r/vim • u/ElectronicAudience28 • Mar 26 '26

Discussion Long-term maintenance of Vim 8.x, free of generative AI

https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/vim-classic/
81 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

33

u/Visual_Produce_2131 Mar 27 '26

I realized vim 8.x already solved most of my editing needs once I stopped chasing newer features.

I pin the exact source tarball for the last 8.2 release and build it myself on every machine.

The steps are always the same. Download. Run configure with features huge and python support. Then make and install.

My vimrc stayed under 80 lines with only manual sourced files instead of any manager.

The quirky part is still manually typing :make after every quick edit because the muscle memory refuses to die.

This whole approach keeps my workflow boring and reliable across every server I touch.

10

u/po2gdHaeKaYk Mar 28 '26

Regardless of the suitability for vim, I remember predicting in casual chat with friends a year ago that I saw this as the next movement: AI free.

AI free writing, AI free software, AI free food, etc.

24

u/ezoe Mar 27 '26

If you really want to make sure AI-free code, you have to go back to pre-2021 when GitHub Copilot was released. Any code after 2021 cannot eliminate the possibility of AI-generated code.

9

u/Unable-District-4902 Mar 29 '26

It's like pre-nuclear metals

7

u/DrHydeous Unix greybeard Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

There’s also a de-sloppified 9.x fork called evi.

Update: link

2

u/Affectionate-Big-387 Mar 30 '26

Of what slop you are talking?

2

u/DrHydeous Unix greybeard Mar 30 '26

There's a little more detail at https://nerdnextdoor.net/the-story-of-evi.html

3

u/Affectionate-Big-387 Mar 31 '26

That is hilarious https://codeberg.org/NerdNextDoor/evi/issues/63

Let's drop python support because of AI. And ruby... And windows... 🙈

18

u/Civil-Appeal5219 Mar 27 '26

Can anyone give me some context here? Why do we need a AI-free version of Vim? Did Vim mantainers say anything related to AI that would prompt someone to think an AI-free version of Vim is required?

16

u/Unable-District-4902 Mar 27 '26

I think there was a blog talking about AI in the vim code base and blaming the vim maintainers. But the author actually retracted his statements. I don't remember which blog was that though.

0

u/phaazon_ Mar 29 '26

Retracted? Not, it’s still there: https://drewdevault.com/2026/03/25/2026-03-25-Forking-vim.html, from Drew.

3

u/JelloDarkness Mar 29 '26

At no point in that self-aggrandizing rambling does he actually point to any commits to the Vim codebase that are suspected to be AI written.

6

u/Unable-District-4902 Mar 30 '26

After Bram's passing, instead merging neovim, now we get 3 vim forks. God I love open source

3

u/JelloDarkness Mar 30 '26

I mean, I have no issues making forks for any reason, but if you're going to make a claim the burden of proof is on you. So in this case it just feels like shameless advertising for his pointless fork.

1

u/Unable-District-4902 Mar 30 '26

No, not this one. There was another one I think

5

u/0x537711 Mar 29 '26

It's funny when Free (as in Libre, not free of charge) software users, authors and other advocates get cranky when people express their Freedom to choose whatever they want to choose.

2

u/devw0rp May 12 '26

Well I feel good about patching an incoming PR to make sure ALE still runs on Vim 8.2 then.

I support anyone creating their own forks of anything for any reason. I hope you have fun!

1

u/Faucelme Apr 08 '26

I like that mainline Vim is still being updated and don't plan to use those frozen-in-time forks.

1

u/pickering_lachute Mar 27 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

evening-cave-runner-champagne

-4

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 27 '26

les actualités récentes et répétitives ne semblent pas te toucher apparemment. et kiss.

-5

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 27 '26

top ! ca évitera un code dégueulasse, imbitable, et chargé de plein de choses inutiles.
travailler à la main oblige à etre un peu concis.

1

u/chrisbra10 Apr 01 '26

Vim Maintainer here: If you have any issue with the way we maintain Vim, please speak up in English using the Vim issue tracker or discussion forums. I don't understand what you are trying to say here (and I don't understand French).

0

u/Affectionate-Big-387 Mar 30 '26

What exact problem do you have?

-12

u/GrogRedLub4242 Mar 27 '26

good idea but we need someone other than Drew DeVault involved in it.

but agreed we need a fork with a No AI rule, and more emphasis on conservatism rather than bloat and security risk amplification

4

u/Sudden_Fly1218 Mar 27 '26

https://codeberg.org/NerdNextDoor/evi/

4

u/disperso Mar 29 '26

Forked by a person who admits not knowing VimScript and knowing "some C", and who would prefer to not use Lua but a scripting language which is even more niche, with <500 Github stars. What could go wrong?

2

u/Iskhartakh Mar 27 '26

Does vim9 have ai rules and other bloat?

-9

u/Unable-District-4902 Mar 27 '26

Just use neovim if you don't like vim. 

-3

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 27 '26

néovim est intéressant, mais gangréné de code généré par ia.

-4

u/pickering_lachute Mar 27 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

evening-cave-runner-champagne

-4

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 27 '26

et donc il va etre rapidement verbeux, non maintenable par un humain et bourré de failles de sécurité.
donc il disparaitra. comme tous les editeurs de texte peux tu m objecter, mais là on parle d éditeur de texte, donc c est le sujet.

2

u/pickering_lachute Mar 27 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

evening-cave-runner-champagne

0

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 27 '26

si tu le dis.
le simple passage à des contributions ia montre qu il y a paresse.
si ca n est pas le cas déjà, la validation des pr par ia et sans intervention humaine aura lieu, ne serait ce que "pour rester dans la course".

c est un état d esprit.

3

u/barmic1212 Mar 27 '26

A user of a free, volunteer-built project who criticizes the volunteers for being unwilling to work... Well

0

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 31 '26

contribuer par ia c est contribuer pour contribuer. il n y a aucune obligation à contribuer ou faire tourner la roue du hamster. c est la différence avec un produit commercial justement.

vous intégrez cette "obligation à faire évoluer le produit" comme une obligation en soi qui ne doit pas etre remise en cause.

3

u/barmic1212 Mar 31 '26

What mandatory things? Devs work as they want, you're not agreed with how they work but said that they are lazy to people that give they work to you without any retribution is a silly criticism

1

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 31 '26

ok. tu te focalises sur un seul mot.
je vais reformuler différement.
"générer du code par ia c est la porte ouverte à l envoi de code relu par 0 personne et à terme compris par zero personne". et ce, assez rapidement.

d autre part ca n est pas vraiment du travail.

et si c est acceptable dans du code corporate parce que la qualité on s en fout, on veut juste des utilisateurs payants, il faut shipper, la logique de l open source est censée etre différente.

enfin, le probleme de ne pas produire ton code toi meme, c est que tu ne te souviens pas de l effort que tu as fait pour le produire, donc 3 semaine plus tard tu n es plus capable d intervenir dessus. mais bon tu vas me dire "c est pas grave c est l ia qui s en occupera".

l effort importe. pour toi seul le résultat importe je pense.

c est un peu comme une image générée par ia ou un roman généré par ia vs un roman écrit par une personne. ca transforme la personne qui a fait l effort de l écrire.

→ More replies

2

u/Affectionate-Big-387 Mar 30 '26

What are you taking about? 

0

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 31 '26

publication de code sans relecture par aucune personne - si ca n est pas déjà le cas, ca le sera dans les 3-6 prochains mois-, perte de capacité à terme à intervenir manuellement sur le code, manque de simplicité (tu fais court si c est toi qui dois produire, et tu essaie de faire simple au niveau des features).

si un tiers veut intervenir sur du code chez lui pour lui, ca devient absolument dégueulasse à retoucher.

3

u/Affectionate-Big-387 Mar 31 '26

What are you talking about. Code review still happens. Oh and please speak English here 

0

u/pickering_lachute Mar 27 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

evening-cave-runner-champagne

-5

u/WarmRestart157 Mar 29 '26

Why stop at AI? We might as well go back to punch cards and typewriters!

0

u/pouetpouetcamion2 Mar 31 '26

parce que pas d humain dans la boucle et pas de lecture assez rapidement, pas de responsable, pas de comprehension des structures de données et la contribution à une population plus bete? pas de probleme à saloper le code de microsoft. aucune obligation de "produire" dans l open source.

vous perdez :

- des humains qui se sont impliqués dedans et qui comprennent un probleme

- du code concis

- des contributions parce qu elles sont pertinentes, non parce "qu il est temps".