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Few people could probably argue that they helped as many humans in dire situations like Bram did in his life. Vim was the first time I came across "charityware"

Few people could probably argue that they helped as many humans in dire situations like Bram did in his life. Vim was the first time I came across "charityware" as vim encourages users to donate to International Child Care Fund Holland on its splash screen, instead of begging for money for itself. I feel a bit of shame when I say that I've only donated to ICCF once over all these years.... As a remembrance of Bram and to thank him for building the editor I've been using for as long as I can remember, I'm doing exactly what he would have wanted me to do, donating to ICCF Holland. If you're a vim/nvim/other edition user, I suggest you to do the same: https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html If you're a (neo)vim user, there is more information at `:help iccf` as well. Thank you Bram for everything. I'm sure your spirit and lines written will stay with me and others for a very long time in the future.

justin_oaks 3y ago
Few contribute so meaningfully to the world through software as Bram did. I donated an amount as if I were purchasing vim as an expensive commercial text editor. For most death announcements on HN, I have to look up who they were. Not this one. I greatly appreciate his work and contributions to the world.
kibwen 3y ago
For everyone reading this who has ever adored vim, or any of the editors that would go on to be inspired by vim, I can think of no better tribute to Bram than to make a donation to the charity that he spent the better part of his life advocating for.
diffserv 3y ago
Thanks for bringing this up! It was a good reminder for me to donate. May he rest in peace.
arp242 3y ago
Bram had been spending over 30 years on Vim; and not just "the occasional patch/bugfix", but significant amounts, and almost every single day for some years. The number of people who spent that much time working on Open Source is very small, and the number of people who have spent that much time purely in their spare time is smaller still. In fact, I don't really know of anyone who even comes close to Bram. The number of people who spent this much time volunteering for anything is very small. Bram's effort on Vim was phenomenal and exceptional by any standard. --- I only met Bram in person once, in 2014, when he talked about Zimbu[1]; at some point I must have given a bit of a skeptical look, and he promptly looked at me and asked "oh, you don't agree? Why not?" It was a nice talk with lots of "audience engagement" like this. We spent some time talking during the rest of the day and the next day; we discussed and joked about lots of things; I don't recall talking much about Vim: it just didn't come up. I found him a very friendly, warm, and likeable person. Sven Guckes (who passed away last year) did organize a little "Ask Me Anything" type workshop with Bram, and I discovered Bram struggled remembering the ins-and-outs of some of the lesser used Vim features just as much as the rest of us :-) [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-QdG2X1Lw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-QdG2X1Lw)
- RMPR 3y ago
  > and the number of people who have spent that much time purely in their spare time (i.e. not as part of their job, like Torvalds or van Rossum) is smaller still. I agree, but the fact that there's a non-zero amount of people doing it shouldn't be overlooked. For example maintainer of qutebrowser (who also happen to be in pytest core team) and apart from a teaching job at an university a couple of months per year, he's working full time on OSS. The main characteristics they share (at least those I met) seem to be a deep love for the craft, a deep love for people, and be virtually unfazed by the amount of money they can make if they weren't doing that.
- echelon 3y ago
  I don't know if Bram's family has this thread or is reading it, but the extent to which his work has impacted the software development community is enormous. Vim was one of the first pieces of software I learned when I switched to Linux in college. It was tricky at first, then it delighted me to no end. It remains a daily part of my life nearly 20 years later, and I'm still learning more about it every single year. I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out of insert mode in normal web browser text boxes. Bram's insistence of donating his earnings to helping the children of Uganda is also incredibly selfless, and it's impossible to mention him without bringing this up [1]. We'll miss you Bram. We'll be learning from you for decades to come. [1] https://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php https://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php
  - agumonkey 3y ago
    readline vi mode, vimperator and pentadactyle are a testimony
  - turboponyy 3y ago
    > I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out of insert mode in normal web browser text boxes. You can, if you really want to: https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim
kdheepak 3y ago
Thanks for posting the donation link and the reminder, I've made a donation as well. Vim has shaped so many aspects of my professional life; I'll forever be grateful to Bram for his work and contributions. Rest in peace, Bram.
riedel 3y ago
The news made me unexpectedly said. There are not many people that felt so close without ever knowing them, just because I used their software. Thank you for the reminder to donate: the least thing one can do now. I think most of the digital stuff I ever produced in my life was using vim. Software, scripts, websites, theses, a book, I actually even used a plugin to fill out text boxes in the web using vim. All the stray 'i's in documents or source code in stuff I had to write with other editors give evidence to my dedication. Thank you Bram! May you live forever in vim.
lillesvin 3y ago
This is a great idea. Bram has made a huge positive impact on the world, even if most people aren't aware of it. I'd love to help make it even bigger. Edit: Hmm... PayPal seems to throw error after error at me when I try to donate. I'll keep trying.
- lillesvin 3y ago
  Yay, PayPal let me through. I just had to turn off uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger... But for Bram, I'm ok with it.
junon 3y ago
Thanks for the link, should have made a donation years and years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.
colmmacc 3y ago
I wrote on twitter that vim is a masterpiece. It's the gleaming precise machine tool on which so much of modernity was crafted. It's so hard to quantify Bram's impact, because he did so much through so powerful a force multiplier. I started as a Unix sysadmin 25 years ago and kept gravitating towards vim. One practical reason is because it paid off to be familiar with vi, which is nearly always still available on just-installed or bare-bones systems. But another is how welcoming and leveling the Vim community was. It was so easy to get great macros and tips, and everyone was just super friendly about it. I remember someone in #vim irc teaching me "gqap" to wrap a paragraph, and they very naturally took the time to explain how it all worked. There was no sneering on from the community. I think Bram's empathy and leadership was a huge part of that attitude in the community. I'm a regular annual donor on Vim's behalf, and this morning donated another €250 in Bram's memory. People should only donate what they can afford, we all have different means, but I'd encourage folks to work out what a great commercial editor or IDE would have cost them in licensing over their use time, and to consider donating in proportion. :wq Bram
smueller1234 3y ago
Since there's a ton of Google employees here - reminder that Google does gift matching for this charity!
vault 3y ago
Who knows why there's no financial statement for 2022? 2021 is on the home page. https://iccf-holland.org/iccf.html https://iccf-holland.org/iccf.html
- jorams 3y ago
  It looks like Bram was the treasurer, so his medical condition could potentially have something to do with it.
jodrellblank 3y ago
> "I'm doing exactly what he would have wanted me to do, donating to ICCF Holland. If you're a vim/nvim/other edition user, I suggest you to do the same: https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html ." In view of https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7FzD7pNm9X68Gp5ZC/why-our-kind-can-t-cooperate https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7FzD7pNm9X68Gp5ZC/why-our-ki... I'm calling out that I have donated.
pbourke 3y ago
I have donated a few times and always got a personal email from Bram in thanks. These were not large amounts by any means. Rest in Peace, Bram.

justin_oaks 3y ago

Few contribute so meaningfully to the world through software as Bram did. I donated an amount as if I were purchasing vim as an expensive commercial text editor. For most death announcements on HN, I have to look up who they were. Not this one. I greatly appreciate his work and contributions to the world.

kibwen 3y ago

For everyone reading this who has ever adored vim, or any of the editors that would go on to be inspired by vim, I can think of no better tribute to Bram than to make a donation to the charity that he spent the better part of his life advocating for.

diffserv 3y ago

Thanks for bringing this up! It was a good reminder for me to donate. May he rest in peace.

arp242 3y ago

Bram had been spending over 30 years on Vim; and not just "the occasional patch/bugfix", but significant amounts, and almost every single day for some years. The number of people who spent that much time working on Open Source is very small, and the number of people who have spent that much time purely in their spare time is smaller still. In fact, I don't really know of anyone who even comes close to Bram. The number of people who spent this much time volunteering for anything is very small. Bram's effort on Vim was phenomenal and exceptional by any standard. --- I only met Bram in person once, in 2014, when he talked about Zimbu[1]; at some point I must have given a bit of a skeptical look, and he promptly looked at me and asked "oh, you don't agree? Why not?" It was a nice talk with lots of "audience engagement" like this. We spent some time talking during the rest of the day and the next day; we discussed and joked about lots of things; I don't recall talking much about Vim: it just didn't come up. I found him a very friendly, warm, and likeable person. Sven Guckes (who passed away last year) did organize a little "Ask Me Anything" type workshop with Bram, and I discovered Bram struggled remembering the ins-and-outs of some of the lesser used Vim features just as much as the rest of us :-) [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-QdG2X1Lw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-QdG2X1Lw)

RMPR 3y ago
> and the number of people who have spent that much time purely in their spare time (i.e. not as part of their job, like Torvalds or van Rossum) is smaller still. I agree, but the fact that there's a non-zero amount of people doing it shouldn't be overlooked. For example maintainer of qutebrowser (who also happen to be in pytest core team) and apart from a teaching job at an university a couple of months per year, he's working full time on OSS. The main characteristics they share (at least those I met) seem to be a deep love for the craft, a deep love for people, and be virtually unfazed by the amount of money they can make if they weren't doing that.
echelon 3y ago
I don't know if Bram's family has this thread or is reading it, but the extent to which his work has impacted the software development community is enormous. Vim was one of the first pieces of software I learned when I switched to Linux in college. It was tricky at first, then it delighted me to no end. It remains a daily part of my life nearly 20 years later, and I'm still learning more about it every single year. I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out of insert mode in normal web browser text boxes. Bram's insistence of donating his earnings to helping the children of Uganda is also incredibly selfless, and it's impossible to mention him without bringing this up [1]. We'll miss you Bram. We'll be learning from you for decades to come. [1] https://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php https://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php
- agumonkey 3y ago
  readline vi mode, vimperator and pentadactyle are a testimony
- turboponyy 3y ago
  > I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out of insert mode in normal web browser text boxes. You can, if you really want to: https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim

kdheepak 3y ago

Thanks for posting the donation link and the reminder, I've made a donation as well. Vim has shaped so many aspects of my professional life; I'll forever be grateful to Bram for his work and contributions. Rest in peace, Bram.

riedel 3y ago

The news made me unexpectedly said. There are not many people that felt so close without ever knowing them, just because I used their software. Thank you for the reminder to donate: the least thing one can do now. I think most of the digital stuff I ever produced in my life was using vim. Software, scripts, websites, theses, a book, I actually even used a plugin to fill out text boxes in the web using vim. All the stray 'i's in documents or source code in stuff I had to write with other editors give evidence to my dedication. Thank you Bram! May you live forever in vim.

lillesvin 3y ago

This is a great idea. Bram has made a huge positive impact on the world, even if most people aren't aware of it. I'd love to help make it even bigger. Edit: Hmm... PayPal seems to throw error after error at me when I try to donate. I'll keep trying.

lillesvin 3y ago
Yay, PayPal let me through. I just had to turn off uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger... But for Bram, I'm ok with it.

junon 3y ago

Thanks for the link, should have made a donation years and years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.

colmmacc 3y ago

I wrote on twitter that vim is a masterpiece. It's the gleaming precise machine tool on which so much of modernity was crafted. It's so hard to quantify Bram's impact, because he did so much through so powerful a force multiplier. I started as a Unix sysadmin 25 years ago and kept gravitating towards vim. One practical reason is because it paid off to be familiar with vi, which is nearly always still available on just-installed or bare-bones systems. But another is how welcoming and leveling the Vim community was. It was so easy to get great macros and tips, and everyone was just super friendly about it. I remember someone in #vim irc teaching me "gqap" to wrap a paragraph, and they very naturally took the time to explain how it all worked. There was no sneering on from the community. I think Bram's empathy and leadership was a huge part of that attitude in the community. I'm a regular annual donor on Vim's behalf, and this morning donated another €250 in Bram's memory. People should only donate what they can afford, we all have different means, but I'd encourage folks to work out what a great commercial editor or IDE would have cost them in licensing over their use time, and to consider donating in proportion. :wq Bram

smueller1234 3y ago

Since there's a ton of Google employees here - reminder that Google does gift matching for this charity!

vault 3y ago

Who knows why there's no financial statement for 2022? 2021 is on the home page. https://iccf-holland.org/iccf.html https://iccf-holland.org/iccf.html

jorams 3y ago
It looks like Bram was the treasurer, so his medical condition could potentially have something to do with it.

jodrellblank 3y ago

> "I'm doing exactly what he would have wanted me to do, donating to ICCF Holland. If you're a vim/nvim/other edition user, I suggest you to do the same: https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html ." In view of https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7FzD7pNm9X68Gp5ZC/why-our-kind-can-t-cooperate https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7FzD7pNm9X68Gp5ZC/why-our-ki... I'm calling out that I have donated.

pbourke 3y ago

I have donated a few times and always got a personal email from Bram in thanks. These were not large amounts by any means. Rest in Peace, Bram.