Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition

Chapter 13. Graphical Vim (gvim)

A longtime complaint about vi and its clones was the lack of a graphical user interface (GUI). Especially for those caught up in the Emacs versus vi religious wars, vi’s lack of a GUI was the ultimate trump card to argue that vi was a nonstarter when discussing editors.

Eventually, the vi clones and “work-alikes” created their own GUI versions. Graphical Vim is called gvim. Like the other vi clones, gvim offers robust and extensible GUI functions and features. We’ll cover the most useful ones in this chapter.

Some of gvim’s graphical functionality wraps commonly used Vim features, whereas others introduce the point-and-click convenience functionality most computer users now expect. Although some veteran Vim users (this author included!) may cringe at the thought of grafting a GUI onto their workhorse editor, gvim is thoughtfully conceived and implemented. gvim offers functionality and features spanning the range of its users’ abilities, softening Vim’s steep learning curve for beginners and transparently bringing expert users extra editing power. This strikes a nice compromise.

Tip

gvim for MS Windows comes with a menu entry labeled “easy gvim.” This is indeed valuable to people who have never used Vim, but, ironically, it is anything but easy for expert users.

In this chapter we first discuss the general gvim GUI concepts and features, with a brief introductory section about mouse interaction. Additionally, we refine the discussion around differences ...