Vim 9.0 “Takes a Big Step”
Vim creator Bram Moolenaar announced the new version in a post on Vim’s official website. “After many years of gradual improvement Vim now takes a big step with a major release,” Moolenaar wrote.
While Vim already had a scripting language, Vim9 Script makes some changes to how comments, functions, and variable assignments work. While most users will want to wait until their distribution’s package manager updates Vim, Unix/Linux users eager to try the new version can download the source code from the download pageand compile it.
Vim 9.0’s Scripting Speed Boost
Moolenaar said that these changes were done to bring Vim9 Script in line with other programming languages and to improve performance:
Moolenaar said that Vim9 Script programs had their execution speeds boosted up to 100 times over the older scripting language. This is achieved by compiling commands for efficient execution.
Vim 9.0 Represents a Major Break With Vi Tradition
The new version of Vim marks a major change in its functionality with Vim9 Script, even at the cost of compatibility with the Vi editor, which is widely used in the Linux and Unix world. The latter editor has existed since 1977 when it was written by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy at the University of California, Berkeley. Vi subsequently became a major component of the BSD Unix variant and spread to the broader Unix world.
Vim has historically aimed for maximum compatibility with Vi while adding new features, to the point that many systems actually start up with Vim when Vi is called from the command line. It’s included with many Linux distributions as well as macOS. This means that Vim 9.0 is a major change to a ubiquitous piece of software that developers and system administrators rely on. Still, there is a “legacy” mode for running older scripts. This appears to be an attempt to assuage any user concern about backward compatibility.
Moolenaar promises that even more changes will come in future versions. Whatever happens, many first-time users may find themselves trying to figure out how to exit Vim.
Vim 9.0: A Major Change to a Major Text Editor
Vim is a widely-used tool in the Linux world, and Vim 9.0’s changes represent a major shake-up. Vim’s unusual keyboard commands already make it seem daunting to prospective users, but many of them find that learning the commands pays off in terms of efficiency.
