Text editor celebrating its 30th anniversary, what is the secret to its popularity?

Vim , a command-line-based text editor, celebrated its 30th anniversary since its 1991 release. Software developer Alex Baldwin draws attention by explaining how this beam has been loved for 30 years.

According to this, the number one reason Beam remains popular is that it doesn’t require a mouse. For example, in a typical modeless editor such as Notepad, only one mode, called text input, can be used, but in Vim, there are multiple modes such as input mode and normal mode. Can be used. This function can be synchronized with the screen code by keyboard.

Developers are spending a lot of time entering text, so unnecessary processes such as mouse operation to stop text input can all interfere with natural work. Because most developers love efficiency, many want to work with their hands on the keyboard, which saves time, keeps them focused and ultimately allows them to create software. They say they have shaped their products to maintain a competitive edge.

Here’s a powerful . Command. In Beam, you can repeat the previous changes immediately by simply entering a point. It looks like a simple macro, Baldwin said, but it can have an effect while typing complex text.

The third is Vim-Easy Motion. With EasyMotion, a plug-in provided for Beam, the starting letter for each word is highlighted in red. In this state, you can move the cursor to that position by entering the highlighted character.

Here is the shell command. The ability to incorporate shell commands into the editor is much simpler than running the commands in a separate window. ear buffer. The buffer is a memory area where beam copies the read file. If you open multiple file tabs, management becomes complicated, but if you use a buffer, you can open multiple files at once and search is also simple. Baldwin said that the way developers actually type code is almost the same as it was 30 years ago. Related information can be found here.