScript, with installed plugin GitGutter: pluses at the left show new lines (according to information from Git).

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 that mode isn't used, Vim has many enhancements over vi.[37] However, even in compatibility mode, Vim is not entirely compatible with vi as defined in the Single Unix Specification[38] and POSIX (e.g., Vim does not support vi's open mode, only visual mode). Vim's developers state that it is "very much compatible with Vi".[39]

File:Vim-netrw.png
File manager inside vim

Some of Vim's 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 and branching undo/redo history which can persist across editing sessions, and visual mode.

While running, Vim saves the user's changes in a swap file with the ".swp" extension. The swap file can be used to recover after a crash. If a user tries to open a file and a swap file already exists, Vim will warn the user, and if the user proceeds, Vim will use a swap file with the extension ".swo" (or, if there is already more than one swap file, ".swn", ".swm", etc.).[40][41] This feature can be disabled.[42]

File:Vim-version.png
:version command display compilation flags (supported features)

Vim script

Vim script (also called Vimscript or VimL)[43] is the scripting language built into Vim.[44] Based on the ex editor language of the original vi editor, early versions of Vim added commands for control flow and function definitions. Since version 7, Vim script also supports more advanced data types such as lists and dictionaries and (a simple form of) object-oriented programming. Built-in functions such as map() and filter() allow a basic form of functional programming, and Vim script has lambda since version 8.0. Vim script is mostly written in an imperative programming style.

Vim macros can contain a sequence of normal-mode commands, but can also invoke ex commands or functions written in Vim script for more complex tasks. Almost all extensions (called plugins or more commonly scripts) of the core Vim functionality are written in Vim script, but plugins can also utilize other languages like Perl,[45] Python,[46] Lua,[47] Ruby,[48] Tcl,[49] or Racket.[50] These plugins can be installed manually, or through a plugin manager such as Vundle, Pathogen, or Vim-Plug.

Vim script files are stored as plain text, similarly to other code, and the filename extension is usually .vim. One notable exception to that is Vim's config file, .vimrc.

Examples

<syntaxhighlight lang="vim"> " This is the Hello World program in Vim script. echo "Hello, world!"

" This is a simple while loop in Vim script. let i = 1 while i < 5 

 echo "count is" i
 let i += 1

endwhile unlet i </syntaxhighlight>

Availability

Whereas vi was originally available only on Unix operating systems, Vim has been ported to many operating systems including AmigaOS (the initial target platform), Atari MiNT, BeOS, DOS, Windows starting from Windows NT 3.1, OS/2, OS/390, MorphOS, OpenVMS, QNX, RISC OS, Linux, BSD, and Classic Mac OS.[51] Also, Vim is shipped with every copy of Apple macOS.[52]

Independent ports of Vim are available for Android[53][54] and iOS.[55]

Neovim

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File:Neovim being used to edit its own configuration file.png
Neovim with a status bar plugin

Neovim[56] is a forkTemplate:Sndwith additions[57]Template:Sndof Vim that strives to improve the extensibility and maintainability of Vim.[58] Neovim has the same configuration syntax as Vim; thus the same configuration file can be used with both editors, although there are minor differences in details of options.[59] If the added features of Neovim are not used, Neovim is compatible with almost all of Vim's features.[60]

The Neovim project was started in 2014, with some Vim community members offering early support of the high-level refactoring effort to provide better scripting, plugins, and integration with modern GUIs.[61][62] The project is free software and its source code is available on GitHub.[63]

Neovim had a successful fundraising in March 2014,[64] supporting at least one full-time developer. Several frontends are under development, making use of Neovim's capabilities.[65][66][67]

The Neovim editor is available in a personal package archive,[68] hosted by Ubuntu and some more conventional package managers,[69] making it possible to install it on a variety of operating systems.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Vim documentation: intro: "Vim is pronounced as one word, like Jim, not vi-ai-em. It's written with a capital, since it's a name, again like Jim."
  2. ↑ Template:Citation
  3. ↑ Template:Cite web
  4. ↑ Template:Cite web
  5. ↑ Template:Cite web; Template:Cite web; Template:Cite web
  6. ↑ Template:Cite web
  7. ↑ Template:Cite web
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Template:Cite web
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Template:Cite newsgroup
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Template:Cite newsgroup
  11. ↑ Template:Cite web
  12. ↑ Template:Cite web
  13. ↑ Template:Cite web
  14. ↑ Template:Cite web
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Template:Cite web
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Template:Cite web
  17. ↑ Template:Cite web
  18. ↑ Template:Cite web
  19. ↑ Template:Cite web
  20. ↑ Template:Cite web
  21. ↑ Template:Cite web
  22. ↑ Template:Cite web
  23. ↑ Template:Cite web
  24. ↑ Google Discussiegroepen. Groups.google.com. Retrieved on 2013-12-09.
  25. ↑ Template:Cite web
  26. ↑ Template:Cite web
  27. ↑ Template:Cite web
  28. ↑ Template:Cite book
  29. ↑ Template:Cite web
  30. ↑ Vim help files at vimhelp.org
  31. ↑ Template:Cite book
  32. ↑ Template:Cite web
  33. ↑ Template:Cite web
  34. ↑ Template:Cite web
  35. ↑ Template:Cite web
  36. ↑ Template:Cite web
  37. ↑ Vim help system (type ":help" within Vim)
  38. ↑ Template:Citation
  39. ↑ Template:Cite web (question 1.3)
  40. ↑ Template:Cite web
  41. ↑ Template:Cite web
  42. ↑ Template:Cite web
  43. ↑ Template:Cite web
  44. ↑ Template:Cite web
  45. ↑ Template:Cite web
  46. ↑ Template:Cite web
  47. ↑ Template:Cite web
  48. ↑ Template:Cite web
  49. ↑ Template:Cite web
  50. ↑ Template:Cite web
  51. ↑ ":help sys-file-list"
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  52. ↑ Template:Cite web
  53. ↑ Template:Cite web
  54. ↑ Template:Cite web
  55. ↑ Template:Cite web
  56. ↑ Template:Cite web
  57. ↑ Template:Cite web
  58. ↑ Template:Cite web
  59. ↑ Template:Cite web
  60. ↑ Template:Cite web
  61. ↑ Template:Cite web
  62. ↑ Template:Cite web
  63. ↑ Template:Cite web
  64. ↑ Template:Cite web
  65. ↑ Template:Cite web
  66. ↑ Template:Cite web
  67. ↑ Template:Cite web
  68. ↑ Template:Cite web
  69. ↑ Template:Cite web

External links

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