Bram Moolenaar, RIP
Alex:
In the early 90s, programmer Bram Moolenaar was frustrated with limitations of the vi text editor.
So he created his own open source fork called Vim!
Vim improved on vi with new features like multi-level undo/redo, visual selection, and syntax highlighting.
[…]
What makes Vim special? Its modal editing approach - you enter commands to manipulate text instead of mousing around.
This makes editing super fast and precise! ⚡️
Laura Bernheim (via Hacker News):
Vim, originally abbreviated from “Vi IMitation,” sought to extend the functionality of the vi editor. With the release of Version 2.0 a few years later, Vim declared the new abbreviation was for “Vi IMproved” because their feature set had surpassed vi.
More than two decades since the text editor’s creation, Vim has become so configurable and adaptable that even Bram doesn’t know about all the features it has anymore.
vim_announce (via Fatih Arslan):
It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you that Bram Moolenaar passed away on 3 August 2023. Bram was suffering from a medical condition that progressed quickly over the last few weeks.
Bram dedicated a large part of his life to VIM and he was very proud of the VIM community that you are all part of.
Anyone who’s used Vim has seen evidence of Moolenaar’s generosity. “Vim is Charityware,” Moolenaar wrote in its pioneering license. “You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are encouraged to make a donation for needy children in Uganda.” Moolenaar pioneered the concept of charityware decades ago, and also helped to popularize its adoption. To this day Vim users can still view the license by typing the command
:help Ugandaor:help ICCF. And Vim’s sponsor FAQ notes that “Each registered Vim user and sponsor who donates at least 10 euro will be able to vote for new features.”
Muhammad (via Hacker News):
In this post, I will be sharing my favorite vim one-liners that have significantly enhanced my vim workflow, making it more productive and efficient. As an avid vim user, I have extensively utilized these one-liners to edit files, and they never cease to surprise me with their ability to accomplish tasks swiftly, saving precious time. This is precisely what drew me to Vim - the unparalleled efficiency it offers when it comes to editing text.
Update (2023-08-10): Christian Brabandt (archive, via Hacker News):
The future of the Vim project
[…]
Access to the github organization is possible and Ken and me have been granted admin rights by Brams family, so we can continue with Github.
[…]
Bram was owner of the all of the mailing lists. I don’t know yet how he managed this and how to request access[…]
2 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
The Register published a fine obituary:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/07/bram_moolenaar_obituary/
Vim is my daily editor. I transitioned from vi on Solaris which was far less forgiving. I'm very grateful to Bram, and all the other contributors. This is software that dates back to the good old days of the Atari ST and Amiga, and still just works.
