[HN Gopher] Bram Moolenaar has died
___________________________________________________________________
Bram Moolenaar has died
Author : wufocaculura
Score : 3182 points
Date : 2023-08-05 12:23 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (groups.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (groups.google.com)
| cod1r wrote:
| RIP This man is an absolute legend. <3
| user3939382 wrote:
| There is a collection of people and cultural artifacts that are
| contemporary to us, though usually not our exact age. They pass
| away, one at a time, until we are all that is left of the world
| we once defined, a world that eventually is gone.
|
| Bram's passing is another chip at the passing of the world I
| knew, where vim was new.
|
| Thank you Bram for your excellent and enviable contribution to
| computing.
| nunez wrote:
| That's really sad, but I'm glad that his legacy will vastly
| outlive him.
|
| Thanks for vim, Bram, and rest in peace!
| peter_retief wrote:
| What a legend, the VI message stood out in my memory of Bram,
| what a kind and clever person.
| stmuk wrote:
| Looks like vim should continue!
|
| https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/6_yWxGhB_8I/m/ibserACY...
| collinstevens wrote:
| wq!
|
| he had green squares until his death
| https://i.imgur.com/MrofIBq.png
| gm3dmo wrote:
| Should you want to donate, if you have the Benevity giving
| platform through your employer then you may be able to double any
| donation through that:
|
| "Stichting ICCF Holland"
|
| Is the name I search for.
| yc-kraln wrote:
| oh what! oh no :(
|
| he finally figured out how to quit
| steveBK123 wrote:
| Vim is my daily driver, I'm sorry to hear we've lost Bram so
| young.
| etewiah wrote:
| Now this is a bit random but many years ago I run into a Dutch
| couple running some kind of wildlife farm in Ghana. When they
| found out I was geekish they said a relative of theirs was big in
| the open source world. Turned out to be Bram.
|
| I can't quite remember what the relationship was but since then
| every time I use vim (not often admittedly ) I think of this
| Dutch woman looking after a jumble of wild animals in the middle
| of nowhere...
| Gunax wrote:
| :q but always:w
| wenc wrote:
| Bram Moolenaar
|
| XX
|
| =
|
| :wq
| benreesman wrote:
| Personal Anecdote:
|
| When I was first getting started in software I was very much part
| of the "I can think faster than I type" school and I had the good
| fortune to fall in with some really serious hackers, one of whom
| was an absolute wizard with `vim`.
|
| He was a very humble guy, so it was some time before I learned he
| was in no small part such a `vi` pro because he had _written a
| real vi_ , it was called `xvi` and I gather that it was around
| the time that `vim` was taking off.
|
| I asked him why he used `vim` if he had written `xvi` and I'll
| never forget his reply: "Writing a `vi` is something any
| programmer can do if they put the effort in, writing a `vi` as
| good as `vim` is something only people like Bram can do.
| Obviously I'm going to use the better tool."
|
| Bram changed the lives and careers of so many of us, myself
| included. I never interacted with him personally but from
| everything I've ever seen he was humble, brilliant, helpful, and
| took his craft as seriously as anyone I've ever heard of.
|
| RIP Legend.
| caseyw wrote:
| With things like this, you realize how short life is, and
| sometimes how brittle it can be. I often forget that the people
| that built the foundation of what we use every day are still with
| us, and we have a short time to be able to show them appreciation
| before we say thank you to someone who has gone, if you know of
| someone that has dedicated time to something that you use, show
| your appreciation this week. It might be the last time that you
| have the opportunity to make that human contact.
|
| Thank you, sir. <3 vim
| softwaredoug wrote:
| Vim is fascinating because it revived a kind of wonky tool in vi.
|
| I remember learning about the command line and having to use
| original vi. It was weird. But Bram saw some underlying genius in
| the tool and revived it. Not just for vim itself, but all the
| vims, all the tools that have vim bindings, etc.
| keepamovin wrote:
| And such a genius name too: like Vi improved, but also vim, as
| in vim and vigor, a fantastic word to have as your companion
| programming.
| dlevine wrote:
| At my first job out of university, we were deploying applications
| on Solaris servers. I had been using emacs as a text editor, and
| these servers only had vim installed. I mentioned installing
| emacs to my manager, and he said that learning vim would be a
| "feather in my cap." I took him up on that advice, which was sage
| wisdom.
|
| I spent a lot of my career using various forks of vim as my
| primary editor, and still use it when I need to edit a file.
|
| Thanks Bram! This world will miss you.
| favadi wrote:
| Sending heartfelt condolences to Bram's family. His last commit
| is just one month ago:
| https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/4c0089d696b8d1d5dc40568f25....
| I wonder who else has access to vim.org and the official git
| repository and if there will be anyone step up to become vim's
| BDFL.
| capableweb wrote:
| Judging by that the announcement email came from his own email,
| I'm guessing there has been some sort of redundancy setup done
| when the medical condition was initially detected.
| em-bee wrote:
| more likely a close relative simply got access to his
| accounts.
| barnbuilder wrote:
| I'm worried about this and feel like "vim" as actively
| maintained software probably also died today.
| ilaksh wrote:
| Neovim seems to be going strong.
| https://github.com/neovim/neovim
| arp242 wrote:
| Neovim has a bit of a different mentality compared to Vim;
| it's not the same project.
|
| I don't really want to discus this in detail here as it's
| not the right location, but I think lots of people would be
| interested in continuing Vim, rather than having Vim being
| subsumed by Neovim. We'll have to see how things and the
| relationship between Vim and Neovim change and evolve in
| the coming weeks and months.
| ilaksh wrote:
| I assume there are multiple people willing and able to
| continue vim development and I think it might be
| important for that to happen. I just thought it was
| relevant in the context of that comment to mention the
| other project.
| jabl wrote:
| Whether VIM proper withers and fades away or not, Bram's
| legacy will live on through Neovim too.
| kilowatt wrote:
| I learned vim young enough that I'll probably die editing text
| this way--RIP Bram.
| [deleted]
| manaskarekar wrote:
| RIP. Thank you for the tool that I've arguably used the longest.
|
| It is a software that brings joy each time I use it.
| heywoodlh wrote:
| I discovered Vim around a decade ago when my IT career was just
| starting. Since having a friend walk me through how to use it, I
| have never stopped using it -- and it's not an exaggeration to
| say that I use it every day.
|
| Vim is a piece of software that has changed my life. Rest in
| peace, Bram, you will be missed. Condolences to Bram's family.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Oh damn, that makes me sad. I met him once at Vimfest in Berlin.
| He was such an intelligent and humble guy.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| For anyone looking to learn Vim, this is an educational game
| that's actually pretty fun:
|
| https://vim-adventures.com/
| taf2 wrote:
| I remember it was 1997 when my older brother gave me his .vimrc
| file and explained to me a few of the basic commands. It took a
| few years but have used vim exclusively ever since. I'm deeply
| saddened by our loss in the open source community by this and
| wonder what contributions we can carry forward
| Inocez wrote:
| > 8: How can the community ensure that the Vim project succeeds
| for the foreseeable future?
|
| > Keep me alive.[1]
|
| [1] 10 Questions with Vim's creator, Bram Moolenaar (2014)
| https://www.binpress.com/vim-creator-bram-moolenaar-intervie...
| gsuuon wrote:
| I think this is the first time I've shed an actual tear for a
| famous person passing away.. RIP Bram Moolenaar. Vim was life
| changing for me and continues to be for many.
| isatty wrote:
| Thank you for everything, Bram. vim has been my editor forever
| and I can't imagine using any other.
|
| Can we please have a black banner?
|
| :q
| Exuma wrote:
| Holy fuck... what... no!
| pgporada wrote:
| RIP, thanks for all the hard work and care.
| oddly wrote:
| Rest in peace Bram, gone, but not forgotten.
| capableweb wrote:
| Few people could probably argue that they helped as many humans
| in dire situations like Bram did in his life. Vim was the first
| time I came across "charityware" as vim encourages users to
| donate to International Child Care Fund Holland on its splash
| screen, instead of begging for money for itself. I feel a bit of
| shame when I say that I've only donated to ICCF once over all
| these years....
|
| As a remembrance of Bram and to thank him for building the editor
| I've been using for as long as I can remember, I'm doing exactly
| what he would have wanted me to do, donating to ICCF Holland. If
| you're a vim/nvim/other edition user, I suggest you to do the
| same: https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html
|
| If you're a (neo)vim user, there is more information at `:help
| iccf` as well.
|
| Thank you Bram for everything. I'm sure your spirit and lines
| written will stay with me and others for a very long time in the
| future.
| colmmacc wrote:
| I wrote on twitter that vim is a masterpiece. It's the gleaming
| precise machine tool on which so much of modernity was crafted.
| It's so hard to quantify Bram's impact, because he did so much
| through so powerful a force multiplier.
|
| I started as a Unix sysadmin 25 years ago and kept gravitating
| towards vim. One practical reason is because it paid off to be
| familiar with vi, which is nearly always still available on
| just-installed or bare-bones systems. But another is how
| welcoming and leveling the Vim community was. It was so easy to
| get great macros and tips, and everyone was just super friendly
| about it. I remember someone in #vim irc teaching me "gqap" to
| wrap a paragraph, and they very naturally took the time to
| explain _how_ it all worked. There was no sneering on from the
| community. I think Bram 's empathy and leadership was a huge
| part of that attitude in the community.
|
| I'm a regular annual donor on Vim's behalf, and this morning
| donated another EUR250 in Bram's memory. People should only
| donate what they can afford, we all have different means, but
| I'd encourage folks to work out what a great commercial editor
| or IDE would have cost them in licensing over their use time,
| and to consider donating in proportion.
|
| :wq Bram
| vault wrote:
| Who knows why there's no financial statement for 2022? 2021 is
| on the home page. https://iccf-holland.org/iccf.html
| jorams wrote:
| It looks like Bram was the treasurer, so his medical
| condition could potentially have something to do with it.
| kibwen wrote:
| For everyone reading this who has ever adored vim, or any of
| the editors that would go on to be inspired by vim, I can think
| of no better tribute to Bram than to make a donation to the
| charity that he spent the better part of his life advocating
| for.
| junon wrote:
| Thanks for the link, should have made a donation years and
| years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.
| diffserv wrote:
| Thanks for bringing this up! It was a good reminder for me to
| donate. May he rest in peace.
| smueller1234 wrote:
| Since there's a ton of Google employees here - reminder that
| Google does gift matching for this charity!
| justin_oaks wrote:
| Few contribute so meaningfully to the world through software as
| Bram did. I donated an amount as if I were purchasing vim as an
| expensive commercial text editor.
|
| For most death announcements on HN, I have to look up who they
| were. Not this one. I greatly appreciate his work and
| contributions to the world.
| arp242 wrote:
| Bram had been spending over 30 years on Vim; and not just "the
| occasional patch/bugfix", but significant amounts, and almost
| every single day for some years.
|
| The number of people who spent that much time working on Open
| Source is very small, and the number of people who have spent
| that much time purely in their spare time is smaller still. In
| fact, I don't really know of anyone who even comes close to
| Bram.
|
| The number of people who spent this much time volunteering for
| _anything_ is very small.
|
| Bram's effort on Vim was phenomenal and exceptional by any
| standard.
|
| ---
|
| I only met Bram in person once, in 2014, when he talked about
| Zimbu[1]; at some point I must have given a bit of a skeptical
| look, and he promptly looked at me and asked "oh, you don't
| agree? Why not?" It was a nice talk with lots of "audience
| engagement" like this. We spent some time talking during the
| rest of the day and the next day; we discussed and joked about
| lots of things; I don't recall talking much about Vim: it just
| didn't come up. I found him a very friendly, warm, and likeable
| person.
|
| Sven Guckes (who passed away last year) did organize a little
| "Ask Me Anything" type workshop with Bram, and I discovered
| Bram struggled remembering the ins-and-outs of some of the
| lesser used Vim features just as much as the rest of us :-)
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-QdG2X1Lw)
| echelon wrote:
| I don't know if Bram's family has this thread or is reading
| it, but the extent to which his work has impacted the
| software development community is enormous.
|
| Vim was one of the first pieces of software I learned when I
| switched to Linux in college. It was tricky at first, then it
| delighted me to no end. It remains a daily part of my life
| nearly 20 years later, and I'm still learning more about it
| every single year.
|
| I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out of
| insert mode in normal web browser text boxes.
|
| Bram's insistence of donating his earnings to helping the
| children of Uganda is also incredibly selfless, and it's
| impossible to mention him without bringing this up [1].
|
| We'll miss you Bram. We'll be learning from you for decades
| to come.
|
| [1] https://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php
| agumonkey wrote:
| readline vi mode, vimperator and pentadactyle are a
| testimony
| turboponyy wrote:
| > I can't count the number of times I wish I could drop out
| of insert mode in normal web browser text boxes.
|
| You can, if you really want to:
|
| https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim
| RMPR wrote:
| > and the number of people who have spent that much time
| purely in their spare time (i.e. not as part of their job,
| like Torvalds or van Rossum) is smaller still.
|
| I agree, but the fact that there's a non-zero amount of
| people doing it shouldn't be overlooked. For example
| maintainer of qutebrowser (who also happen to be in pytest
| core team) and apart from a teaching job at an university a
| couple of months per year, he's working full time on OSS. The
| main characteristics they share (at least those I met) seem
| to be a deep love for the craft, a deep love for people, and
| be virtually unfazed by the amount of money they can make if
| they weren't doing that.
| riedel wrote:
| The news made me unexpectedly said. There are not many people
| that felt so close without ever knowing them, just because I
| used their software. Thank you for the reminder to donate: the
| least thing one can do now. I think most of the digital stuff I
| ever produced in my life was using vim. Software, scripts,
| websites, theses, a book, I actually even used a plugin to fill
| out text boxes in the web using vim.
|
| All the stray 'i's in documents or source code in stuff I had
| to write with other editors give evidence to my dedication.
| Thank you Bram! May you live forever in vim.
| lillesvin wrote:
| This is a great idea. Bram has made a huge positive impact on
| the world, even if most people aren't aware of it. I'd love to
| help make it even bigger.
|
| Edit: Hmm... PayPal seems to throw error after error at me when
| I try to donate. I'll keep trying.
| lillesvin wrote:
| Yay, PayPal let me through. I just had to turn off uBlock
| Origin and Privacy Badger... But for Bram, I'm ok with it.
| kdheepak wrote:
| Thanks for posting the donation link and the reminder, I've
| made a donation as well.
|
| Vim has shaped so many aspects of my professional life; I'll
| forever be grateful to Bram for his work and contributions.
| Rest in peace, Bram.
| junon wrote:
| Dang, this deserves the black bar.
| threemux wrote:
| I use vim every day - RIP to a legend!
| uean wrote:
| Personal anecdote: I had lived and worked in southern Uganda with
| a Canadian organization called Kibaale Children's Fund (now
| Kuwasha). One day Bram came by our location. We talked a bit -
| someone told me he was influential and "worked for google or
| something" and then I learned his real identity and the software
| he was a part of. I was just on the brink of beginning a career
| in IT at the time and later in life as my skills and toolset grew
| I realized his significance. He never spoke of VIM in person
| during our time and was an incredibly humble quiet man,
| dedicating his time to helping children in need through ICCF
| Holland, which operated out of the same school I was working with
| as I recall. I found Bram incredibly genuine, and was also highly
| impressed with the ethics he brought to his efforts in the local
| work in Uganda (where it is typical to see fundraising dollars
| sliced and diced with admin-fees - ICCF turned every cent of a
| dollar back into the community.) He will be missed by many in
| that part of the world for such a massive impact he was able to
| have through funds raised through VIM. May he rest in peace.
| tomcam wrote:
| > in Uganda (where it is typical to see fundraising dollars
| sliced and diced with admin-fees - ICCF turned every cent of a
| dollar back into the community.)
|
| That's very good to hear. I donated, but not very much - I
| assumed that their money would end up going to the wrong
| places. How did Bram manage to avoid this?
| uean wrote:
| I shouldn't speak for Bram or ICCF but can point you to the
| financial docs which give a great explanation https://iccf-
| holland.org/iccf.html
|
| From KCFs perspective where I worked, during my time there, I
| fundraised my salary (expenses) personally "door to door" to
| keep any funds donated to the organization going direct to
| the kids and community. I understood this was the case for
| others as well. I believe Bram paid for flights out of his
| own pocket.
| finnh wrote:
| donated! thank you, Bram, for our beloved vim
| 0xfedbee wrote:
| RIP Bram. Thanks for creating the best text editor the world's
| ever seen!
| pixelmonkey wrote:
| Bram was an inspiration, not just for developing vim, which so
| many of we programmers used to get into a flow state programming.
| But also for his work on charity. Deserving of the black banner!
| yuuta wrote:
| RIP
| Pseudomanifold wrote:
| Thanks for everything, Bram. Your memory will be a blessing.
| sandGorgon wrote:
| RIP. This makes me really really sad today. I first used vim when
| i was in college over 25 years back. And it was magical. It was
| my first tryst with what a text editor should be.
|
| My .vimrc is 25 years old :(
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37013887
| 1f60c wrote:
| Rest in peace, sir. My thoughts are with the entire Moolenaar
| family and his loved ones.
| enneff wrote:
| RIP Bram. I enjoyed meeting him in Zurich one time. He was good
| company. A really humble, sweet guy.
| isaacremuant wrote:
| As a long time vim user: Thanks Bram & Godspeed.
| pxc wrote:
| I took all my notes in VIM for several years in college. To this
| day, I use Evil mode, Tridactyl, and various other tools inspired
| by the modal editing that VIM so advanced, and VIM itself remains
| a part of my toolkit on every system I use. I expect it will
| always be with me in some form.
|
| RIP, Bram.^[:x
| SJetKaran wrote:
| I use vim almost every single day, and use vim-dialect in every
| other editor I use. I'm thankful for its existence and to Bram
| for developing it.
| jasonhansel wrote:
| :wq. Thanks for keeping Vim copyleft.
| jonaustin wrote:
| Vim improved and changed my life for the better more than any
| software except Linux itself. I'll probably use vim (or an editor
| inspired by it) for the rest of my life; it's Way of editing text
| changes everything.
|
| Rest in peace, Bram.
| sombragris wrote:
| RIP, a great guy, a public benefactor and a great coder.
|
| I think the black stripe should be on HN today; it's quite
| justified.
| anon7331 wrote:
| Sad. I didn't interact with Bram much, but I did have an email
| exchange with him early in my software developer journey. I
| submitted a few patches to Vim and he helped me work through them
| to get them approved/merged. He was very patient and kind even
| though I was a complete newbie.
| virtualsue wrote:
| Such sad news! Condolences to his family, friends and thousands
| of admirers worldwide. One way to commemorate his life is to
| donate to the charityware cause he championed: https://www.iccf-
| holland.org
| ymgch wrote:
| Rest in peace, Bram.
| 725686 wrote:
| My respects. I use vim daily. So long and thanks for all the
| fish!
| azemetre wrote:
| I was first introduced to Vim from a Jeffrey Way tutorial about
| HTML5 way back in 2010 or maybe 2008 when first learning about
| programming. Ever since then I've used Vim throughout my career,
| even somehow convincing others to use it too. I've been using
| neovim for the last 5 years but can still hop on a colleagues
| machine or into a server and still be productive.
|
| Easily the most important piece of software I've ever used in my
| life, since it has allowed me to make a living.
|
| RIP Bram Moolenaar.
| slim wrote:
| thanks Bram, you're a legend
| keveman wrote:
| I met Bram in the Google Mountain View office. We chatted for
| over two hours. He was full of humility and curiosity and more
| interested in what I was working on (I was working on DistBelief
| back then). Hats off to a life full of impact and a legacy that
| will continue to impact programmers all over the world. RIP.
| HL33tibCe7 wrote:
| https://www.moolenaar.net/bright.html :(
| nixie wrote:
| :q
|
| :'( RIP Bram
| lenkite wrote:
| Only interaction with him was via mailing list but liked and
| respected him. Been using VIM for ~20 years now. Upset at his
| death. Its too early to pass away at just 62.
| lycopodiopsida wrote:
| One of silent heroes of the open-source world - making life of so
| many people easier and more enjoyable every day. RIP.
| keepamovin wrote:
| Fuck, reading all these comments i kind of feel we should have
| told him before he died how much we appreciated him.... :...(
|
| Like there should be an open source lifetime achievement award or
| something. Like the academy awards.
| felipellrocha wrote:
| Call it the Moolenaar Award, maybe?
| xwdv wrote:
| I will likely use some form of vim as my editor for the entirety
| of my professional life. Wish I could say I wrote software that
| would be used for an entire person's lifetime. RIP Bram, you did
| good.
| camgunz wrote:
| If I'm honest, I don't know if I like programming or I just like
| using Vim. Thanks for everything Bram.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| Anyone have a favorite video/presentation of Bram's?
| drumhead wrote:
| An absolute legend of computing, you fire up Vim you have his
| unforgettable name.RIP
| stevefan1999 wrote:
| He finally :q vim, but with an !
| bloopernova wrote:
| Thank you, Bram, for vim. Thank you for how useful it is, and how
| rock solid it's always been for me.
|
| No feeble attempt at humour from me, just heartfelt sadness and
| gratitude.
| _joel wrote:
| So long Brad, probably the single most used tool I've used over
| my career. Thanks for that!
|
| I guess he finally learnt how to exit vim
| mikece wrote:
| Bram didn't exit vim; he's simply stopped typing. The spirit of
| Bram will always be with us.
| u801e wrote:
| I've been a vim user since 2004 when I had to use it as part of
| the introduction to UNIX course.
|
| Thank you Bram for writing, maintaining, and improving vim over
| all these years.
| gitfan86 wrote:
| Amazing guy, I've been using vim daily for decades. I donated 5k
| to his charity a few years ago as a thank you. He sent a
| personalized thank you email.
|
| https://iccf-holland.org/
| TheUnhinged wrote:
| RIP Bram
| pinion247 wrote:
| RIP, Bram. Thank you, from a 22-year Vim user.
| dwb wrote:
| Damn. Rest in peace. Thank you for your hard work on my favourite
| editor. All the best to his loved ones.
| lolive wrote:
| Went to his website. There was an interview of him from 2022. The
| answer that really stroke me was not about Vim, but about
| software craftmanship vs professional programming:
|
| << I have been working for a company where quite a few managers,
| educated in physics and mechanics, thought the software was just
| the same as what they knew and they could decide how to make it.
| That company went downhill and was eventually taken over. The
| same happens in places where decision-makers can get away with
| failure, such as in government. The people writing the code
| probably just make sure they get paid and then run away from the
| crime scene. On the other end of the scale are people who want to
| write beautiful code, spend lots of time on it, and don't care if
| it actually does what it was intended to do or what the budget
| was. Somewhere in between, there is a balance. >>
|
| I am not so sure about the last sentence. But the rest is SO
| true!
| [deleted]
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| I've worked with enough "professional" programmers to know I
| don't want to work with them and their sloppy, reckless,
| uncurious, and inconsiderate ways.
| Exoristos wrote:
| So what do you do for a living?
| cxr wrote:
| What's wrong with the last sentence?
|
| For ease of consumption, the context again:
|
| > On the other end of the scale are people who want to write
| beautiful code, spend lots of time on it, and don't care if it
| actually does what it was intended to do or what the budget
| was. Somewhere in between, there is a balance.
| creer wrote:
| I'll go with: the sentence takes this as a dimension, this at
| one end, that at the other. While perhaps what matters is on
| an entirely different dimension. From a point of view of
| usefulness to its users, is there a strong correlation with
| whether the project was "thrown over the fence" or is a work
| of software artistry?
| sillysaurusx wrote:
| It's remarkably uncommon to find an employee who strikes a
| balance between the two. But I think this doesn't make the
| sentence wrong.
| myst wrote:
| Literally everyone strikes the balance. According to their
| experience. The older, the more experienced, the more
| balanced.
| Denvercoder9 wrote:
| There's a difference in the balance that people like to
| do, and what's best for the organization. I definitely
| can't deny that I've sometimes gone for the side that
| made my job better for me, but not necessarily helped the
| organization the most.
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| The problem is corporate interests usually demand
| expedience and individual, short-term output while
| dismissing any notion of craftsmanship, completeness,
| correctness, or long-term investment. More and more
| corporations have completely stopped investing in
| employee education, career, and professional development
| apart from harassment and privacy training videos.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I understand wanting to write beautiful code, it's a major
| motivator for me. But it does have to actually do something
| useful - or there's no point.
| The_Colonel wrote:
| The code itself, its elegance and cleverness can be a point
| in itself. I'd argue it's a stupid point (with a few
| exceptions ala CCC), but for some people it does seem to be
| the main driver.
| bennyschmidt wrote:
| > people who want to write beautiful code, spend lots of time
| on it, and don't care if it actually does what it was intended
| to do
|
| There was a funny React framework a while back that has all
| kinds of cool state management and this and that, but it
| renders nothing. For the developers who spend more time
| theorizing, migrating, refactoring, than shipping.
|
| It's funny when people go back and forth about the time
| complexity of a click handler (that is debounced anyway), and
| they arrive at the optimal solution, but when you use the app
| the entire thing is super clunky lol where is the concern for
| time complexity of me using the product xD
| asveikau wrote:
| I feel it's much more common to create abstractions without
| regard for performance cost of the abstraction. So keeping
| time complexity down, even for a piece that doesn't matter
| much, is above average for this sort of thing.
| hock_ads_ad_hoc wrote:
| Creating abstractions without considering performance is
| probably the correct approach. It's much better to at least
| start with a program with enough abstraction to allow
| reasoning about how things should work. Save performance
| concerns for when optimization is seen to be necessary.
| KerrAvon wrote:
| This is how you wind up with fundamentally slow systems
| that can't be easily sped up. You need to take some
| account of performance in systems design. Just don't
| micro-optimize too soon.
| Gibbon1 wrote:
| Also creating abstractions without considering the mental
| overhead of reasoning about what the code is doing.
|
| Not enterprise: event --> action.
|
| Enterprise: event --> abstraction --> abstraction -->
| abstraction --> abstraction --> abstraction --> abstraction
| --> abstraction --> abstraction --> action_parta -->
| abstraction --> abstraction --> abstraction -->
| action_partb abstraction --> abstraction --> abstraction
| --> action_finalizer.
| The_Colonel wrote:
| I sometimes wonder if people believe that enterprise devs
| create abstractions for "fun" without having any rational
| reason.
| ugh123 wrote:
| The last sentence was the point. Either end of the spectrum are
| people who are not caring about the right things (typically
| about themselves, egos, etc).
| tzhenghao wrote:
| Loved his "7 Habits For Effective Text Editing 2.0" (2007) talk
| and humor [1]
|
| "How many of you are mostly using Emacs?"
|
| _a bunch of raised hands_
|
| "Okay, we'll try to convert some people today!"
|
| RIP, Bram Moolenaar
|
| [1] - https://youtu.be/p6K4iIMlouI
| steinuil wrote:
| A lot of this advice is about turning vim into a "modern" text
| editor with a language server configured.
|
| I used to use vim but lately I switched to Helix, which is
| basically vim but with all the good features and plugins built
| into it and without a configuration/extension language. Almost
| all of the features are easily discoverable by just pressing
| spacebar, and the rest by browsing the (small) documentation,
| and I can think of a way to do all the things Bram talks about
| from within Helix, often better (because it's relying on the
| language server).
|
| Still, the main point about learning your tools by detecting
| inefficiencies and searching for a better way is always valid,
| and I'm sure that all these things Vim was already doing at the
| time helped pave the way for modern editors. RIP.
| tlamponi wrote:
| That presentation is also available as PDF with notes from his
| homepage:
|
| https://moolenaar.net/habits_2007.pdf
| bastardoperator wrote:
| I want to see his .vimrc, RIP
| mrhashem wrote:
| Now I can exit Vim...
| grrandalf wrote:
| RIP. I started using Vim on Slackware iirc. Haven't stopped.
|
| I checked out various other clones back in the day -- vim was way
| better afaict.
|
| PS: A major reason I use Vim rather than Emacs is that the arrow
| keys worked in Vim but not emacs. On Slackware. No I don't use
| the ijkl keys to move in Vim. :) :) #blubvimmer
| ilaksh wrote:
| Hmm. I also first used vim inside of Slackware and also use
| arrow keys in vim.
|
| Not sure I've ever run into another person who admitted that
| publicly. Not that I think it's something that one should
| actually be ashamed of, it makes total sense. Just not a
| popular approach.
| trashman wrote:
| RIP Bram and thank you. I use VIM every day.
| ezoe wrote:
| I had an opportunity to talk to the Bram Moolenaar when VimConf
| 2018 was held in Japan. First and only time Bram visited Japan.
|
| I was there as a volunteer staff, sitting at a reception desk.
| Although vim is the text editor I use everyday, I'm not that
| enthusiastic to participate the vim conference. I'm not a vim
| developer. I don't use some of the advanced vim features. I don't
| ask much for a text editor. I use vim simply because it's
| available in all environments I could possibly use. I was a
| volunteer staff because I was asked by one of my colleague at
| that time who was a serious vim user and organized the VimConf.
|
| So I didn't have a plan to talk to Bram at all. There were so
| many Japanese vim developers and serious vim users there who want
| to talk to Bram. This may be the first and last chance to talk to
| Bram in person for them. I don't want to waste the precious time
| for them.
|
| Then, I learned at the conference that recent vim release
| includes termdebug plugin which allows vim to behave as a gdb
| frontend. Since I am a C++ programmer, I started playing with it.
| Then, I quickly found a bug. termdebug assume there's only one
| function for a name and couldn't handle C++ function overloading.
|
| I discussed this issue with Bram Moolenaar in a spare time.
|
| There aren't many other things I can tell about Bram.
|
| At the after party of VimConf 2018, Bram absolutely refused to
| use a cup and drink beer directly from a beer bottle. It wasn't a
| small 333 ml beer bottle. It was a big 633 ml beer bottle.
|
| Before the VimConf 2018, Bram went to climb Mt. Fuji during his
| stay in Japan.
| capableweb wrote:
| Here is photos from Bram when they were at the Japan trip:
| https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMc4NF8j66ohinWutVHktl4...
| "Tokyo 2018 (Nov 17 - 25, 2018)"
|
| His website has a lot of other albums he published for everyone
| to enjoy: https://moolenaar.net/albums.html
| ezoe wrote:
| https://photos.app.goo.gl/BtVZMoZjdEmPKCeu9
|
| This photo remembers me a funny discussion at that time.
|
| One of the participants said he use vim to write .emacs file.
|
| "Why don't you use Emacs for that?" I asked.
|
| "Because if I have to edit .emacs, that means emacs isn't
| configured the way I liked it. So I use vim in that case"
| junon wrote:
| Wow these are really great photos - I'm sure both due to most
| culture in Japan is dripping in beauty, but also because Bram
| just takes really good photos!
|
| Thank you for sharing.
| cozzyd wrote:
| Though while I'm on Bram's team in the editor wars, it
| seems like we chose different sides in the camera wars. RIP
| and thanks for the program I probably use the most. :x
| [deleted]
| caleb-allen wrote:
| Such a loss. I've spent many hours reading vim's incredible
| source code and documentation while developing a vim emulation
| plugin for the Julia REPL. Absolute world class codebase.
|
| Moolenaar was an amazing programmer, and his impact will be long
| lasting. May he rest in peace.
| eellpp wrote:
| As a long time vim user. Thank you and RIP, Bram Moolenaar.
| lemper wrote:
| rest in peace, bram. thanks for all you've done to software
| world. you will be missed by many, including those Ugandan kids
| whose lives have been changed for the better.
|
| to the bereaved, I send you my deepest condolences.
| bhgtopt wrote:
| Love vim
| dmarinus wrote:
| So sad, I had the honor to meet Bram at a FOSS talk with RMS
| which he organized in Amsterdam RAI. I'll never forget that day.
| I've been using VIM for a many decades and I'm sure to keep using
| it for a long time. Many thanks for all the work and condolences
| for his family.
| DoneWithAllThat wrote:
| It didn't occur to me until now that vim is perhaps the oldest
| tool I've used continuously since the early days of my education
| and career. And I don't just use it, I use it every single day
| and have for probably 30 years.
|
| Thank you Bram.
| CraftedByPeter wrote:
| :q
|
| RIP and thank you. Thoughts are with his loved ones right now.
| mfrw wrote:
| :wqa!
|
| RIP Legend :(
|
| [Mods - Request for black bar, please]
| lefuturiste wrote:
| RIP, such a loss
| Galicarnax wrote:
| For me, Bram is probably among names like Tarkovsky, Stravinsky
| and Attenborough, who greatly affected the way I see/feel life.
| R.I.P.
| stonekyx wrote:
| The very first time in life that I reported a bug to an OSS
| project was to Vim, by email to Bram, when I was in high school.
| Thinking back from now, that was definitely not a good way to
| report bugs, but Bram was super helpful and responded kindly to
| this ignorant kid.
|
| Thank you Bram, and RIP.
| [deleted]
| olibrook wrote:
| Vim tortured and delighted me for many years. I still use it all
| the time - wild how much space it occupies in our minds.
|
| Thanks Bram!
| atamyrat wrote:
| For me, vim means muscle memory. I can say that it has become
| part of me!
|
| RIP Bram Moolenaar
| fernandotakai wrote:
| vim absolutely changed me as a developer. it showed me a whole
| different way of editing code.
|
| it's weird because i don't know him, but his death absolutely hit
| me hard.
|
| rest in peace <3
| ravishi wrote:
| I have been programming for more than 15 years. I've used vim
| since the very beginning and it always puzzled me as something so
| genuinely clever. Using vim is a joy. I feel good while doing it.
| Bram has been this strong influence in my life all due to his
| software.
| baz00 wrote:
| Bram wrote the only bit of software that never let me down once.
| RIP. You've done good to the world.
| nachiketrc wrote:
| Rest in Peace! Thank you Bram for the wonderful contributions!
| j3s wrote:
| thank you Bram. feeling humbled today. rest in peace.
| armatav wrote:
| That's quite young, what a shame - Vim is amazing.
| aspyct wrote:
| Wow that hits rather hard actually. I never knew him other than
| through the welcome message on Vim, but he made one of the tools
| I rely on the most in my daily life.
|
| Thanks Bram, have a good afterlife.
| scop wrote:
| I am likewise surprised by how hard this hits. I shouted out
| loud when I read the headline! Quite a reaction to somebody who
| I only ever saw one photo of and read the occasional release
| notes etc. Yet as a vim user, he has been part my daily
| activities for years.
|
| The name Bram Moolenaar has hovered across all my work...
|
| Thank you Mr. Moolenaar.
| birdyrooster wrote:
| Damn... I have been using Vim for decades and never thought
| once about the people responsible for it. I need to be more
| thoughtful of this to acknowledge people's excellent work.
| sramsay wrote:
| Absolutely. I've written _everything_ in Vim for almost as
| long as Vim has been around -- three books, dozens of talks
| and papers, who knows how many lines of code . . .
|
| I had been joking on social media a few weeks ago that Vim
| must be "done" since patches stopped appearing about a month
| ago. Can't believe that the guy who created maybe the most
| important tool in my entire arsenal is gone.
| keepamovin wrote:
| Yeah, relate. It shows you that with some good software, you
| can make an impact.
| jzb wrote:
| Yes, very hard. I feel like I knew him - kind of silly given
| I've never met him and I don't think have even crossed emails
| with him. Yet I've used his work for decades and I think it's
| fair to say that there's a lot of _him_ in Vim in a very real
| way. Wish I 'd sent him a note to say thanks. GNU Bram.
| agumonkey wrote:
| It seems that behind that bare prompt and message lies a whole
| era where things were simpler in many dimensions. A bunch of
| help text, a charity suggestion, a cursor ... it was as simple
| as mysterious and capable.
| JadeNB wrote:
| Thank you, Bram Moolenaar, for literally changing the way that I
| interact with my text editor, and hence with my computer. I
| remember seeing a vim user for the first time, and just being in
| so much awe of what he could accomplish that I sat down
| immediately and started learning vim myself. I'm still on that
| learning curve, many years later.
|
| Tangentially, is there any easy way to find out whom the black
| banner is for other than trial and error? Here I know because I
| searched for "died" on the front page and it brought me to this
| thread, but often I just find myself feeling a sense of dread at
| whom we've lost without being able to figure out who it actually
| is.
| renewiltord wrote:
| In the initial sponsorship for Neovim some people asked why none
| of us sponsored Vim. So I went to give an equal amount there and
| found that he wanted it to go charity.
|
| That was the first time I'd encountered charityware. Mind blowing
| tool, vim, and I am very impressed by him.
|
| A legend of the field.
| higanbana wrote:
| Rest in piece Bram, your invention of keybindings will be
| everlastingly remembered by generations
| liendolucas wrote:
| This is sad news. I have been using VIM since I don't know when
| and for no reason I have never made a donation to it and felt a
| lot of shame. Just made it to ICCF Holland few minutes ago. RIP
| Bram and thank you for VIM! :wq
| rochak wrote:
| There are extremely few people whose software transformed my life
| as much as Vim did. I know people would say that Vim is just an
| editor, but to me it rekindled the spark by giving me the
| direction I was looking for in this limitless world of computers.
| The fact that something can be so damn powerful and precise under
| the hood while coming across as just a blank screen with a
| blinking cursor changed the way I thought about software. I know
| this community took you for granted sometimes, but I couldn't be
| more thankful for this incredible piece of technology and the way
| you used it to give back even more to the community. Thank you,
| Bram.
| lucasfcosta wrote:
| Bram was really important for me. I remember the joy of learning
| how to use vim and how easy it was to bond with other fellow
| users.
|
| Who would imagine a text editor could instill such a strong sense
| of identity into its users?
|
| The first time I've been to SF I even got a ":w" tattooed on me.
|
| Bram, you will be missed.
| pylua wrote:
| I was looking for a post like this because I couldn't agree
| more. While I didn't get a tattoo like you , I can't imagine
| living without a tool that is one of the most important to my
| livelihood.
| sailorganymede wrote:
| I have benefited so much from Vim and I am forever grateful for
| the incredible work Bram has done. Thank you so much, and rest in
| peace.
| BaculumMeumEst wrote:
| Rest in piece Bram, and my condolences to his family. I hope to
| see the mainline vim project innovate and thrive so that Bram's
| legacy can live on.
| mkhnews wrote:
| RIP and thank you for vim, your effort and for caring about good
| software. ZZ
| 0xDkXy wrote:
| Thank you Barm. :wqa!
|
| R.I.P
|
| From a man who use vim everyday.
| ronaudinho wrote:
| I've since switched to Neovim, but only for the LSP, virtually
| using it like I would with Vim. Can't imagine working without it,
| and probably won't enjoy programming as much if not for Vim.
| Thank you and RIP, Bram.
| felipellrocha wrote:
| :wq
|
| :(
| [deleted]
| davidkunz wrote:
| Thank you Bram for giving us software we can love and putting a
| :smile on our faces.
| v3ss0n wrote:
| [flagged]
| diegofdominguez wrote:
| RIP Bram, VIM is an awesome gift to humanity
| dawidpotocki wrote:
| Vim has completely changed the way I use computers and I'm not
| able to thank Bram enough for this. Even though I have switched
| to Neovim and never met him, it makes me deeply sad. :wq
| pseudo_meta wrote:
| > Anyone who's used Vim has seen evidence of Moolenaar's
| generosity. "Vim is Charityware," Moolenaar wrotes in its
| pioneering license. "You can use and copy it as much as you like,
| but you are encouraged to make a donation for needy children in
| Uganda." Moolenaar pioneered the concept of charityware decades
| ago, and also helped to popularize its adoption.
|
| Pioneered one of the most iconic pieces of software in history,
| and yet did not make a single dime from it. That is truly
| something to look up to.
| mertd wrote:
| For anyone interested, here is the link to the ICCF charity
| that I found on the Vim website.
|
| https://iccf-holland.org/
| einpoklum wrote:
| I have made a donation in memory of Bram Moolenaar, as a
| token of my gratitude for having vi over the years.
| chromoblob wrote:
| He did, he only gave everything of it to ICCF then.
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| seems like dang is using emacs ...
| sgt wrote:
| We got black bar. It just needed to propagate through the
| thousands and thousands of edge nodes powering HN.
| [deleted]
| kris42 wrote:
| Thanks and RIP.
| keepamovin wrote:
| OH NO!!!! This guy literally changed my life by making vim. I
| could not imagine coding without vim!!!
|
| It's weird but coding in vim is going to take on a new
| significance now. Each keystroke, somehow saluting him.
|
| Very sad....
|
| I think we definitely need the black navbar of mourning.
| jeegsy wrote:
| Thank you Bram for creating something that is truly useful and we
| use nearly everyday. May you Rest In Peace. My condolences to his
| family.
| samstave wrote:
| I cant believe they had the gall to write his obit in emacs!
|
| RIP VIM
| LorenzoGood wrote:
| Rip
| throw_m239339 wrote:
| RIP, never met him, but I'm a VIM user.
| unionpivo wrote:
| Rest In Peace.
|
| VIM is still among my top used editors. And Bram was the one that
| made sure it kept improving and being useful for all those years,
| since I first used it on my Slackware install.
| vmlinuz wrote:
| Very sad news - been using vim for decades, still use it every
| day as pretty much all of my colleagues use VSCode... I met him
| briefly at FOSDEM 20+ years ago, will have to see if I can find
| the photo I took of him looking slightly bemused when I showed
| him vim running on a Linux-ified iPaq with a touchscreen and no
| keyboard!
|
| As others have said, time to make a donation in his honour.
| pseudo_meta wrote:
| > Anyone who's used Vim has seen evidence of Moolenaar's
| generosity. "Vim is Charityware," Moolenaar wrotes in its
| pioneering license. "You can use and copy it as much as you like,
| but you are encouraged to make a donation for needy children in
| Uganda." Moolenaar pioneered the concept of charityware decades
| ago, and also helped to popularize its adoption.
|
| Pioneered one of the most iconic pieces of software in history,
| and yet did not make a single dime from it. That is truly
| something to look up to.
| pard68 wrote:
| :wq!
| wufocaculura wrote:
| That's a sad news for the Vim community. Given that development
| was basically focused around Bram, it makes me wonder, what will
| happen with Vim now?
|
| WIll someone step up and continue to develop Vim, or it will fade
| away and Neovim take its place?
| sigzero wrote:
| I believe there is a development team actually in place but
| they probably have to decide the way forward now. I have little
| doubt it will continue.
| nichos wrote:
| Hopefully something is in place with this official repo and we
| don't get a bunch of forks all over github. RIP Bram
| throwawaymeta01 wrote:
| still use vim every day.
|
| worked with him ~decade ago.
|
| this hits hard.
|
| does anyone know if his family needs help/is there a way to help
| out? i would love to give back if possible.
| urmish wrote:
| This is indeed a huge loss. I've used vim for over a decade now.
| Configuring and tinkering with it was and is always the first
| thing I do when I get a new machine. He's also a good person from
| the small amount of interaction I've had with him on github.
| fareesh wrote:
| I learned vim as a kid in the 90s and used it my entire life.
| I've never used anything else. The hours it has saved me through
| its efficiency and productivity has probably extended my
| lifespan.
|
| Vim was born out of a simple system and a deep empathy and
| understanding of what a developer really needs.
|
| In every line of code, every efficient series of keystrokes, his
| legacy endures. May it last forever. Rest in peace.
| ludicast wrote:
| here's hoping he had a .swp
| agumonkey wrote:
| RIP
|
| vim might seem small on the grand scheme of things (npi), but as
| an interface to almost anything on a computer and for so long..
| it's a real wound to read this
|
| saying this as a mostly emacser..
|
| :T_T
| tortillasauce wrote:
| Rest in peace, Bram! Thank you so much for vim!
| bbkane wrote:
| Goofing around with Vim as a quiet "rebellion" to my professor
| demoing EMACs went much further than the joke I started it as -
| it became a gateway drug to me using the terminal for almost
| everything and understanding how computers work at a much lower
| level.
|
| Thank you Bram for the work you put into Vim!
| vaibhav135 wrote:
| RIP Bram the Legend.
| srivmutk wrote:
| God ... this hit me like a pile of bricks. Bram has probably had
| one of the biggest impacts on development out of basically
| anyone. I mean not just Vim, which was genius in its own right,
| but his work with the ICCF and the concept of charity-ware. My
| deepest condolences to his family. Anybody set up a HN donation
| drive for ICCF Holland?
| nazri1 wrote:
| I know I'm going to miss reading his goofy email signatures.
|
| Rest in peace Bram.
| cerved wrote:
| Thank you Bram!
| orsenthil wrote:
| Bram influenced me. The splash screen that encouraged donation to
| charity caught my attention like nothing else. Inspired by that
| splash screen, I started volunteering my time and donated money
| to many causes that I cared about.
|
| I once had a brief interaction with Bram. He clearly said, he
| didn't need any money and encouraged all donations to causes he
| cared about. In one case, $10,000 to Kilbale children center, he
| volunteered with.
| kmarc wrote:
| I lived in Adliswil, a couple streets away from him. When I
| learned about the fact that this Legend lives just nearby, I was
| like a child before Christmas, planning to meet up with him and
| thanking him for vim.
|
| I never did. I hope I would have. :-(
|
| RIP, mr Moolenar. :q
| zvmaz wrote:
| Sincerely saddened. Farewell Bram, and thank you for all the
| things you have brought to the world.
| ur-whale wrote:
| :wq
|
| Huge, huge loss.
| jvandonsel wrote:
| Years ago I sent a donation to his charity and was pleasantly
| surprised to get a personal thanks from Bram. A wonderful person.
| tristor wrote:
| Learning Vim was one of the most important steps in my life in
| the journey to escaping Windows and learning Linux/UNIX. I still
| use Vim every day as my primary text editor and it's the first
| thing I install on a new Mac.
|
| RIP Bram, I have made a donation to ICCF Holland in memoriam.
| maister wrote:
| Reading this headline has hit me unexpectedly hard :( Black
| banner please.
| Keyframe wrote:
| Thank you, Bram!
| robertlagrant wrote:
| I was introduced to vim at university around 2001. I wasn't great
| with it, but back then I occasionally was doing some basic
| sysadmining, and also sometimes hand-editing websites live over
| SSH and it was the best tool for me. I've started using it again
| in 2022 and am enjoying the experience!
|
| Thank you Bram.
| torsy wrote:
| I love what I do as a software engineer and a huge part of that
| is because I have a tool like vim. Thanks Bram. Rest in peace.
| motoboi wrote:
| Thank you Bram for this amazing software that gave me so pleasure
| in learning and mastering!
| beanjuiceII wrote:
| Wow ;_; when I see our legends pass like this (you feel like they
| will live forever), it reminds me how short of a time we have
| here. Condolences to family and friends, he was truly exceptional
| in life. :wq
| leahlibre wrote:
| He was a great man. He will be missed.
| otterpro wrote:
| I've been using Vim for the past 10 years every single day. I
| don't know any other software that I've used daily, with
| exception to the OS. While I come from the old school vi days,
| Vim really became the ultimate productivity in editing
| everything.
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| RIP
| hnous927 wrote:
| [dead]
| shrimpx wrote:
| Wow this came out of nowhere. :( I had no idea he was struggling
| with a health issue.
|
| Some context: https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/ivkq22t3LQM
| nabogh wrote:
| It's so surreal to me that I can look at his commit graph on
| github and see he was working right up until very recently. Rest
| in peace.
|
| https://github.com/brammool
| maximilianburke wrote:
| That's an especially poignant view; you can see the activity
| start strong last year and then fade out until it just ends.
|
| Rest in peace, Bram; thank you for your work.
| u801e wrote:
| Just looking at the per month commit counts, it looks like they
| dropped substantially from February this year compared to the
| past.
| Crontab wrote:
| I will forever be grateful for Bram's contribution to the world
| of free software and to humanity. I hope he will be remembered
| for a long time.
| mickmcq wrote:
| I am so sorry to hear this. I will make a contribution today in
| his memory.
| bogeholm wrote:
| :wq Bram, and thank you!
| srik wrote:
| rip bram, you will be remembered.
| jprd wrote:
| Thank you Bram.
|
| Thank you for your humanitarian efforts, your generosity, and of
| course your genius. It is because of these traits that your loss,
| though I never knew you personally, hits so hard. RIP.
|
| :wq!
| jakebasile wrote:
| Vim and its descendant modes in other editors has drastically
| improved my life, which maybe is a weird thing to say about a
| text editor but it's true. I am very sorry to hear of his
| passing.
| Lio wrote:
| I was just trying to think how to say the same thing but wasn't
| sure how to say it. Since first discovering Vim back in the
| 1990s it's been something I've used almost every working day.
|
| It's probably my favourite piece of software. Where ever I go,
| whatever platform I use, whatever I write, I use Vim.
|
| Bram's work has made my life better. This is sad news indeed.
| :(
| Syssiphus wrote:
| If it's something that you use for a large part of your day,
| then there is nothing weird about it.
| steve-chavez wrote:
| I remember feeling like a reached a next level as a software
| engineer once I started using Vim. It's been almost 10 years now
| and I still use it (through NeoVim and neovim-qt).
|
| Thank you so much Bram!
| teruakohatu wrote:
| I am greatly saddened by this news. Bram was a good person as
| well as a titan of open source. He will be missed.
| jack_squat wrote:
| No piece of software has influenced my career and my thinking on
| design, user interfaces, and software quality as much as VIM. VIM
| made learning to code as fun as playing a game. Thank you Bram,
| you changed my life.
| omoikane wrote:
| VIM is not just my favorite text editor, but my favorite piece of
| software of all time on all platforms. I have only ever
| encountered so few minor issues, and Bram fixed them all quickly.
| He will be sorely missed.
| f_gg_tk_ll_r wrote:
| [dead]
| ArcMex wrote:
| Sad news. I am grateful for Vim and for Moolenaar. Deepest
| condolences to family, friends and the community.
| 01az wrote:
| [dead]
| TonyStr wrote:
| R.I.P. Today is the day to donate to ICCF.
| afirium wrote:
| Rest in peace, Bram...
| _andrei_ wrote:
| Damn life, super sad, I feel like a silly chump [1] staring at
| the screen with an empty mind. [1]
| https://www.moolenaar.net/bright.html
| gigatexal wrote:
| As a huge fan of vim and now neovim (which would not exist
| without the amazing work of Bram and others on vim) I am
| saddened.
|
| I didn't really know about him until I started reading about him
| in the comments to this post and wow, he seemed like a person I
| wish I could have known either as a friend or colleague or as a
| mentor or any combination thereof, seems we could all learn a bit
| from his example as it seems he remained cool under pressure and
| dedicated a lot of his time to vim the editor we all love.
|
| Condolences to his family and friends and mates at Google.
| UncleBill wrote:
| Have been using Vim for years since college. It helps me and
| teaches me a lot. Thank you, Bram. RIP.
| matthewn wrote:
| Terribly sad news. Thank you, Bram, for the finest software tool
| I've ever wielded.
| anonygler wrote:
| I worked with Bram at Google. He was an incredibly nice guy. He
| went out of his way to meet with me on a few different occasions.
| I wasn't important at the time--I just made a few UI widgets for
| Google Calendar, which was his team at Google. Very swell guy who
| made the world a better place.
| praptak wrote:
| I met him in the Google Zurich office. He led an "Open Source at
| Google" talk as part of orientation for our group. Probably the
| best person to lead that talk at that time.
| shriek wrote:
| Wow really really sad news.
|
| When I was first starting to learn vim I thought to myself who
| would go through all these troubles just to write some text on an
| editor when there are better alternatives out there but then I
| slowly started to understand how it really worked and how you can
| slowly craft it to your liking. Now, I spend almost 90% of my
| time in terminal and vim and can't see myself working without it.
|
| Thank you Bram for playing a big part of my coding life through
| your contributions.
| artursapek wrote:
| RIP
| rfmc wrote:
| I'm speechless; I never thought I would feel this sad for a
| person whom I've never met, not even sent a message or an email.
| I don't even know his face, and yet, the impact of his work on my
| life is so immense that it feels like sailing at night, and then
| the lighthouse suddenly goes dark. RIP.
| 01az wrote:
| [dead]
| pmoriarty wrote:
| What would you all think of naming an annual award for the
| greatest contribution to vim in Bram's honor?
| Ecco wrote:
| I wrote the iOS port of Vim and therefore exchanged a few emails
| with Bram. As you can guess, a very nice person. Thank you for
| Vim, Bram!
| kjuulh wrote:
| This hit me more then I thought it would. I have never interacted
| with Bram, and I haven't used his software for long. But I love
| the legacy he left behind, the software industry is better for
| it.
|
| My condolences to his family.
| edejong wrote:
| In 2000 we organized a large outdoor LAN party for a week in the
| middle of nowhere hosting around 600 Unix/Linux aficionados. I
| was very proud to have found Bram to speak there at our event. On
| the days ahead I became very anxious to welcome this paragon of
| open source contributors, but I soon found out Bram was one of
| the most fun and caring people I had the honour to meet. Not just
| did he tell us his story of developing vim, he also organised an
| in promptu quiz on Unix and networking. I have fond memories of
| Bram and am truly sad to hear he passed away. Bram truly captured
| the soul of open source.
| kalium-xyz wrote:
| Emacs just keeps on winning*
|
| *I use vim on a daily basis and its very sad to see Bram go.
| codetrotter wrote:
| Bram Moolenaar was the original author, maintainer, release
| manager, and benevolent dictator for life of Vim.
|
| @dang can HN put a black banner for Bram Moolenaar please?
| techdragon wrote:
| This feels monumental... can we get the black bar for the
| entire weekend.
|
| This is the passing of someone that has fundamentally touched
| the lives of so many programmers... his work is now part of
| _our very folklore_ , we make vim jokes, we emulate it in other
| tools, even the "enemy" (eMacs) eventually added evil mode
| (mind my humour it has sharp edges)... vim is mentioned in
| science fiction and has survived the journey from Unix to a
| plethora of other operating systems...
|
| He will be missed.
| CodeCompost wrote:
| +1
| tetha wrote:
| I think you mean ^A
| [deleted]
| throwawaynew wrote:
| Not to sound bitter, but should we assume that dang does not
| consider the creator of vim to be worthy of a black banner? I
| keep forgetting that this site, despite having hacker in its
| name, is not really about hacking. Anyways, I hope Bram
| Moolenaar finds peace.
| arp242 wrote:
| Or we could assume that dang is not awake 24/7, and does not
| have a neural interface to everything that happens on HN and
| in the world, and actually does other things with his life
| than moderate HN.
|
| In short: he's such a lazy git with zero work ethnic.
| jasoneckert wrote:
| This is the only vi-able action IMO.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| Perhaps Dan is more of an Emacs guy.
| b33j0r wrote:
| The only problem is, some users will then be unable to exit,
| stuck in macro recording mode for eternity.
|
| Just as Bram would want :)
| cellover wrote:
| How do I exit this thread?
|
| Thank you Sir Moolenaar for this journey.
| minedwiz wrote:
| Another black bar +1. If anyone deserves it, it's got to be the
| author of a critical part of my daily workflow for over 10
| years.
| raverbashing wrote:
| Definitely deserves a black bar.
|
| VIM is definitely is one of those thin tiles that keep Open
| Source together
|
| :wq and RIP
| Scubabear68 wrote:
| Same. Variations of Vim have been my go to editor for many
| decades now. Stellar achievement.
| rayiner wrote:
| A vote.
| 1f60c wrote:
| It seems unthinkable that Dang will not bestow this honor upon
| him. Given that it's currently early Saturday morning, we just
| have to wait.
| [deleted]
| aestetix wrote:
| This absolutely deserves a black bar.<ESC>:wq
| PartiallyTyped wrote:
| :x
| PartiallyTyped wrote:
| Do people really not know :x == :wq ???
| upon_drumhead wrote:
| TIL
| hashtag-til wrote:
| Hi
| lucky_cloud wrote:
| They're not equivalent.
|
| :w will touch the file (update mtime) whether you've made
| changes or not
|
| :x will only update mtime if the file contents are
| actually changed
| myth2018 wrote:
| They are similar, but I stick to :wq. I fear mixing up :x
| with :X. Would probably catch the mistake when being
| asked to type the encryption key, but anyway
| pxc wrote:
| > Would probably catch the mistake when being asked to
| type the encryption key, but anyway
|
| Can confirm. I have accidentally typed :X many times, but
| have never accidentally encrypted a file
| n0on3 wrote:
| +1
| tempodox wrote:
| I support this request. :x
| petecooper wrote:
| >@dang
|
| The email address I've used in the past has been responded to
| promptly, that's probably more effective than an @ mention:
| hn@ycombinator.com
| arp242 wrote:
| @-mentions don't do anything. Email is the _only_ reliable
| way to contact dang.
| nicce wrote:
| It depends... some users have their own custom notification
| systems. Many business control their PR here strictly.
|
| But in general.. yes.
| arp242 wrote:
| I'd be surprised if any of these pick up on "@name"
| specifically, rather than just "name".
| ach9l wrote:
| Black bar please! :wq
| BearOso wrote:
| I think you mean: iPlease![ESC]Vx1000000p
| chromoblob wrote:
| I'm sure you meant 1000000iPlease!<Esc>
| BearOso wrote:
| I did, but that took a lot longer to process on my
| computer for some reason.
| badosu wrote:
| ^A
| adolph wrote:
| :! !!
| ekianjo wrote:
| [flagged]
| sanix-darker wrote:
| As a newbie user of vim, i have to admit, this is a really sad
| news for all open-source community ! RIP Bram !
| l00sed wrote:
| So sad to hear. Vim got me hooked on programming. It's truly a
| revolutionary editor, and now has been adopted and improved by so
| many others. Bram really touched so many people through Vim.
| Thank you for your immense contribution to computer science. RIP.
| trextrex wrote:
| Wow, the comments on Slashdot are such a train wreck. Didn't
| realise Slashdot had become so bad.
| jahsome wrote:
| I'd hardly call one or two virtue signalers a "train wreck" or
| "so bad"
|
| I didnt find much supporting what you claim. It's possible
| whatever your referring to was cleaned up. I only saw one
| apparently negative post, which was deleted or hidden.
|
| I have been saddened more and more by platform after platform
| devolving into nonsensical bickering. I'm almost entirely off
| social media at this point for that reason.
|
| Having said that, I feel it only makes it worse when people
| division out of proportion making hyperbolic and sweeping
| generalizations. I feel like being unrealistic about signal to
| noise ratio only empowers the trolls.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| I've used vim for everything going on my entire career now.
|
| It started in my senior year as a CS student - in an operating
| systems course, we were introduced to a lot of linux stuff and
| the professor taught Vim as part of his course. At first I
| rebelled. I chose to develop most of my projects in eclipse/Java
| at that point and had developed an aversion to the command line.
| That, plus Vim's learning curve made me hate it at first.
|
| Fast forward a year at my first job at an embedded systems shop
| writing in pure C, all the vets used vim and I saw how fast they
| were with it and it made me want to learn. I think my first
| "aha!" moment was when I accidentally entered visual mode and
| prepended several lines at once with a comment. After that I was
| hooked, and while I'm typically one of the only ones using pure
| vim on any team I'm on, inevitably after a year or so at the job
| people see how I use it and start asking about it.
| [deleted]
| sgt wrote:
| Incredibly sorry to hear this. The times I have seen his name..
| or thought about who this guy might be, and that he not only is a
| super programmer but also a humanitarian. Too countless to think
| about. RIP.
|
| @dang I know we don't see the black bar often but I hope it is
| possible
| gjvc wrote:
| _@dang I know we don 't see the black bar often but I hope it
| is possible_
|
| You'll be seeing it *much* more often in the coming years as
| those of the older generation -- who made such large
| contributions -- pass on.
| freedomben wrote:
| Sadly this was my thought too. It's a way to start feeling
| super old, when the first generation start to die, and very
| few of the heros of open source have. But we're all getting
| old...
| yowlingcat wrote:
| I've spent most of my schooling and career using Vim in one form
| or another. It's as close to an instrument that I don't even need
| to think about using and can just follow muscle memory as
| anything I've ever worked with.
|
| It's perhaps my most important tool as an engineer. So much of
| its design is clear as the brainchild of Bram, so hearing this
| makes me sad. I hope Bram knew how many lives he touched.
| t43562 wrote:
| How many of us will be remembered like this? Not too many, I
| imagine. I'm teaching my 8 year old daughter to use VIM. As an
| African, what he has done puts me to shame.
| enriquto wrote:
| Really sad to hear this... My first donation as a late teen to
| free software, was to the ICCF Uganda, thanks to vim's
| charityware license. It was maybe around 1997 or 98. Later
| versions of vim used a formal free software license, but still
| off-band encouraging donations to the ICCF. I've always been a
| bit skeptical to the whole concept of charity, but I respected
| Bram Moolenaar so much due to his work on vim that I trusted his
| judgement. I kept donating to the ICCF for a few years until he
| was hired at google.
|
| I was also deeply honored to see my (tiny, insignificant)
| minority language on his page for the word Mooleenar in many
| languages [0].
|
| As a matter of respect and to honour his memory, I will keep
| using the last version of vim (by his last commit [1]) as my main
| text editor for as long as humanly feasible.
|
| [0] https://www.moolenaar.net/
|
| [1]
| https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/4c0089d696b8d1d5dc40568f25...
| j13n wrote:
| Bram defined the interface I've used to express myself in so many
| ways since my early teens. His contributions to software
| development reach far beyond the $EDITOR and pervasive
| interaction patterns we're all so familiar with.
|
| Thoughts are with his friends and family right now. Rest in
| peace, Mr. Moolenaar.
|
| ZZ
| tmountain wrote:
| I am such a huge fan of Vim that I ran a Vim blog and posted
| daily tips for several years (will not mention it by name because
| I do not want to self-promote in this thread). I don't have much
| to say besides the fact that I feel like we've lost a "giant" in
| the open source world, and Bram's contributions as a software
| engineer, and more importantly, a fantastic human being, will not
| be forgotten. :help uganda
| itsmartapuntocm wrote:
| I'll do it for you, I'd be interested in reading that blog.
| bvrmn wrote:
| RIP. Vim is my main editor for 15 years already. I spend several
| hours in Vim everyday. It's so ingrained in my soul, I can't
| imagine how to work without Vim.
| passion__desire wrote:
| [flagged]
| freedomben wrote:
| A great part of this is that all up and down the stack that
| makes chatgpt, were people using vim to write the code
| phelipetls wrote:
| I probably wouldn't enjoy programming as much as I do if it
| wasn't for Vim. Thank you.
| rochak wrote:
| Hard agree. Vim made typing/editing a pure joy.
| ruuda wrote:
| I met Bram once, at an open source fair at Google's Zurich
| office. At the fair everybody could show off their projects.
| There was one person who had built some kind of AST editor/IDE,
| where the unit of editing was not the file, but functions
| floating around in a workspace. He was showing this to Bram, but
| I don't think he realized who he was talking to. When he asked
| "so, what do you think?", Bram answered "Hmm yeah, I'm more of a
| vi-type of person."
| robertlagrant wrote:
| That's a great anecdote!
| Iuz wrote:
| Quite possibly my favorite software. Rest in peace.
| marcyb5st wrote:
| As a former colleague, I remember one funny interaction with him.
| I was sitting in the same desk but on a different floor. One
| sleepy morning I tried to oust him from his desk and once I
| recognized him we ended up chatting few minutes about open source
| at Google and his involvement. Great person and as a Vim user
| forever grateful for his efforts.
| hyyypr wrote:
| Thank you Bram, you will not be forgotten. RIP
| HappyJoy wrote:
| RIP :q
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| weirdsmiley wrote:
| I had interacted with him over the mailing list a few times and
| he was always very helpful. I'll miss him.
|
| ZZ
| jrh3 wrote:
| God bless you Mr. Moolenaar. VIM is the editor that built me,
| going on 20+ years now.
|
| I only gave once several years ago to help children of Uganda. I
| will do again in his honor, https://iccf-holland.org/donate.html.
|
| :wq
| selectnull wrote:
| Rest in peace, Bram. Thank you for Vim.
| jquinby wrote:
| :wq!
|
| Eternal rest grant unto him. May perpetual light shine upon him.
| taf2 wrote:
| :wq
| sabujp wrote:
| RIP Bram, thanks for all the shortcuts!
|
| :wq!
| nperez wrote:
| I started using vim about 12 years ago during my first dev job,
| after challenging myself to learn enough of it to use it for a
| day. It's very possible that my muscle memory will retain vim
| keybindings for the rest of my life. His impact on so many people
| is the kind of thing that motivates me to write software.
| gpanders wrote:
| As a long time Vim user I'm extremely thankful for Bram's
| creation and stewardship of an incredible piece of software. He
| gave the world an amazing gift.
|
| I've interacted with Bram a few times personally in the process
| of submitting changes to Vim, and I've observed many more
| interactions with others. I always had an immense amount of
| respect for the way he led the Vim project and interacted with
| the community. It is not uncommon to see open source software
| maintainers become burnt out or frustrated, particularly with a
| piece of software as quirky and complicated as Vim. But Bram was
| almost always respectful and patient with users and contributors,
| even when they were not.
|
| This is a loss for the software world. Bram, you will be missed.
| l00sed wrote:
| Thanks for sharing!
| severino wrote:
| Very sad to read this. Thank you, Bram, and see you in another
| life!
| sph wrote:
| As an Emacs user [1] I can only say: RIP and thank you, for
| making the lives of programmers and engineers worldwide easier,
| with the healthy competition of Emacs and VIM approaches to text
| editing.
|
| You live as long as your contribution to the world, and you can
| rest assured that a large part of us will still be using modal
| editing in our mind-controlled VR spatial googles.
|
| :wq
|
| --
|
| 1: just this morning I was trying evil-mode once again...
| soulofmischief wrote:
| Sharing a piece of advice Bram gave to me once:
|
| " _It appears you think that everybody is like you. But that 's
| not so._"
|
| I didn't take the advice well at the time, but now, a little
| older and wiser, I understand.
|
| Thank you, Bram. Thank you for vim, for your time and dedication,
| and for taking the time to deposit a small amount of your wisdom
| into my brain. Sorry for being a dick.
| INTPenis wrote:
| Still to this day when I start my daily vim session I see his
| personal message to donate to the children of Uganda. I've been
| seeing this message for well over 20 years, my entire career for
| sure. What an impact to have on IT, and on the world. You're
| forever remembered Bram.
| jestarray wrote:
| at least he went out with a :wq in this world, and not a :q!
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