Most Vim plugins are supported, and there’s a growing number of Neovim-specific plugins that take advantage of its unique features. Neovim comes with sane defaults, several new features (including Lua scripting, remote plugins, and embedded terminal), and it delivers a consistent user experience across all platforms. Wanting to remove barriers to entry and make Vim usable and easily extendable so that new generations of users are encouraged not only to use it for programming but also to contribute, Neovim is a Vim-based text editor built for users who want the good parts of Vim without the bad parts. Just like Linus Torvalds has the ultimate authority when it comes to deciding which features will be included in a new version of the Linux Kernel, it’s up to Bram to steer the development of Vim. The original Vim text editor is a brainchild of Bram Moolenaar, a Dutch computer programmer who has been working in Google’s Zürich office since 2006. This interactive, built-in tutorial explains everything you need to know to use Vim for programming in 2020. But if you find the required time investment acceptable, go ahead and fire up vimtutor in a terminal. If the idea of learning a text editor sounds daft to you, we recommend you select a different text editor instead. The only problem is that Vim is one of the most difficult text editors to learn. In particular, Vim can offer rock-solid stability, powerful search and replace functionality, support for all common and not-so-common programming languages and file formats, extensive customizability, plugin support, extreme portability, and minimal hardware requirements.
#Best command line text editor to use for linux software
Despite its notoriously steep learning curve, unintuitive editing modes, and text-based user interface, it continues to convince a new generation of Linux programmers that old-school open-source software applications still have a lot to offer. Vimįor nearly 30 years, Vim has been the text editor of choice of many Linux programmers. You can also choose from multiple modern text editors developed using frameworks such as Electron and web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. In 2020, your choice of a text editor for programming is not limited to venerable command-line editors. From editing configuration files to writing scripts and even full-blown applications, Linux programmers rely on text editors every day, so it’s no wonder that they spend a lot of time arguing which Linux text editor is best for programming. A text editor is a programmer’s best friend.