What is Vim?

Vim is free, open-source text editor for the Unix operating system. Vim is built off the original Unix text editor, VI, which was created by Bill Joy in 1976. A decade or so later, in 1991, Vim, which is a combination of the phrase Vi IMproved, was released publicly by Bram Moolenaar with additional enhancements. Today, it is still one of the most popular code/text, or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) editors in the market. A quick Google search will still show article after article including Vim amongst some of the most popular tools in today’s IDE ecosystem.

What Makes Vim Great

The main differentiator that sets Vim apart from other editors is that users can only navigate and write commands using the keyboard. At first, this may not seem like a benefit, especially compared to other GUI-based editors in the market, but when you consider the incremental amount of time between when you navigate with a mouse, then move back to a keyboard, and then back to your mouse, it makes perfect sense. If your job is to write code all day, every day, you increase your coding productivity by simply doing away with the biggest bottleneck, the mouse. It may seem easier said than done, since we all rely on a mouse in our normal, everyday life. Sometimes it is hard to remove the one thing we rely on, but once you overcome that hurdle, like anything else in life, it makes you more proficient and productive.

Why Every Programmer Should Use Vim

Some other great benefits to using Vim is that you can support for it pretty much everywhere, meaning any platform or operating system that you use. No matter if you are a MacOS, Android, Windows, or Linux user, the tool has you covered. In addition, it provides a lot of flexibility when it comes to user customizations and extensibility in form of plugins, such as vim-airline, fugitive.vim, The NERD tree, vim-gitgutter, and about a thousand more, which are written in Vim’s internal scripting language, VimL.

With all these great features, benefits, and customizations your fingertips, you will wonder why you have not used it before. So, stop wondering and try Vim for yourself today!

Bram's Mission: Supporting Children in Uganda

Bram has been extremely active with the International Child Care Fund (ICCF) in Holland, where Bram holds the position of treasurer. The ICCF is a small charitable organization that is run completely by volunteers. The goal of the ICCF is to support children in the Ugandan village of Kibaale that have been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as diseases like malaria and measles in Africa, giving them the needed financial support for medical care and other basic living requirements. In addition to that, the ICCF also manages a primary and secondary school to give children the continuing education they deserve.

Dotcom-Monitor: Supporting Bram's Mission through Sponsorship

Vim is a completely free and open-source tool, but Bram encourages all users to contribute to the ICCF in order to continue helping children in Uganda. Here at Dotcom-Monitor, we use Vim regularly for our projects, so we have nothing but praise for this tool. Having the right tool for the job is essential for efficiency and completing our projects on time and Vim allows us to do just that. We are also proud to be part of the community by sponsoring and supporting Bram and the ICCF in their efforts to help children in Uganda succeed and smile again! If your organization uses Vim, we encourage you to consider giving or becoming a sponsor to help continue the mission of Bram and the ICCF.