Vim's forerunner, Stevie (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts), was created by Tim Thompson for the Atari ST in 1987[11][12] and further developed by Tony Andrews[11][13] and G.R. (Fred) Walter.[14][15] It was one of the first popularized clones of Vi, and did not use Vi's source code. The source code for Vi used the Ed text editor developed under AT&T, and therefore Vi could only be used by those with an AT&T source license.[citation needed] Basing Vim on the source code for Stevie meant the program could be distributed without requiring the AT&T source license.
Classes and objects support for Vim9 script, smooth scrolling, virtual text
License
Vim is released under the Vim license, which includes some charityware clauses that encourage users who enjoy the software to consider donating to children in Uganda.[4] The Vim license is compatible with the GNU General Public License through a special clause allowing distribution of modified copies under the GNU GPL version 2.0 or later.[4]
Interface
gVim 7.3
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.[33]
Vim has a built-in tutorial for beginners called vimtutor, which is usually installed along with Vim, but is a separate executable and can be run with a shell command.[34] The Vim Users' Manual details Vim's features and can be read from within Vim, or found online.[35][36]
Vim also has a built-in help facility (using the :help command) which allows users to query and navigate through commands and features.
Registers
Vim features various special memory entries called registers (not to be confused with hardware or processor registers). When cutting, deleting, copying, or pasting text the user can choose to store the manipulated text in a register. There are 36 general-purpose registers associated with letters and numbers ([a-z0-9]) and a range of special ones that either contain special values (current filename, last command, etc.) or serve a special purpose.[7]: 85
Modes
Vim modes
Like vi, vim supports multiple editing modes. Depending on the mode, typed characters are interpreted either as sequences of commands or are inserted as text. In Vim there are 14 editing modes, 7 basic modes and 7 variants:[37]
Normal mode – used for editor commands. This is generally the default mode and by default hitting ESC returns the editor to this mode.
Insert mode – used for typing text in a way similar to most modern editors. In this mode, opened text in buffers can be modified with the text entered from the keyboard.[38][33]: 12
Visual mode – used to select areas of text. Commands can be run on the selected area – moving, editing, filtering via built-in or external command, etc.
Visual linewise, a subtype of visual mode which selects one or more whole lines
Visual blockwise, another subtype which selects a rectangular block of text across one or more lines
Select mode – similar to visual, but the commands are not interpreted, instead, highlighted text is directly replaced by input from the keyboard; similar to the selection mode used in editors on Microsoft Windows platforms
Command-line or Cmdline mode – provides a single line input at the bottom of the Vim window. 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.[38][33]: 12
Ex mode mode – accepts a sequence of commands.
Terminal-Job mode - Interacting with a job in a terminal window.
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.[39] Text input is facilitated by a variety of features designed to increase keyboard efficiency. Users can execute complex commands with "key bindings," 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.[40]
There are many plugins available that extend or add new functionality to Vim. These plugins are usually written in Vim's internal scripting language, vimscript (also known as VimL),[41] but can be written in other languages as well.
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 is not used, Vim has many enhancements over vi.[42] However even in compatibility mode, Vim is not entirely compatible with vi as defined in the Single Unix Specification[43] 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".[44]
Some of Vim's enhancements include completion functions, 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 (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.[citation needed]
While running, Vim saves the user's changes in a swap file with the ".swp" extension. This 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.).[45][46] The feature can be disabled.[47]
Vim script
Vim script (also called Vimscript or VimL)[48] is the scripting language built into Vim.[49] 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,[50]Python,[51]Lua,[52]Ruby,[53]Tcl,[54] or Racket.[55] 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
" This is the Hello World program in Vim script.
echo "Hello, world!"" This is a simple while loop in Vim script.leti=1whilei<5
echo "count is"ileti+=1endwhile
unlet i
Neovim has the same configuration syntax as Vim prior to vim9script; thus the same configuration file can be used with both editors, although there are minor differences in details of options.[66] If the added features of Neovim are not used, Neovim is compatible with almost all of Vim's features.[67]
The Neovim project was started in 2014, after a patch to Vim supporting multi-threading was rejected.[68] Neovim had a successful fundraising in March 2014, supporting at least one full-time developer.[69][70]
Several frontends are under development which make use of Neovim's capabilities.[71][72][73]
With the 0.5 release of Neovim on 2 July 2021, it gained built-in support for the LSP, Tree-sitter, and more complete Lua support – including the support for configuration scripts written in Lua instead of VimL.[74]
Gallery
Neovim featuring configured statusbar and dark colorscheme.
^Vim documentation: introArchived 13 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine: "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."
The original interview: Moolenaar, Bram (18 April 2005). "Rozhovor: Bram Moolenaar" [Interview: Bram Moolenaar]. LinuxEXPRES (Interview) (in Czech). Interviewed by Zapletal, Lukáš. question 2. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
^Vim (20 January 2015). "intro.txt". Vim Help. Vim. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
^"vim(1)". die.net. Vim. 11 April 2006. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016. Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by: Tim Thompson, Tony Andrews and G.R. (Fred) Walter. Although hardly any of the original code remains.
^Moolenaar, Bram (10 October 2000). "The continuing story of Vim"(PDF). moolenaar.net. Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
^Oualline, Steve (April 2001). Vi IMproved (VIM)(PDF). New Riders Publishers. ISBN0-7357-1001-5. Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
^Moolenaar, Bram. "Vim: intro.txt". vimhelp.org. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
^Peppe; Benji; Campbell, Charles (2 January 2004). "Vim FAQ". Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2010. (question 1.3)
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