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Vim (;[3] a contraction of Vi IMproved) 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.[4] 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.[5]
Bram Moolenaar began working on Vim for the Amiga computer in 1988. Moolenaar first publicly released Vim (v1.14) in 1991.[6] Vim was based on an earlier editor, Stevie, for the Atari ST,[1] created by Tim Thompson, Tony Andrews and G.R. (Fred) Walter.
The name "Vim" is an acronym for "Vi IMproved"[7] 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.[8] A later comment states that the reason for changing the name was that Vim's feature set surpassed that of vi.[9]
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.[10]
Vim has a built-in tutorial for beginners (accessible through the "vimtutor" command). There is also the Vim Users' Manual that details Vim's features. This manual can be read from within Vim, or found online.[11][12]
Vim also has a built-in help facility (using the :help command) that allows users to query and navigate through commands and features.
:help
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.[13] Vim also supports scripting using Lua (as of Vim 7.3), Perl, Python, Racket[14] (formerly PLT Scheme), 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.
Vim has a vi compatibility mode but when not in this mode Vim has many enhancements over vi.[15] However, even in compatibility mode, Vim is not 100% compatible with vi as defined in the Single Unix Specification[16] and POSIX (e.g., Vim does not support vi's open mode, only visual mode). Vim has nevertheless been described as “very much compatible with Vi”.[17]
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.
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 95, OS/2, OS/390, MorphOS, OpenVMS, QNX, RISC OS, GNU/Linux, BSD, and Classic Mac OS.[18] Also, Vim is shipped with every copy of Apple OS X.[19]
Independent ports of Vim are available both for Android[20] and iOS.[21]
:help sys-file-list
Linux, Gnu, C (programming language), Berkeley Software Distribution, Os X
Unix, Emacs, University of California, Berkeley, Usenet, Nvi
Linux kernel, Free software, Debian, Gnu, Unix
AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4, Commodore 64, MorphOS, Amiga 1200
Microsoft, Linux, Windows Vista, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile
Linux, Vi, Gnu, AmigaOS, Microsoft Windows
Python (programming language), Html, Hierarchy, Project management, Vim (text editor)
Microsoft Office, Application software, Microsoft, Compiler, Operating system
Python (programming language), Source code, Microsoft Windows, Vi, Bram Moolenaar