4 ms·
Why vi vs vim ? (I have no experience with vi, only vim.)
by BlueTemplar 4y ago
Why vi vs vim ? (I have no experience with vi, only vim.)
- jrumbut 4y agoIn vim there are a lot of emacs-like plug-ins that reimplement functionality found elsewhere. You can still use the vi style workflow though.
- shagie 4y agovim is the improved version of vi, which is the visual interface to ex, which is the extended editor ed... the one true editor ( https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt ) You will not infrequently find vim and vi links to the same executable. /usr/bin % ls -l ex vi vim lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 Aug 24 03:59 ex -> vim lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 Aug 24 03:59 vi -> vim -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5155568 Aug 24 03:59 vim The difference between which way you have argv[0] slightly changes the functionality... but it's the same thing. ed remains its own thing. /bin % ls -l ed -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 235296 Aug 24 03:59 ed THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!! ?
- mrlemke 4y agoTo expand on shagie's answer, vi is a separate utility except when it's not (f.g. Linux vi is usually a minimal vim build running in vi-compatible mode). For a more pure taste of vi, install nvi or use vi on *BSD.