Vim running in a terminal emulator |
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| Original author(s) | Bram Moolenaar |
| Initial release | 1991 |
| Stable release | 7.3.353 (2011-10-26) [±] |
| Preview release | 7.3a (2010-05-24) [±] |
| Written in | C and Vimscript |
| Platform | Cross-platform: Unix, Linux, Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Spanish[1] |
| Type | Text editor |
| License | Free software, charityware |
| Website | http://www.vim.org/ |
Vim is a text editor written by Bram Moolenaar and first released publicly in 1991. Based on 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 which includes some charityware clauses, encouraging users who enjoy the software to consider donating to children in Uganda.[2] 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. It is the most popular editor amongst Linux Journal readers.[3]
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Written in 1988 by Bram Moolenaar for the Amiga computer, but first released publicly (v1.14) in 1991.[4] It was based on an earlier editor, Stevie, for the Atari ST,[5] created by Tim Thompson, Tony Andrews and G.R. (Fred) Walter.
The name "Vim" is an acronym for "Vi IMproved"[6] 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.[7] A later comment states that the reason for changing the name was that Vim's feature set surpassed that of vi.[8]
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.
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.[9][10]
Vim also has a built-in help facility (using the :help command) that allows users to query and navigate through commands and features.
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.[11] Vim also supports scripting using Lua (as of Vim 7.3), Perl, Python, Racket[12] (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 that 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.[13] However, even in compatibility mode, Vim is not 100% compatible with vi as defined in the Single Unix Specification[14] 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”.[15]
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 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, Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008/7, IBM OS/2 and OS/390, MorphOS, OpenVMS, QNX, RISC OS, Unix, Linux, BSD, and Mac OS.[16] Also, Vim is shipped with every copy of Apple Mac OS X.[17]
Vim has been compiled for Apple's iOS operating system, and can be installed through Cydia on jailbroken Apple devices running iOS.[18] Vim has been independently compiled for Android, although it can only run on rooted devices as of July 2011.[19]
| 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.[20][21] |
| June, 1988 | N/A | Tony Andrews improves Stevie, and ports it to Unix and OS/2, releasing version 3.10 on Usenet.[20][22] |
| 1988 | 1.0 | Bram Moolenaar creates Vi IMitation for the Amiga, based on Stevie, never publicly released |
| November 2, 1991 | 1.14[8] | First public release for the Amiga on Fred Fish disk #591[23] |
| 1992 | 1.22[8] | Port to Unix. Vim now competes with vi. |
| December 14, 1993 | 2.0[7] | This is the first release using the name Vi IMproved. |
| August 12, 1994 | 3.0[8] | Support for multiple windows |
| May 29, 1996 | 4.0[8][24] | Graphical user interface |
| February 19, 1998 | 5.0[8][25] | 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[8][26] | 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 [27] | 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 [28] | 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 |
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