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Graphical Vim (Gvim)
Vim, which stands for Vi IMproved, is a free
multi-platform text editor. VIM's multi-mode full screen editing paradigm is
a conceptual outgrowth of the original vi editor implementation that, since the early 1980s, has been distributed as an essential
part of every operating system that is derived from Unix. Since its inception in the early 1990s Vim has grown to accommodate an extensive array of
features, both original and derived from other free and commercial text editors. This success is an outgrowth of the development
process which has been driven by the public publication of the Vim source code combined with the constant interaction between
users, developers, and the original creator of Vim, Bram Moolenaar.
Some of the main features of Vim and improvements of Vim over vi:
- Vim is 99% Vi compatible
- portability: there are versions for
- multi level undo/redo
- multiple modified buffers
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode
- split windows -- both horizontal and vertical
- syntax highlighting for hundreds of file types, even
Wikipedia format
- trans-session history of commands/searches/registers/positions ...
- command-line editing and extensive completion
- IDE-like build/review/edit
features
- session state preservation
- configurable status line
- insert-mode completion
- multi-mode text folding
- extended scripting and expressions
- scripted plugins
- remote file editing from ssh, ftp and http servers, among others
- visual mode selection with char/line/block ranges
- comprehensive integrated help system with hypertext via ctags
External links
Vim is also the name of a range of household cleaning products
produced by Lever Brothers. Vim scouring powder was one of the first
products created by William
Lever and produced at Port
Sunlight near Liverpool. The name Vim remained solely associated with the
scouring powder until 1993 when a range of associated products were released.
The name of the brand was probably chosen as a reference to the colloquial noun vim, meaning force,
energy, vigor. The word has since passed into relative obscurity for most English speakers.
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