![Vimlogo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Vimlogo.svg)
Bram Moolenaar (born 1961,
Lisse
Lisse () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Western Netherlands. The municipality, which lies within the Duin- en Bollenstreek, covers an area of of which is water. Its population was in . Located within the muni ...
) is a Dutch
computer programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
and an active member of the
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
community. He is the original author, maintainer,
release manager, and
benevolent dictator for life of
Vim,
a
vi-derivative text editor that is very popular among programmers and
power user
A power user is a user of computers, software and other electronic devices, who uses advanced features of computer hardware, operating systems, programs, or websites which are not used by the average user. A power user might not have extensive tec ...
s. From July 2006 until September 2021 Moolenaar was employed by
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
working in the
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
office. He was able to spend part of his time maintaining Vim.
Charity work and awards
Moolenaar is an advocate of the
ICCF ICCF may stand for:
* International Conference on Cold Fusion, also known as "International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science"
* International Conservation Caucus Foundation
* International Correspondence Chess Federation
* Internati ...
charity, encouraging people to support orphans in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
. He pioneered a methodology called
charityware
Careware (also called charityware, helpware, or goodware) is software licensed in a way that benefits a charity. Some careware is distributed free, and the author suggests that some payment be made to either a nominated charity, or a charity of th ...
through
Vim. The software itself is available for free, but it encourages the user to donate to the programmer's favorite charity. A number of other applications have been licensed this way since the inception of this concept. The opening "splash" screen for Vim encourages support of ICCF.
Moolenaar has been a member of the Dutch Unix user group,
NLUUG
NLUUG (formerly known as The Netherlands Local Unix User Group) is an association of professional UNIX / Linux users in the Netherlands. The group aims to increase and extend the awareness and use of Open Standards (including UNIX) and similar op ...
, which presented him with an award during its 25th anniversary, for his creation of Vim and his contributions to open source software in general.
Vim
![VIM splash](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/VIM_splash.png)
The Vim editor started as "Vi IMitation" on the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
in 1988, but was later relabeled "Vi IMproved" and ported to many other platforms. As
vi was a popular editor amongst programmers and system administrators, initially there was doubt whether Bram's 'improved' version could achieve the quality and fan following of the original. But since its first release for Unix systems in 1992, Vim has effectively eclipsed the original Vi, having won several awards and has been referred to as one of the most popular text editors.
Other software
Other software tools that Moolenaar has developed include a software build tool written in
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
, called A-A-P, which is similar to
make
Make or MAKE may refer to:
* Make (magazine), a tech DIY periodical
*Make (software), a software build tool
*Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert
*Make Architects
Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in Londo ...
, and a programming language called Zimbu
[Moolenaar, B.]
"the Zimbu programming language"
Retrieved on 16 March 2014 which puts an emphasis on readability of programs. Amongst all of Moolenaar's contributions to the field of computer science, the Vim editor remains his most prominent and widely used application.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moolenaar, Bram
1961 births
Living people
Dutch computer programmers
Free software programmers
Google employees
Vi
Delft University of Technology alumni
People from Lisse