Text editors with vim mode?

Question

I've come across ViEmu, and I read the very motivating article: Why, oh WHY, do those #?@! nutheads use vi?

Anyway, I've come to like the command mode in vim, specially the motions, and I also like the idea behind ViEmu, which is to bring "vim mode" into a typical text editor.

What other editors have a similar "vim mode" or a plugin that provides the functionality?

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-12 10:04:22Z

I am a huge fan of vim myself, so whenever I am trying a new IDE, I am instantly looking for a vim plugin. Here is a short list of plugins that I found:

Atom - vim-mode
Eclipse - Vrapper / Vimplugin / Eclim
Idea / WebStorm / pyCharm / RubyMine / CLion / PhpStorm / AppCode - IdeaVim
NetBeans - jVi
Notepad++ - ViSimulator
Visual Studio - ViEmu / vsvim
Xcode - Xvim

Also, a couple of editors/IDEs have built-in vim mode:

AbiWord word processor supports vi keybindings.
Kate text editor includes a vi mode.
QtCreator has FakeVim mode.
Sublime Text has vintage mode.
Even Emacs has viper-mode!
bash, gdb, mysql-client, and many other applications use the GNU Readline library to interact with the user. Readline includes a vi mode.
In Bourne-style shells like ksh and zsh, type set -o vi to enable vi-like command-line editing.
ViEmu works also in Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SQL Server and Word!

Bonus - web browsers! Really, try it, it is awesome!

Firefox - vimperator
Chromium/Chrome - cvim / vimium
Sadly, all of vi plugins for Opera seem outdated.

Please let me know if I forgot something, I would be happy to extend the list. For a more extensive list (sometimes sadly outdated), please see this article.

If you want something that works everywhere, it is possible to get the basic functions using AutoHotkey, e.g github.com/mihaifm/vim.ahk

RossFabricant · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 21:58:07Z

15

It's worth noting that there's a lot more to vi than keybindings. As this blog post notes, there isn't any IDE plugin that emulates all the features vi.

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 21:58

RossFabricant

12.6k3 gold badges44 silver badges50 bronze badges

3 Comments

hasen Over a year ago

well, one could just use vim then!! but I prefer a blend of typical text editing and vim-style commands and motions.

jonbho Over a year ago

Full vim is huge. But still, incomplete but extensive support can be quite good. ViEmu supports a lot of stuff, and more every version. Disclaimer: I'm the author.

David Rivers Over a year ago

And it should be noted that much/most/all of the functionality that one typically seeks in an IDE can be supplemented by vim's extensive repository of plugins, and that gVim/MacVim provides some creature comforts of more seemingly "modern" editors to boot.

Imran · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 06:14:26Z

10

Editra has vim mode

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 6:14

Imran

91.7k26 gold badges101 silver badges132 bronze badges

1 Comment

hasen Over a year ago

wow, this is like my dream editor! I think I will ditch notepad++ in favor of editra!

Krzysiek Goj · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-28 14:37:18Z

Check out excellent Vrapper plugin for Eclipse.

Vrapper is an eclipse plugin which acts as a wrapper for eclipse text editors to provide a Vim-like input scheme for moving around and editing text.

Unlike other plugins which embed Vim in Eclipse, Vrapper imitates the behaviour of Vim while still using whatever editor you have opened in the workbench. The goal is to have the comfort and ease which comes with the different modes, complex commands and count/operator/motion combinations which are the key features behind editing with Vim, while preserving the powerful features of the different Eclipse text editors, like code generation and refactoring.

Vrapper tries to offer Eclipse users the best of both worlds.

Christian C. Salvadó · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 06:05:25Z

9

I primarily use:

Visual Studio with ViEmu
NetBeans with jVi

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 6:05

Christian C. Salvadó

831k185 gold badges929 silver badges845 bronze badges

1 Comment

ojblass Over a year ago

Any comments on its usability in outlook?

danriti · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-01 13:13:41Z

9

Sublime Text has a vintage mode for vi style editing.

answered Feb 1, 2012 at 13:13

danriti

9158 silver badges9 bronze badges

Comments

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-12 10:04:38Z

8

for Firefox users :

setup It's all text! to use external vim - it will let you edit those textboxes in vim
Vimperator is also quite cool.

edited Dec 12, 2022 at 10:04

Glorfindel

22.8k13 gold badges97 silver badges124 bronze badges

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 21:46

webwesen

1,2724 gold badges18 silver badges31 bronze badges

Comments

bk1e · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 16:31:22Z

7

Emacs has viper-mode, which offers multiple levels of Vi emulation (from more Vi-like to more Emacs-like). The manual describes it as follows:

 Viper Is a Package for Emacs Rebels; it is a VI Plan for Emacs Rescue and/or a venomous VI PERil.

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 16:31

bk1e

24.4k6 gold badges58 silver badges65 bronze badges

3 Comments

projecktzero Over a year ago

I haven't used it, but Emacs also has vimpulse (emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/vimpulse.el) which adds more features to viper-mode.

MBO Over a year ago

Those are still Vi emulation, not Vim (which I prefer more)

mvanveen Over a year ago

Check out Evil mode. I'm a hardcore vim user and this is plugin has gotten me the closest I have ever gotten to switching. Visual mode even works! It also tries to integrate with the rest of the emacs environment.

Swaroop C H · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 06:07:57Z

6

It seems the eclim plugin can help you embed the real GVim into Eclipse.

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 6:07

Swaroop C H

17k10 gold badges46 silver badges51 bronze badges

Comments

jasonspiro · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-10 21:22:15Z

http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ViFamily includes a long list of vi clones and a long list of vi implementations. This second list includes perhaps a dozen text editors with "Vim modes".

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-12 10:03:40Z

Komodo Edit has a reasonably good Vi emulation mode. It's also very good for code sense etc.. and supports a plethora of languages. Linux and Windows... and damn, I should be on commission with these guys... wait a minute, it's freeware... Damn! Damn! Damn!

Anyway... Good editor, Linux & Windows, Free, Vi (and Emacs) emulation.

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-12 10:04:47Z

5

Qt Creator has a "vim mode" for editing, but it currently lacks some abilities; as well, I feel handicapped without the settings I have in my .vimrc.

edited Dec 12, 2022 at 10:04

Glorfindel

22.8k13 gold badges97 silver badges124 bronze badges

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 16:24

Caleb Huitt - cjhuitt

15k3 gold badges46 silver badges51 bronze badges

1 Comment

agold Over a year ago

There now actually is a setting "Read .vimrc from location" in the FakeVim settings of Qt Creator (v3.5.1).

Andy White · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-31 06:03:36Z

I'm using viPlugin for Eclipse. Unfortunately, it's not free, but it works pretty well for all the basic Vim commands.

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-01 10:14:44Z

There is also freeware Vimplugin for Eclipse — it embeds Vim into Eclipse, but you lose all navigation and code-completion functionality that Eclipse provides, so its usefulness is disputable.

JProgrammer · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-19 03:50:15Z

3

Slickedit has extremely good vim emulation. One of the soundest purchases I have ever made.

edited Oct 19, 2011 at 3:50

JProgrammer

2,8202 gold badges26 silver badges37 bronze badges

answered Mar 31, 2009 at 6:12

ojblass

21.8k23 gold badges89 silver badges137 bronze badges

Comments

JProgrammer · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-10 02:43:23Z

I have found the vim mode in Sublime Text 2 to be fantastic along with the great extensions and awesome performance makes it one of the best $59 I've spent all year.

f3lix · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-14 09:31:22Z

~~Yzis~~ a vi-like editor inspired by vim.

Yzis aims to be a powerful, fast editor with all of Vim's features and hopefully, at some point, more. (quoted from Yzis' website)

EDIT : the yzis project seems to be dead. The internet archive has copy of the yzis page.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Text editors with vim mode?

17 Answers 17

1 Comment

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

17 Answers 17

1 Comment

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

3 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Related