Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Vim

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing.

Vim

Vim Reviews and Details

This page is designed to help you find out whether Vim is good and if it is the right choice for you.

Screenshots and images

  • Vim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

Features & Specs

  1. 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.

  2. Lightweight

    Vim is a very lightweight editor, consuming minimal system resources, making it highly performant even on systems with lower specifications.

  3. Customizability

    Vim is highly configurable and extensible through plugins and user-defined settings, allowing users to tailor the editor to their specific needs.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Powerful Search and Replace

    Vim offers robust searching and replacing functionalities, including support for regular expressions, which can be a powerful tool for developers.

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Videos

What Vim Is and Why You Should Learn It

JAC Vapour VIM Review - JAC does a side by side mod...

Jac Vapour VIM - Quick Look

Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about Vim and what they use it for.
  • 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: over 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: almost 3 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: over 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
  • Vim in Windows
    Installation is a breeze as its just a one-stop at vim.org. Source: over 3 years ago
  • need some help with my code it won't compile for some reason
    If you're curious visit https://vim.org for more. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • How to Master Vim
    First thing you need to do is get Vim installed on your computer, where I will assume that you are using Linux. If not, you can download it at vim.org. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • A guide to create tmux like Custom Layouts in Spacemacs
    Coming from a vim world with tmux, I had really missed the multiple split window layout in Spacemacs. But after knowing how to define custom layouts this seemed to be an easy exercise for me. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
  • Why Vim Is The Best Editor...?
    'Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as "vi" with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.'— I took this line from official website of vim link. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago

Summary of the public mentions of Vim

Vim, a highly esteemed text editor in the developer community, continues to evoke diverse opinions among users. Its prominent position in the software development realm stems from its unique blend of powerful features, flexibility, and extensive customization capabilities. This venerable tool, although marked by a steep learning curve and an interface that some describe as outdated, remains a favorite among seasoned developers owing to the speed and productivity it brings to their workflows.

A major highlight of Vim is its efficiency once the initial learning barrier is overcome. Articles frequently emphasize that mastering Vim is akin to unleashing a potent force for editing text. Its absence of a graphical user interface (GUI) appeals to users who prefer a keyboard-centric approach, providing a terminal-like experience. Despite lacking a conventional GUI, Vim compensates with a rich ecosystem of plugins and custom configurations that tailor its functionality to specific development needs. Popular plugins such as vim-go for Go development and vim-ruby for Ruby scripting significantly elevate Vim’s capabilities, effectively transforming it into a powerful integrated development environment (IDE).

Vim's open-source nature and vibrant community support are additional assets, attracting developers who value collaboration and shared resources. There are numerous pre-configured configuration files circulating within the community, offering developers quick setups and enhancements tailored to their specific tasks. This sense of community and shared knowledge base is a crucial aspect of Vim's enduring popularity.

Interestingly, survey results and anecdotal evidence often highlight that users of Vim (and its peer, Emacs) tend to fare better in technical evaluations. This pattern might suggest that the disciplined approach to learning and utilizing these editors correlates with higher skill levels or longer tenures in the software industry, though this remains a topic of debate among developers.

However, not all reviews of Vim are glowing. Some critics point to the steep learning curve and its unconventional exit commands as ongoing hurdles for new users. Furthermore, its minimalistic interface, while appealing to some, might seem daunting and less inviting compared to modern editors like Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text, which offer polished GUI experiences right out of the box.

Additionally, discussions about Vim’s official website critique its somewhat archaic design, which undermines its usability for less technical users, contrasting it with modern, more intuitive interfaces of peers like Git.

In sum, Vim’s long-standing presence in the software industry reflects its effectiveness for those who invest the time to harness its capabilities. While not without its challenges, Vim’s combination of flexibility, community, and efficiency maintains its status as a powerful tool in the developer’s arsenal, celebrated for its capacity to significantly boost productivity in text editing tasks.

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Is Vim good? This is an informative page that will help you find out. Moreover, you can review and discuss Vim here. The primary details have not been verified within the last quarter, and they might be outdated. If you think we are missing something, please use the means on this page to comment or suggest changes. All reviews and comments are highly encouranged and appreciated as they help everyone in the community to make an informed choice. Please always be kind and objective when evaluating a product and sharing your opinion.