Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Vim VS ST - Simple Terminal

Compare Vim VS ST - Simple Terminal and see what are their differences

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Vim logo Vim

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

ST - Simple Terminal logo ST - Simple Terminal

st is a simple terminal implementation for X.
  • Vim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23
  • ST - Simple Terminal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-28

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.

ST - Simple Terminal features and specs

  • Lightweight
    ST is designed to be extremely lightweight, making it fast and responsive even on older machines.
  • Minimal Dependencies
    ST aims to minimize dependencies, which simplifies installation and reduces potential for conflicts with other software.
  • Customizability
    ST's source code is intended to be modified by users to fit their needs, allowing deep personalization and optimization.
  • Simplicity
    ST follows the Suckless philosophy of simplicity, providing essential features without unnecessary bloat.
  • Open Source
    ST is open source, allowing users to inspect, modify, and contribute to the development of the software.

Possible disadvantages of ST - Simple Terminal

  • Limited Features
    Due to its minimalist design, ST lacks some advanced features found in other terminals, which might be essential for certain users.
  • Manual Configuration
    ST requires users to modify its source code for configuration, which can be a barrier for those unfamiliar with programming.
  • Lack of Pre-built Binaries
    ST typically needs to be compiled from source, which can be inconvenient compared to using package managers with pre-built binaries.
  • Basic Look and Feel
    The focus on minimalism means ST does not provide out-of-the-box eye candy or extensive customization of appearance through simple configuration files.
  • Community Size
    ST has a smaller community compared to more popular terminals, potentially making it harder to find support or plugins for additional functionality.

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

ST - Simple Terminal videos

No ST - Simple Terminal videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Vim and ST - Simple Terminal)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
SSH
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

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

ST - Simple Terminal Reviews

The 10 Best Linux Terminal Emulators
The st or Simple Terminal emulator gives you precisely what you ask for. ” A simple terminal emulator to interact with your Linux distro.”
Top 14 Terminal Emulators for Linux (With Extra Features or Amazing Looks)
Simple Terminal or popularly known as st is an alternative for users who dislike bloated terminal emulators like xterm or rxvt.
Source: itsfoss.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ST - Simple Terminal should be more popular than Vim. It has been mentiond 47 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.

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
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ST - Simple Terminal mentions (47)

  • Typing with Pleasure
    Whenever I switch to another dev's machine, usually running either jetbrains or vscode, I'm always astounded at how annoyed I find myself while typing on it due to the high latency on keystrokes. I'm blessed with ~subframe delay using [st](https://st.suckless.org/) and neovim, and now I don't know if I could ever go back to a "true" IDE for professional work. Just for kicks I've started work on my own text editor... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Preview images, videos, fonts, PDFs ... in Vifm.
    The terminal I am currently using is st but I have also tested this "Vifm" enhancement in kitty and alacritty. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Ask HN: Which is the simplest terminal emulator able to run Vim?
    Perhaps st: https://st.suckless.org. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Autodafe: "freeing your freeing your project from the clammy grip of autotools."
    > you need to "edit your makefile". That isn't going to work for distributions Is it not? [st] requires exactly that. And distros seem to have no issues shipping it. [st] https://st.suckless.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Write Your Own Terminal
    Check out st[1] for a minimal terminal implementation. They also have user-submitted patches that you can apply to add desired functionality. [1] https://st.suckless.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Vim and ST - Simple Terminal, you can also consider the following products

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

Kitty terminal - Super fast, GPU and OpenGL based terminal emulator with tiling support

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.

xterm - You can download and use MobaXterm Home Edition for free.

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

Xfce-Terminal - Terminal is a modern terminal emulator for the Unix/Linux desktop - primarily for the Xfce desktop...