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Vim 8.0 Released! (google.com) 125

Posted by EditorDavid from the speaking-of-text-editors dept.
Long-time Slashdot reader MrKaos writes: The venerable and essential vim has had it's first major release in 10 years. Lots of new and interesting features including, vim script improvements, JSON support, messages exchange with background processes, a test framework and a bunch of Windows DirectX compatibility improvements. A package manager has been added to handle the ever-growing plug-in library, start-up changes and support for a lot of old platforms has been dropped. Many Vimprovements!
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Vim 8.0 Released! More

Vim 8.0 Released!

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  • Rivalry (Score:5, Funny)

    by colinrichardday ( 768814 ) <colin.day.6@hotmail.com> on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:12PM (#52912585)

    Emacs releases an upgrade and vi has to do the same. Ooh.

    • Re:Rivalry (Score:5, Funny)

      by plover ( 150551 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:14PM (#52912597) Homepage Journal

      It's a conspiracy, I tells ya. They put GPS and tracking in it.

      Of course, emacs has had GPS support for 15 years now...

    • Re:Rivalry (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Fwipp ( 1473271 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:43PM (#52912749)

      Vim's 8.0 release was actually September 12th. Emacs 25.1 came out yesterday, September 17th.

      Slashdot is just incredibly slow. :)

    • Re:Rivalry (Score:4, Informative)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @02:33PM (#52912999)

      Emacs releases an upgrade and vi has to do the same. Ooh.

      Vim != Vi

      Pedantic? Yes, but there is a difference. Vim is a lot more capable (though I'm still primarily an (X)Emacs user, which is even more capable.)

      • Fair enough, but I take VI improved to be GNU Emacs. People, start your flamethrowers!

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by donaldm ( 919619 )

          Fair enough, but I take VI improved to be GNU Emacs. People, start your flamethrowers!

          The 1980's called and wants to get in on the action again.:-)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jeremyp ( 130771 )

        If Emacs is more capable than vi(m), why did they need to write a vi emulation plugin for it?

        • If Emacs is more capable than vi(m), why did they need to write a vi emulation plugin for it?

          You being serious or funny? If serious, Emacs can easily emulate several different editors, so users of those editors can transition to Emacs faster. And they're "modes" (written in LISP) not plugins. It's arguable that Emacs is probably the most powerful editor on the planet, but not for the faint of heart.

    • Now we can have an objective* contest to see which people care about, vim or emacs - they're one atop the other on the front page.

      "objective" in the same way that TIOBEs ranking of most popular languages is "objective." In other words, not much :-)

    • It's like the two-party system. Did you seriously believe they were working against each other? ;)

  • But does vim have a sex toy app? Never mind linux...

  • No way (Score:3)

    by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:17PM (#52912627) Homepage Journal

    Npt using it if it can't play youtube videos.

  • WTF??! (Score:3)

    by Trailer Trash ( 60756 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:19PM (#52912635) Homepage

    23 comments on Emacs and 4 on Vim?

    • Re:WTF??! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:23PM (#52912659)

      Emacs users have more time for commenting on slashdot.
      What else are they going to do while waiting for Emacs to load?

      • Emacs users have more time for commenting on slashdot.
        What else are they going to do while waiting for Emacs to load?

        Meanwhile vi users have to post multiple times to make up for their small user base. Otherwise no one would remember that poor vi exists.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ari_j ( 90255 )

        Emacs users have more time for commenting on slashdot. What else are they going to do while waiting for Emacs to load?

        I don't know about the rest of them, but while I waited for Emacs to compile and load, I wrote a major made for posting Slashdot comments. Of course, I used Vim to write it because it has better syntax highlighting for Lisp code than Emacs does.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      23 comments on Emacs and 4 on Vim?

      They've been trying to comment but VIM wasn't in edit mode.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        *insert mode

  • Relevant xkcd (Score:5, Funny)

    by John Smith ( 4340437 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:26PM (#52912665)
    https://xkcd.com/378/ [xkcd.com]

  • New feature (Score:5, Funny)

    by BlackPignouf ( 1017012 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:41PM (#52912745)

    "MS-Windows DirectX support"
    Wait, what?

    • Re:New feature (Score:5, Informative)

      by Daltorak ( 122403 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @05:21PM (#52913823)

      "MS-Windows DirectX support" Wait, what?

      Vim 8.0 supports DirectWrite, which is fully hardware-accelerated a replacement for GDI, the original MS Windows text & 2D drawing API. It allows for things like caching fonts in the graphics card so it can render more quickly, and perform anti-aliasing (including ClearType) in hardware.

      Now you might think, ehhh, computers are so fast these days, how much can that really matter? Given that we've gradually moving to much higher pixel density (e.g. I'm typing this on a large 4k monitor with about 250% scaling), we're expecting the text drawer to drive 4x-8x as many pixels, which requires a ton more effort. Doesn't matter that it's "console".... something has to turn Unicode code points into pixels, right? Microsoft's efforts and optimizations in text rending are all in the DirectWrite API these days, so it only makes sense for every text-based application to use it.

  • I'm so excited... (Score:3)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @01:49PM (#52912769)
    Emacs and VIM got updates. I'm waiting for Microsoft to update Edit.

  • Although it may not look right, its is the correct word here. It's always means "it is." If "it is" doesn't make sense, then use its instead.

    • Re:Grammar note (Score:5, Funny)

      by fisted ( 2295862 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @04:05PM (#52913473)

      Its been a pleasure reading your comment and from now on, I'll use your heuristic.
      Thanks!

    • Also, you don't ever say "hi's", or "her's" when using those possessives. "Its" follows the same logic.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      With your UID, I'd expect you to know by now that Slashdot has never been the place to go for good grammer. (Or spelling.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrKaos ( 858439 )

      Although it may not look right, its is the correct word here. It's always means "it is." If "it is" doesn't make sense, then use its instead.

      My bad for posting tired.

  • Vim is my main editor (aside from WebStorm) but it still has a few design flaws.

    * You can't bind different operations to TAB and Ctrl-I because Vim thinks they are the same.
    * Can't bind Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-9

    Still, a new version is awesome.

    • Re:And yet still can't tell TAB from Ctrl-I ... :- (Score:5, Informative)

      by fisted ( 2295862 ) on Sunday September 18, 2016 @04:10PM (#52913487)

      * You can't bind different operations to TAB and Ctrl-I because Vim thinks they are the same.

      That's because they are the same. I is 0x49, ASCII-wise, Control masks the 6th bit, giving you 0x09 for Control-I, which happens to be HT (horizontal tab).

      * Can't bind Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-9

      That's because there are no corresponding control characters. You have Control-@ through Control-_ and the 30 others inbetween.

      • You do realize it t isn't 1963 [wikipedia.org] anymore, right? Every modern text editor has no problems telling the difference between every combination of Shift, Ctrl, Alt / Option and some other key.

        That's one of the design faults with ASCII: it only encodes partial Ctrl key combinations --- WTF.

        Because we're stuck with a shitty standard no one wants to fix the the problem 50+ years later?? Instead we end up with a gimped text editor that can't even tell the difference ALL the permutations between:

        * 1
        * Ctrl-1
        * Alt-1
        * S

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MrKaos ( 858439 )

          Just out of curiosity - what are you using the ctrl combinations for? Am I missing something extra in vim?

          • > what are you using the ctrl combinations for?

            Having used almost every word processor and text editor under the sun since the 80's I've tried every combination of keys for cursor movement.

            e.g.

            * ^E ^S ^D ^Z (Wordstar)
            * Arrow keys
            * WASD
            * WXAD - Robotron
            * HJKL - I *hate* Vim's default cursor movement keys.
            * IJKM
            * IJKL - I find this is natural for me -- it comes from the Apple 2 game: Lode Runner

            Before I switched to Vim (almost) exclusively ~5 years ago I used to use Windows text editors such as MSVC's IDE

            • I feel your pain. I bypass the whole issue by mapping CAPS+IJKL to be cursor keys at the xwindows level. Then they work in (almost) any program.

              • Interesting kludge!

                Unfortunately I need a solution that works across Linux, OSX, and Windows since I use Vim on all 3 platforms.

                • I have an autohotkey script that does the same sort of mapping in windows. It doesn't work in all dialogs but it works in most apps (including vim). I haven't really tried any keyboard hackery in OSX

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by MrKaos ( 858439 )

              I use IJKL for character movement along with Ctrl IJKL for screen movement which means I can't use Tab and Shift-Tab for insert a literal TAB (say for Makefile) and/or indent / unindent . The work-around is to use the slightly awkward Shift to indent/indent and and Ctrl-Q Tab to insert a literal tab respectively.

              I see. I don't mind the arrow keys, however I use pg up/dwn, home/end in combination with Ctrl. Ctrl+left/right yields a word progression as opposed to character progression. So I press Ctrl for large movements and arrows for character movements. I think there are a few more I use unconsciously as well that don't come to mind immediately.

              I'm very fussy about keyboard customization and optimization of minimal keystrokes

              I very with you on this. I think it's important because it is the limiter on the throughput you have to your machine, fatigue and injury using a computer, in my experiences

              • > so I use two mouses to satisfy the ergonomics I have requirements to avoid re-injury.

                2 mice? wow! I had been wondering if anyone was crazy enough to try that. Sorry to hear that you were forced out of necessity but it sounds like you had no choice.

                Have you tried any of those?

                * wrist "gel" supports?
                * wrist brace / supports? https://www.amazon.com/ACE-Del... [amazon.com]

                I am curious about your feedback / thoughts.

                > I think it's important because it is the limiter on the throughput you have to your machine, fatig

                • Sorry it took a while to respond UnknownSoldier - I'm recovering from spinal surgery to c4-c6 in my neck and had to do the reply in chunks. Still on a lot of painkillers and sleep, head is all over the place. I'm still building stamina at the computer.

                  2 mice? wow! I had been wondering if anyone was crazy enough to try that. Sorry to hear that you were forced out of necessity but it sounds like you had no choice.

                  Well, I'd been swapping the mouse left hand for a few weeks, the right hand for a few weeks for so long I began to notice it was the combined, click and mouse move that were fatiguing and provoking injury. Examining at my usage habits again I realised the co

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by MrKaos ( 858439 )

                  All good suggestions ! Unfortunately I don't use the mouse with Vim except in a few odd cases.

                  Interesting. Its probably my compromise with the ui.

                  If they DID, I would probably use Ctrl-1 .. Ctrl-3 as a quick way to switch between buffer 1, 2, 3. (or the 3 current open files)

                  That is a good idea. :rew, ^, :wn is about the limit I could find to get close to that.

                  The problem is once you have more then 3+ bookmarks it becomes hard to remember "where" each bookmark takes you.

                  I see what you mean. My approach maybe odd, I use conceptual references. So 'D or some other letter might be an abstract of something and the lowercase 'd maybe a concrete implementation. other odd games too help. Generally when I code though I try to limit the size of the files I create.

                  See which one is easier to remember? I no longer have to play the guessing game of "Where is bookmark X located again?"

                  You're right - it's a pita.

                  I think that's where I get the GUI to take over. Gene

        • Maybe give Neovim [neovim.io] a look then.

  • Emacs is a great operating system, it just needs a good editor.

  • whats next? the year of the Linux desktop?
    i hope so, i am tired of waiting for it to get here, now i have kernels to compile
    • Who needs Linux? Just have emacs running on systemd, and put vim on top as the editor. You'll be set.
  • I use vim everyday and I've been an emacs user. Major release the same day. And that's not Fools Day. Funny.

    • I'm not an emacs user, but it's not because I have anything against emacs, it's because vi is already on everything.

      I started out using vi because it was installed. Most of the production systems I've been charged with handling don't have emacs, but they do have vi. If I'm lucky they have vim. I can usually push and manage to get something installed, but typically I don't want to do that. Typically I just want to work on whatever needs changed or fixed.

      What I look for in a text editor: Is it installed? Can

      • I can usually push and manage to get something installed, but typically I don't want to do that.

        Exactly. This is also the reason I started using vi. I've never used a Unix system that didn't have it installed. You typically want to save sysadmin time for something really important.

  • vi is a great editor :wq :Q :q
    • why not :x? single char n no caps

    • ZZ

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      vi is a great editor :wq :Q :q

      Actually that is not vi but ex and there is a differnce

      The vi editor works in four modes 1) Entry mode. 2) Cursor movement and screen mode. 3. Text and character manipulation mode. 4) Search mode.

      The ex editor is actually a very powerful line editor and should never to be confused with "edlin" under pain of forcing you to learn all the EMACS commands.

      The 1980's called again and suggested we stop although it was fun while it lasted.

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