Vim 8.1 is available
vim.org
vim.org
Well, my first reaction to reading this is that vim doesn't need this. What's wrong with opening another terminal Xorg window (like xterm)? If you're not using Xorg because you're in the linux console or through a ssh connection, what's wrong with terminal multiplexers (like tmux)? If Vim was already started when you realized you wanted a shell, what's wrong with Ctrl-Z to get to the parent process shell or :shell to open a shell subprocess?
Vim is a text editor, but now it seems it's a terminal multiplexer, too.
Something I really like about vim is that it stuck closer to the unix philosophy of doing one thing well and being highly compatible with the rest of the OS environment for more features through the universal interface of text. This makes it seem like it's trying to move closer to emacs's way of doing things by having stuff integrated and being a complete development environment instead of letting the whole orchestra of the OS components be the environment.
I like this workflow sometimes.
I'm working on a bash script and yeah I :!bash % a lot, but sometimes I want a REPL too, with visible history
For those wanting to build this, here's how I do it on Ubuntu: https://github.com/shmup/vimmies/wiki/Installing-vim8
You mean relative to Emacs. Because otherwise that belief makes no sense. It's an urban legend that was used as an excuse for Vim's limitations, it has no basis in reality. Zero.
Nor does the "do one thing" slogan match Bram's own goals for the project. Again, it was a rumor passed along and repeated without verification, just like the rumor that Vim supported DOS, OS/2, etc., even though no one had checked whether that was actually true.
Vim has its own blowfish implementation, an internal spellchecker, an 11k LOC plugin called netrw which doesn't follow Vim's own interface conventions. Vim also now has the "LogiPat" plugin which adds yet another way to build regular expressions, hiding Vim's own regex flavor. Vim has builtin NetBeans integration, Sun workshop integration.
> and being highly compatible with the rest of the OS environment for more features through the universal interface of text.
You mean because it pipes stdio streams?
Yes, I was referring to :[range]!, :[range]w !, and :[range]r !.
And yes, I guess I meant relative to Emacs. I see it as the main design dichotomy between them.
However, while vim does have built-in features that go against this ideal, they are extraneous features, not a core part of vim. I guess my post was a rant against adding yet another one of those kinds of features that lead it to be used in a way that departs from the unix philosophy even more.
As a sysadmin, I’m not particularly attracted to the “shiny” stuff so I find it interesting to see the directions that the large developer user-base is influencing Vim towards. Also, as a donor to the ICCF, I can vote on new features, so I should probably take a look at the possible options and vote on something that’s more relevant to my own use of Vim.