Since the aforementioned unicode editor vi wasn’t available for Amiga computers, the Dutch computer scientist, Bram Moolenaar developed the first version of Vim in 1988. The vi replica, Stevie, served as a basis for its GPL licensed open source work, which still bore the name Vi IMitation. The Amiga version followed in 1992 as an equivalent for Unix and MS-DOS. Around this time, the acronym of the text editor also received its present name: Vi IMproved. Since then, the editor has undergone various developments, which is why it’s considered one of the most complete solutions in this field. Vim works in text mode on each terminal, whereby the operation is focused primarily on keyboard actions, while the mouse options are severely limited. Thanks to extensions there are many graphic interfaces available. The editor is controlled by entering commands in the configuration file .vimrc.
Vim is an editor that has several modes. Depending on which mode is currently active, the characters you enter are interpreted in different ways. This structure differentiates it from many other Linux text editors, which could prove tricky for inexperienced users, but on the other hand, allows advanced users to work quickly and effectively. The following table explains the basic modes: