Where Vim Came From

🌈 Abstract

The article provides an in-depth history and analysis of the Vim text editor, tracing its origins back to the early days of Unix and the development of the line editor ed. It explores how Vim evolved from the vi text editor, which was created by Bill Joy at UC Berkeley, and how Bram Moolenaar later developed Vim as an open-source "Vi Imitation" for the Amiga platform. The article highlights Vim's widespread adoption and success, as well as the collaborative and incremental approach that has shaped its development over the decades.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Origins of Vim

1. What was the original text editor that Ken Thompson developed at Bell Labs, and how did it evolve over time?

• Ken Thompson developed the ed line editor at Bell Labs, which was based on the QED text editor he had used at UC Berkeley.
• ed had a simplified set of features compared to QED, such as reduced regular expression support and the ability to only work with one buffer at a time.
• ed introduced the s/foo/bar/g syntax for find and replace, as well as the modal editing approach of using commands like i, a, and c to enter input mode.

2. How did Bill Joy's ex and vi editors build upon ed?

• Bill Joy developed ex, an "extended ed" that added "open" and "visual" modes for single-line and full-screen editing, respectively.
• The vi executable was introduced as a way to launch ex in visual mode, establishing many of the conventions we associate with Vim today, such as using the h, j, k, and l keys for cursor movement.

[02] Bram Moolenaar and the Development of Vim

1. What was the motivation behind Bram Moolenaar's development of Vim?

• Moolenaar wanted a vi-like editor for his Amiga 2000 computer, as he had become accustomed to using vi on Unix systems at his university.
• Moolenaar started with the existing STEVIE vi clone as a base and worked to make Vim fully vi-compatible, while also adding new features like multi-level undo and a "quickfix" mode for compiler errors.

2. How did Vim's development and adoption progress over time?

• Vim 1.0 was released in 1991 as "Vi Imitation" on a Fred Fish disk for the Amiga platform.
• Subsequent versions of Vim added more features, such as support for split windows, buffers, syntax highlighting, and Vimscript.
• Vim's popularity grew, with ports to various platforms, and it eventually surpassed the original vi in usage, especially among Linux users.

3. What factors contributed to Vim's widespread success and adoption?

• The long history and collaborative development of the "wq text editor" concept, with contributions from influential figures like Ken Thompson and Bill Joy, gave Vim a strong foundation.
• Vim's focus on backward compatibility and gradual feature additions, rather than a "disruptive" approach, allowed it to accumulate good ideas over time.
• Vim's availability on a wide range of platforms, including Unix, Windows, and Mac, helped drive its adoption.

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