vim

Vim is a highly configurable text editor designed for efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor, created by Bram Moolenaar and first released in 1991. Vim is distributed as free and open-source software under a charityware license, which encourages donations to a charitable cause.

Core concepts include modal editing with normal, insert, visual, and command-line modes, enabling powerful editing with a compact set of keystrokes. It provides extensive editing commands, support for regular expressions, syntax highlighting, code folding, multi-level undo, registers, and macros, as well as Ex commands for scripting and automation.

Customization and extensibility are central to Vim. Configuration is done via a plain text file such as .vimrc, and users can extend functionality with plugins and scripts. The editor supports window splits, tabs, and a rich help system. It runs in terminal and in GUI variants such as gVim and MacVim; there is broad language and plugin support, including integration with version control systems and language tooling.

Vim has a long-standing user base and a large ecosystem of plugins. It remains widely used among programmers and system administrators on Unix-like systems, Windows, and macOS. The project has inspired forks and related tools, most notably Neovim, which seeks to modernize the architecture while preserving Vim's editing model.