Vim, or vi improved, is an open source text editor for multiple platforms. This article gives an overview of vim's latest improvements over vi. New features include multiple windows, syntax highlighting, multiple levels of undo, and color themes. All of these improvements are made possible by the use of vim plugins.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I remember my first time ever opening a file in vim... it was totally confusing, and I couldn't figure out how to edit the file. In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to exit out of vim, so I simply closed the terminal window. After running the vimtutor and playing with it some, I quickly grew very fond of it, and now it's my favorite editor.
Glad to see that the improvements continue to come.
Member since:2005-07-06
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2005-07-06
Yeah...same here. I didn't understand it a but...now the fingers do the dance and make all kinds of things happen. This is one of the most inovative, minimalist ideas I have ever run into. Also, it's nice to know vi when the x-system won't run.
It's my favorite too..and I haven't even tapped all of the stuff that it can do yet....
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2005-07-06
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RE: Get a real programmers editor slickedit
RE[2]: Get a real programmers editor slickedit
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2005-07-10
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Vi Bindings for firefox:
http://legonet.org/~griffin/firefox_vi-bindings.html
One small step. :-)
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no way! I was just walking from work to my truck the other day and thought... "wouldn't it be nice to have a little icon sitting on the corner of a text box that would launch your favorite browser, save drafts in /tmp, and put the text into the text box when you write and quit!".
don't forget also the readline library... very nice for adding command line editing for emacs or vi users with history, command line completion, etc.
Shane Bostick
Boise, ID
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2005-06-29
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A short blurb on new features at http://www.vim.org/develop.php
reveals:
- Vim script enhancements: Lists, Dictionaries, profiling, etc.
- On-the-fly Spell checking.
- Translated manual pages.
- Internal grep, faster and portable.
- Printing multi-byte text.
plus, here's the bounty page for features that can be "sponsored":
- http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php
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Dude you are clueless and obviously have never used vi extensively. No one ever claimed that the modal editing was innovative (ok, maybe 20 years ago they did). Now the point isn't that it is new but that it just kicks ass and a *lot* of people who do real coding day in and day out absolutely are in love with gvim/vim. The reason it is a worthy post on osnews is because it is a major tool used by many os developers (probably more than any other editor put together except emacs) and people obviously give a crap since there are several comments on this thread that aren't just sarcastic detractions like yours.
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I really love vim, but just having to remember all of those shortcuts for those obscure things that I hardly use?
I have tried jedit and I find myself much more comfertable with it. If I want to split a window I can use the menu. If I find myself using it enough I can remember the keybinding. If I don't like the keybinding I can just rebind it.
For example, rebinding the del and backspace keys to 'greedy' delete and backspace (i.e. if my tab is 4 spaces, backspace will remove 4 spaces appropriatly) was a 5 second job without any prior knowledge. With vim I woudln't know where to start.
So to sum it up. I love Vim, love the multi-mode editing, I love the way you can do most anything in the vim 'command line' on the bottom.
BUT, I find it hard to use vim instead of something like jedit, when to use vim I need to have keybinding reference so that I will be able to use a specific feature (that I rarely use) when I need it.
Member since:2005-07-06
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Member since:2005-06-29
Dude, there's probably only about 15 or so keystrokes that you really have to remember to be productive in Vim.
The vast majority of vim users probably use less than 5% of the available features.
Let's get something straight. For raw editing, there is nothing faster than vi and its clones.
And you can rebind keys all you want in vim too.
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>The vast majority of vim users probably use less than 5%
>of the available features.
Yes, but sometimes you need a feature of the other 95%.
The problem with tools like vim is, that you have to search for the rarely used feature where you don't know the key bindings. In a GUI editor (gvim qualifies here I guess), I can browse the menus conveniently, and if the menus are well designed, find the stuff I am looking for in a very short time.
And if the editor has good shortcuts, I can switch to them if I start using a function more regularily.
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from TFA: "multiple windows, syntax highlighting, multiple levels of undo, and color themes. All of these improvements are made possible by the use of vim plugins."
these features are _not_ new! they are in vim at least since 4 years. Furthermore they don't require any plugins!
As already mentioned by somebody else, vim 7 will include build in spell checking and a lot of vim-script improvements. It will include (hopefully) also some kind of "intellisense" (intelligent, context-sensitive completion). And if I remember correctly there will be an official qt-gui.
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OK, I'm down with vi/vim. I've been using vi since I was a frosh on SunOS. But there's a big difference between hacking your system with vi and hacking a 200k line project with vi. I had to switch away from some crippled JBuilder install I had and didn't have time to rebuild a whole "project profile" for any other big-assed IDE so I found Jedit and with that and a few plugins I was rockin' in about a day. When I need to s///g across 10 or more files, hitting :wn just slows me down...and using perl from the command line is just frought with uncertainty. Jedit was the fastest way to go.
I use vi for system administration, and I use Jedit for project programming. Gotta have the tools that make you faster.
Unfortunately, I find that the quality of some of the Jedit plugins has started to wane. Gruntspud hardly seems usable these days...some screwed up dependencies, and Jdiff seems to have conflicts with other Java project plugins. I still like Jedit but I don't like it as much as I liked it back when I didn't get any of these plugin conflicts.
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No, multiple windows are not actually supported, and are the main reason I don't use vim. Vim's idea of multiple windows is one window split down the middle. I'm sorry, but that doesn't count.
The closest you can get to multiple windows is multiple instances of vim running, and that's very suboptimal (buffer menu doesn't get shared, it's hard to do on OS X, etc...)
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Anyone know how to keep it from saving a duplicate swap/temp/backup file everytime you save? (in Windows)
If I create a file 'yourmom.txt' then edit it and save the file, it will also create a 'yourmom.txt~' file. I hate these damn tilde files... it really gets on my nerves but I haven't come across a way to stop it.
Anyone have any ideas?
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Nevermind, I figured it out:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim/message/53998
I just created a different directory to save all the backup files:
set backupdir=$Vimbackup-files~
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2005-08-29
Why people stick to VI claiming it's "darn powerful" is beyond me. I have even heard of people refusing to use Eclipse without a VI plugin. I wonder how many of those who say that actually use anything more advanced that anyone could do with say UltraEdit on windows or a good GUI editor on linux.
Spend 6 months without using VI and you'll have to search again how to do basic things (search and replace all ...). The only reason to stick to it is the refusal many people have admitting they have spent years getting used to it and losing all that worthless effort.
Note that, I do use VI when connecting on a remote server and editing files. The only reason I chose to keep using it is because you are certain it will always be there. Does that make it the best? Even in textmode you can make software that is more intuitive.
If it's it power that you like.. then add those bloody features to some easy-to-use editor.
So .. multiple undo/redo is one of the features you get in the new version? Hm.. do you mean that during all those years when we heard people claiming VI(m) was the best editor around you couldn't even do that? I just thought I was unable to do it (like most things in this so-friendly interface).
There is absolutely no need for things to be difficult. If they are, then they plain suck. There is no direct correlation between powerful and difficult.
Ok, now, flame me. And please forget a feature in VI that's not available in other editors and that doesn't require writing regular expression or bash commands.
Member since:2005-07-07
personal preference. Thats very simple. I am so damn fast in VIM there is no reason for me to use jedit or joe or nano or whatever else.
I, for example, don't use a GUI editor at work, because I always work on one dev box via SSH and have a screen running there.
If I have to open some files localy I use gnome editor or kedit, but thats really more like "cut/paste" or something like this. For any realy work, like coding, I always use vim.
And I doubt I would forgot the basic commands in 6 months, they are already "burned" into my memory.
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Why people stick to VI claiming it's "darn powerful" is beyond me. I have even heard of people refusing to use Eclipse without a VI plugin. I wonder how many of those who say that actually use anything more advanced that anyone could do with say UltraEdit on windows or a good GUI editor on linux.
Why do people use Vi? Because it is FUN! Seriously. I have UltraEdit and it is a great program, but whenever I get the chance, I hop into vi. I don't care what anyone says about productivity or whatever - vi makes editing fun, and that is all there is to it.
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"Powerful" usually means "difficult" because there are a lot of commands and features to learn and they take a little practice... no matter what program you're talking about.
Some examples are AutoCAD, Photoshop, and probably any hard-core accounting program you can think of. Sure they all have "easier" to use counter parts (Visio, MS Photo-editor, and Quicken) but that doesn't mean that they can replace the more powerful programs or that the powerful programs suck.
It simply takes some time to learn what all of the features and commands are, what they do, and when they're appropriate to use. If you need the power that the program provides, then it's worth your time to learn what it can do to save you time in the long run... if not, then you're probably in the wrong line of work.
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I wouldn't use Eclipse even with a vim plugin unless it was strictly necessary, so wanting such a plugin to me isn't much of a benchmark for lunacy to me. I would much rather use IDEA. That's called a personal preference.
Now I could spend 6 months without using vim, and I wouldn't have to search to do anything with it. Why? I don't know. I don't think that I am supremely intelligent; perhaps I just know how to use it well.
Vim has, and has had for some time, multiple levels of undo. Things are difficult in any tool until you learn how to use it; that's just life.
I don't know if your post is a troll, or just ignorant. People that engage in editor wars are well, just sad. Don't be too offended if some random person tells you that 'vim is the best text editor evarrrr.' It's a text editor, putting it firmly below even a penis contest to argue about. Writing a post that's basically emacs vs. vi grade pointless and asking people to flame you is childish.
Member since:2005-08-18
"Why people stick to VI claiming it's "darn powerful" is beyond me."
Just like any other editor/ide it's powerfull once you've learned it. If you're used to vi/vim then that's what you're productive in, if you're used to Emacs that's what you're productive in etc etc.
Claiming something isn't powerfull just because you havent had the time and/or interest to figure it out is just silly.
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I've been using plenty of editors from Amstrad basic, DOS, VM/CMS, VMS, to Unices.
The reason why I stick with VIM (even if the cut and paste is sometime awkward) is that I'm quick with it and I can use the same functions localy(with gvim) and remotely(through ssh).
Shortcuts are efficients and usually keep my hands on the keyboard while searching and replacing. Visual mode in VIM makes selection as easy as in "usual" editors.
Probably one would claim to be able to do the same things with most editors, but the only one I've used that I liked better was Visual-Slickedit (excellent text editing features, easy to customize, embeded color highlighting, but a bit expensive).
Pf course the linked article, should not have been about "what's new in vim" but "what can a modern vi clone do".
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The first piece of 3rd party software I deploy on Solaris boxen is vim, it's an absolute must have for any admin, even though I prefer Emacs for C/Perl coding. It's always fun watching a proprietary Microseft Windows XP user trying to get some work done in vi or ed for the first time.
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I am a bit curious to why people are calling vim bloated. If you truly look at it. Vim is modular and extendable. It has a language where you can add new features. Would you call C bloated because of all the libraries availible for it? No that does not make a lot of sense...
As far as ease of use goes... Ease of use all really depends on how much time you are willing to commit to your editor to learn it. Even more so... Vim does come in multiple flavors.
Console Vim: Your standard bread and butter vi clone. (In vim distribution.)
gVim: A graphical vi clone. You get to mix the 'ease of use' of a gui with the 'power of vim'. You get graphical file open dialogs (instead of :e, you can :browse e... or even File / Open). (In vim distribution.)
gVim Easy mode: Same gVim, but now you are using it like windows notepad. (in vim distrabution)
And then of course you have other goodies like...
Cream: Fully 'ease of use' enabled version of vim. ( http://cream.sourceforge.net/ )
Now mind you, I have tried Cream... but I am so used to standard vim that I actually felt my performance dropping with it. Cream is after all, just like normal editors. There are one or two features of Cream I did like however. The zenburn color scheme for example... So I borrowed that for gVim =).
http://tinypic.com/bgryux.png
Very easy on the eyes if you ask me.
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Well, for the type of application that VIM is the GPL license is okay. But, VIM is pretty neat and would be cool to have in the base system for BSD OS's.
One way to easily be in the base would for it to be BSD licensed. It doesn't have to be (there are plenty of non-BSD licensed code in the base - not the kernel, but the base), but it would help.
Also, if there was a BSD clone of VIM then maybe vi can penetrate into more OS's or devices (proprietary or not) because of the fewer restrictions. It probably doesn't matter either way though.
One thing I do like using is GVim because it's "graphical". It's actually a good app, it's gotten bigger than vi should but that's hard to avoid when you add usefull features.
I agree with you though, if nvi had syntax high-lighting then I would be in vi heaven. At that point, I wouldn't need VIM at all (not that I really need it anyway).
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