How Did Vim Become So Popular
How this talk came to be?
Why h, j, k, and l? 🤔
Why not some other keys?
Why use : to call a command?
🤔
This talk is about
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Small bits and pieces of Vim's history
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Vim's origin
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Fun facts
About me
About me
About me
Vim is still popular
Vim is still popular
1000+ Attendees
Vim is still popular
5th most popular
Vim is still popular
5th place is great considering Vim got released in 1991
Vim is still popular
How it all started?
vim - vi - ed
🥊 Punch cards and 📈 line editors
🥊 Punch cards
Example of a punch card
🥊 Punch cards
Punching machine IBM 029
🥊 Punch cards
Stack of punch cards
🥊 Punch cards
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First origins in 19th century
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Peak in 60s
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Used well into 21st century
📺 Teleprinters
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Concept of time sharing
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Late 60s
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TeleTYpe writers - TTYs
📺 Teleprinters
🛎 Bell Labs
🛎 Bell Labs
Ken Thompson
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Creates ed from QED 1969.
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Adds regular expressions
🏀 LIVE DEMO 🏈
Let's try out the ed editor!
Vim’s dad - The Vi
Vim’s dad - The Vi
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After ed comes em
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The editor for mortals
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George Coulouris
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Used on "glass TTYs"
Vim’s dad - The Vi
Computer terminal
Vim’s dad - The Vi
George Coulouris shows em to Bill Joy
Vim’s dad - The Vi
Bill Joy is frustrated with ed;
takes em and creates ex
Vim’s dad - The Vi
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First version of ex in 1978 - BSD Unix
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Second BSD Unix - the vi executable
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vi's first release in 1979
Vim’s dad - The Vi
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vi's first release in 1979
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sets conventions for the future
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h, j, k, and l origin
Vim’s dad - The Vi
h, j, k, and l origin
ADM-3A terminal
Vim’s dad - The Vi
h, j, k, and l origin
ADM-3A terminal keyboard
Vim’s dad - The Vi
Typing : to perform a command
ed's complete silence
From vi to vim
From vi to vim
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vi only text editor in BSD Unix
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Emacs is expensive
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BSD Unix is the base of most others
From vi to vim
BSD Unix is the base of most others
From vi to vim
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vi is proprietary software
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AT&T source licence needed
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open source imitations rise
From vi to vim
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open source imitations rise
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STEVIE
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ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts
From vi to vim
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STEVIE
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ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts
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Came about 1987
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STEVIE reaches Bram Moolenaar
From vi to vim
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STEVIE reaches Bram Moolenaar
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Fred Fish newsletter
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Amiga 2000
From vi to vim
Amiga 2000
From vi to vim
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Bram worked with vi in the university
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He realized many of vi's feature were missing
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He gets to work (1988)
From vi to vim
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Compatability with vi
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Multi-level undo
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Quick-fix mode
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"Vi Imitation" in 1991
From vi to vim
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"Vi Imitation" in 1991
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"Vi Improved" in 1993
From vi to vim
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"Vi Imitation" v1 in 1991
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"Vi Improved" v2 in 1993
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v3 in 1994
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...
From vi to vim
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Splitting windows
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Buffers
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Swap files
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Vimscript
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Syntax highlighting
From vi to vim
Vim gets ported to
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MS-DOS
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Mac
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Unix
Recent times
Recent times
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5th most popular today
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Ubiquity
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Speed
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Customizability
Recent times
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Some hate Vim
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Getting stuck in Vim
Recent times
Getting stuck in Vim
StackOverflow research from 2017
Recent times
Getting stuck in Vim
Recent times
Getting stuck in Vim
Recent times
Getting stuck in Vim
80 people per hour that need help getting out of Vim
Recent times
Recent times
Recent times
Remember h, j, k, and l?
How did Vim become popular?
How did Vim become popular?
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Features
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Speed
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Flexibility
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Ubiquity
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...
How did Vim become popular?
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Compatability for over 50 years
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ed - 1969 - Ken Thompson
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ex and vi - 1979 - Bill Joy
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vim - 1991 - Bram Moolenaar
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neovim - 2014
The Future
The Future
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5th most popular overall
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2nd in Ruby community
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Vim is at version 8.2
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Neovim is stronger than ever
The Future
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🤝 Support each other
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🔈 VimConf.live
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📝 Write blog posts
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📹 Stream and create videos
The Future
📹 Stream and create videos
🙇♂️ Thanks!
🐦 Twitter: @nikolalsvk
📝 Blog: pragmaticpineapple.com
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