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DESCRIPTION
MacVim is a port of the text editor Vim to Mac OS X that is meant to look better and integrate more seamlessly with the Mac than the older Carbon port of Vim.

MacVim supports multiple windows with tabbed editing and a host of other features such as:

  • bindings to standard OS X keyboard shortcuts (⌘-Z, ⌘-V, ⌘-A, ⌘-G, etc.),
  • transparent backgrounds,
  • full-screen mode,
  • multibyte editing with OS X input methods and automatic font substitution,
  • ODB editor support,
  • and more...
Most importantly, MacVim brings you the full power of Vim 7.2 to Mac OS X.
WHAT'S NEW
release notes not available at developer site nor in download
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.


SCREENSHOT

Developer:Bjorn Winckler
Downloads:20,221
  - Version d/l:2,771
Development:Editors
License:Free
Date:21 Aug 2008
Platform:PPC/Intel
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MacVim User Reviews (8 posts)Write A Review
sort: smiles | time
Jun 9 2008
*****

AYUB  Exactly CHIGGSY. And that's why they don't understand how we create those thousands of 'false gods' by simply 'yy1000p' and they get tired of pressing 'Select through Newline,Ctrl-C,Ctrl-V{1000 times}' and finally choose one 'false god' and they try to be happy with that. Congrates (Mac)Vim.  
(Version 30)

praisebury
0
[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
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Jun 18 2008

THE VALRUS  To say nothing of the magic you can do with q and @.  
(Version 31)

praisebury
0

Apr 28 2008
*****

CHIGGSY  Well, exactly what I want are thousands of text specific features. This is _the_ editor, unless you run emacs, and of course all those people, having internalized the concept of "false gods" have cheerily begun running textmate instead.

Enough about that. MacVim is an excellent version of gvim, easily the lushest and sexiest one i've ever seen. Vim on os X used to be like firefox, a thing from another place, a foul, alien and misshapen

troll lurking under the bridge named /Applications.

No longer. MacVim is gvim for os X, what an os X program should be like, combined with every optimization that code editing needs and thousands more that are "nice".

Vim has a steep learning curve, like all things Unix. Of course, people program are not stupid, people who program on unix platforms are unafraid of complexity, or at least _were_ not stupid, and _were_ unafraid of complexity. If you are are fearful, why , pay fear's price and fire up some 100 meg IDE and have it hold your hand and change your diapers. If you for some reason, need to have less features because due to some unseen yet crippling inability to teach your muscles to do something, which is a vim requirement, then by golly use something with an "easier learning curve". It's ok. I'm sure your $DEITY will still love you.

Not mine though. We have higher standards, and things to get done, and that's why we'll be using MacVim.

  
(Version 26)

praisebury
+2
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May 12 2008

PJM  Hmm, lets not get too carried away with the "everything a Mac app should be" sort of claim. Pull a random task from the sky, something everyone would likely wish to change about Vim's default. Let's say: "change the default font". Everyone knows how to do that: you dial up the preferences for the application, find where the font description lives, change as desired, and away you go. Don't you? Oh... Well, aah, not exactly...

In fact with Vim you really need to learn about initialization files, about how to write a prescription using Vim's style of parameters (is the font option one with an equals sign in it or not?), how to prescribe a given font on a mac in a way that vim understands, etc etc. All of which is achievable, but it's far from being what a Mac user would expect.

Don't get me wrong: I love vim, and use it quite a lot (more from the command line than via MacVim). But I also use TextMate all the time, and there are really good reasons for doing so: it just integrates into Mac OS X a whole heap better than MacVim. Writing your own commands, throwing hooks into the operating system, and so forth is utterly straightforward for anyone with some scripting experience (perl/ruby/python... etc, take your pick).

Paul  
(Version 27)

praisebury
+1
Jun 9 2008

PETER DA SILVA  It's still not really vi.

When Apple replaced good solid vi with vim in OS X the first thing I did was compile nvi and completely remove that abomination known as "vim".  
(Version 30)

praisebury
0

Mar 15 2008
***..

TEKSESTRO  Vi/Vim is, of course, an extremely powerful text editor, which is infamously difficult to learn. In my experience, it is THE hardest text editor to learn, often requiring several months before the new user feels that they are starting to feel comfortable with the new tool.

Even as recently as a couple of years ago, this kind of time investment was worthwhile, if you were a programmer, who had to spend a lot of your day in front of the computer, juggling different graphical text editors who provide only half of the features set you need for any language. There was nothing this powerful available.

Unfortunately for vi/vim, now there certainly is. Editors like TextMate now have a much gentler learning curve, while still providing the user with a fantastically wide feature set, and an amazing level of customisation. Other editing environments, like Panic's CODA, have concentrated on a different approach, helping you save time not by filling up the editor with thousands of specific text-production features, but by combining the functionality of several pieces of software into one, which saves up even MORE juggling time.

This port of vim is certainly well done. It is stable, and more Mac-like than anything out there. It is still very powerful, but becoming less so, as other editors catch up, and start providing features which vim does not have. For instance: easy project management features (ie., having a folder view) would be a welcoming addition, which would not be too difficult to implement.

Vim does provide some wonderful text-production features, but that is ALL it provides. If these were coupled with some of the easy and time-saving workflow features now present in the majority of other text editors out there, then vim's steep learning curve would be more attractive. As it stands, the vast majority of users will prefer to use tools that are easier to grasp, and which - in the long run - will save them just as much time as vim would.  
(Version 24)

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0
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Apr 28 2008

CHIGGSY  Right, why would you spend so much time bashing an editor when there are so many available, in your own words? If you like TextMate, use it! Of course, if you used vim before, and wanted to give a nice version of gvim a try, then use this one by all means, it's the best version of gvim that there is.   
(Version 26)

praisebury
0

Jan 27 2008

TRAVISJEFFERY  MacVim is really great, I've been using it for a while and it has been exactly what I've wanted in terms of blending Macs and Vim. If you want to interact more with the development than checkout the project page: code.google.com/p/macvim/  
(Version 0801A)

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0
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Jan 18 2008

SUNDEV LOHR  I was introduced to Vim a few months ago. I always knew there must be something like this out there, but didn't know where to find it. Although the learning curve is steep with vim, MacVim makes it a bit easier. It gives you all the functionality of vim plus key commands that are more familiar to mac users: Cmd+z, Cmd+-->, etc. This program strikes the perfect balance.  
(Version 0712B)

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0
[ Reply ]
Nov 18 2007

FREEBSD  Oh! I am so happy!  
(Version 0711A)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Oct 14 2007

HOTFREAKS  Why would you use KDE icons for a MAc app??  
(Version r300)

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0
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Oct 14 2007

SOMEONE  Because OS X icons aren't available for free?

Personally, I think the icons from the Oxygen (supplying icons for KDE4)/Tango (supplying icons for GNOME) fits nicely in OS X. In fact, I find the subdued look of Tango more attractive than OS X icons.  
(Version r320)

praisebury
0
Oct 30 2007

BRSMA  Because YOU didn't come up with something better.  
(Version 0710a)

praisebury
+1
Nov 19 2007

NEOX  Who cares anyway? What a lame comment...

Most of the icons in the *nix world are available under a Creative Commons type license that allow use in programs.  
(Version 0711A)

praisebury
0
Feb 7 2008

ZANGIEF  I have, what, two KDE icon sets in Pixadex. They're really nice, and they cover such a wide variety of situations– it's a good thing to have on tap.  
(Version 20)

praisebury
0

Oct 13 2007
*****

THEVALRUS  Ok, let me expand on that initial reaction.

Vim is, of course, the best text editor. This implementation of it does by far the best job I've seen of balancing Vim-ness with Mac-ness; it preserves all the wonderful Vim keybindings but also supplies OS X goodies like multiple windows (which the vastly inferior "Carbon Vim" had led me to believe was downright impossible), pretty tabs, transparency, and plenty of other goodies. I had been juggling TextMate and Carbon Vim, but this new contender puts Vim way out ahead again. I suspect that's exactly where it will stay until TextMate adds modal editing: ha! Not likely.

Long story short: Bjorn Winckler, you're my new hero.  
(Version r300)

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0
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Nov 2 2007

PETER DA SILVA  vim doesn't cut it for me. I use nvi, and it just fits my fingers better than vim. I wish Apple would have left well enough alone and let third party efforts like this provide vim for the people who like it, and stuck with the standard BSD vi for the default  
(Version 0710b)

praisebury
0
Dec 3 2007

LIBCRYPT  This does rule, but "pretty tabs"? Hardly.  
(Version 0712A)

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0