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LLVM VS Vim

Compare LLVM VS Vim and see what are their differences

LLVM logo LLVM

LLVM is a compiler infrastructure designed for compile-time, link-time, run-time, and...

Vim logo Vim

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing
  • LLVM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-11-06
  • Vim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

LLVM features and specs

  • Modularity
    LLVM is designed to be modular and flexible, allowing developers to utilize only the components they need for their specific tasks. This makes it versatile for a wide range of use cases.
  • Optimization
    LLVM provides advanced optimization techniques that allow for efficient code execution across various platforms. It utilizes a variety of standard and state-of-the-art optimization passes to improve performance.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    LLVM supports a wide range of architectures and platforms, enabling developers to build and deploy applications across multiple target environments without needing to make significant code changes.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    The LLVM project includes a wide array of tools and libraries, such as Clang and LLDB, that enhance development capabilities and provide comprehensive support for different programming languages.
  • Community and Industry Adoption
    LLVM has a robust and active community, along with backing from major technology companies. This means consistent updates, improvements, and a broad support network for troubleshooting and enhancements.

Possible disadvantages of LLVM

  • Complexity
    Due to its extensive feature set and flexibility, LLVM can be complex to understand and use, particularly for newcomers who may find its detailed API and documentation challenging.
  • Resource Intensive
    The advanced optimizations and capabilities provided by LLVM can require significant compute resources, which might not be suitable for all systems or use cases, particularly those with limited capabilities.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    LLVM's power and flexibility come with a steep learning curve, demanding a strong understanding of compiler design and architecture to fully leverage its potential.
  • Limited Legacy Support
    While LLVM supports many modern architectures, its focus on newer platforms means that it may offer limited functionality for legacy systems or older processor architectures.
  • Lack of High-Level Language Features
    LLVM is primarily focused on compiler and intermediate representation infrastructure, which means that it does not provide some high-level language features or abstractions unless provided by front-end tools.

Vim features and specs

  • Efficiency
    Once learned, Vim can significantly speed up text editing with its modal editing, keyboard shortcuts, and commands that allow for quick navigation and manipulation of text.
  • Lightweight
    Vim is a very lightweight editor, consuming minimal system resources, making it highly performant even on systems with lower specifications.
  • Customizability
    Vim is highly configurable and extensible through plugins and user-defined settings, allowing users to tailor the editor to their specific needs.
  • Ubiquity
    Vim is available on almost every Unix-like system and even on Windows, making it a ubiquitous tool that you can rely on being available in most environments.
  • Support for Multiple Programming Languages
    Vim supports a wide range of programming languages out of the box and offers syntax highlighting, which can be enhanced through plugins.
  • Powerful Search and Replace
    Vim offers robust searching and replacing functionalities, including support for regular expressions, which can be a powerful tool for developers.

Possible disadvantages of Vim

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Vim's modal editing and extensive set of commands can be daunting for new users, requiring significant time and effort to master.
  • Minimal Default Config
    The default configuration of Vim is quite minimalistic, which may necessitate additional setup and customization to meet modern development needs.
  • Limited GUI
    Vim primarily operates in a terminal, and while there are graphical variants like GVim, they are not as feature-rich or user-friendly as modern GUI editors.
  • Plugin Management
    While Vim is highly extensible, managing and configuring plugins can be cumbersome compared to more modern editors that offer integrated plugin management.
  • Inconsistent Behavior Across Platforms
    There may be inconsistencies in behavior or available features of Vim across different operating systems, which can complicate its use in certain environments.
  • Lack of Integrated Modern Features
    Vim lacks some modern IDE features like integrated debugging, advanced code introspection, and refined autocompletion, which often require third-party plugins to achieve.

LLVM videos

Interview with LLVM Foundation President Tanya Lattner

More videos:

  • Review - [COSCUP2021] A trip about how I contribute to LLVM
  • Review - Introduction to LLVM Building simple program analysis tools and instrumentation

Vim videos

What Vim Is and Why You Should Learn It

More videos:

  • Review - JAC Vapour VIM Review - JAC does a side by side mod...
  • Review - Jac Vapour VIM - Quick Look

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to LLVM and Vim)
IDE
9 9%
91% 91
Text Editors
3 3%
97% 97
Email Marketing
100 100%
0% 0
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare LLVM and Vim

LLVM Reviews

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Vim Reviews

Boost Your Productivity with These Top Text Editors and IDEs
Vim offers a variety of features like split windows, macros, and extensive customization options. It has a steep learning curve, but once you master it, you’ll be amazed at the speed and productivity it brings to your coding workflow. Vim is a favorite among experienced developers who value speed and efficiency above all else.
Source: convesio.com
13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow
It’s tough to say which developers would enjoy Vim as a text editor. It’s an old system with an outdated interface. Yet, it still has the charm and powerful feature-set that the average developer needs. I would recommend it to more advanced developers who enjoy using open source software and being a part of a community–like the one you can find behind Vim.
Source: kinsta.com
12 Best LaTeX Editors You Should Use
The entire installation process is perfectly documented on their Sourceforge page, which you must definitely pay a visit. There is another standalone Vim software, known as the gVim that brings a GUI-based interface to the Vim document editor. Vim-LaTeX has been developed specifically for the programmers and it is so highly configurable that it can function anyway, ranging...
Source: beebom.com
The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You
Vim is a totally free Notepad++ alternative. It is available to use on Windows, Mac and Linux computers and it is very powerful. I was able to customize Vim to get it to look and function just how I want it. There is really good help support with Vim so if you are new to programming it will get you through most issues.
10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020
Vim is an advanced text editor open source tool which is also considered to be an IDE in its way. This tool allows managing your text editing activities with vim editors and UNIX System which can be used on-premise or online.
Source: www.guru99.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LLVM should be more popular than Vim. It has been mentiond 55 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

LLVM mentions (55)

  • macOS Sequoia is certified to Unix 03
    Apple has made some substantial open source contributions. - LLVM - https://llvm.org/ - They are the stewards of CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) - https://www.cups.org/ - Darwin kernel is open source - https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/xnu. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Why you should keep an eye on Apache DataFusion and its community.
    Similarly, LLVM revolutionized the world of programming languages and compilers. Since its creation, we've seen many new languages being created of increased complexity. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Yes, Ruby is fast, but…
    In conclusion, none of the proposed changes to the Ruby version of the code makes a dent in the Crystal version. This is not entirely Crystal's doing: it uses the LLVM backend, which generates very optimized binaries. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Playing with DragonRuby Game Toolkit (DRGTK)
    This Ruby implementation is based on mruby and LLVM and it’s commercial software but cheap. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Which books/resources to understand modern Assembler?
    'Computer Architeture: A Quantitative Apporach" and/or more specific design types (mips, arm, etc) can be found under the Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architeture and Design. "Getting Started with LLVM Core Libraries: Get to Grips With Llvm Essentials and Use the Core Libraries to Build Advanced Tools " "The Architecture of Open Source Applications (Volume 1) : LLVM" https://aosabook.org/en/v1/llvm.html... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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Vim mentions (10)

  • regular Vim has lua?!
    Lua is quite small, encouraging distros to include it. The ubuntu gvim has, and the gvim AppImage linked from vim.org does. The default Makefile from github is set up to not include it, but you can uncomment one line there to get it. Source: about 2 years ago
  • is there a way to make highlighted text persistent after quit when using something like [match Search /\%'.line('.').'l/] ?
    I've not used vimwiki locally (tho I'm old enough to remember the Vim wiki on vim.org :), but I think what you are wanting to do is extend vimwiki's syntax file. I presume it installs one at $VIMRUNTIM/syntax or or ~/.vim/syntax. If this sounds right, then create a ~/.vim/after/syntax/vimwiki.vim file and place your match command in there. Then everytime you open a vimwiki file it should apply your... Source: over 2 years ago
  • vim.org - Is there a reason for this 1800s-esque design?
    Vim.org has 242k total visitors, tailwindcss.com has 4.4m, planetscale.com has 412k, jpl.nasa.gov has 2.6m, all built with Tailwind, all several years younger than Vim's website. Unnecessary comparison, unnecessary defence. It's a valuable tool, fine, but a complete disregard for anyone who doesn't love a crappy website and would like to navigate a website like a normal human is not something to be defended. Maybe... Source: over 2 years ago
  • What is YOUR process of writing ?
    I write in Vim with some customizations in my vimrc to gear it more towards prose writing than code editing. It's not pretty, but Normal Mode and Ex commands are the most powerful text editing tools out there, so that means I spend less time on making corrections and other edits. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Why developers need to know about Vim
    If you are open minded and would like to try it out, click me for more information! Cheers. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing LLVM and Vim, you can also consider the following products

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting...

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

clang - C, C++, Objective C and Objective C++ front-end for the LLVM compiler.

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

Tiny C Compiler - The Tiny C Compiler is an x86, x86-64 and ARM processor C compiler created by Fabrice Bellard.

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.