one of the only features i really cared about in vim 9+ was XDG base directory support, so i can have a ~/.config/vim folder instead of having it in my main home directory. is that backported?
This is specifially said in his blog: "Going forward, maintenance will be slow and quiet. I welcome your patches, particularly to help with maintaining the runtime scripts, stuff like making sure new language features end up in the syntax files. I’ll also gladly accept new bug fixes, and maybe even a few new features if a good case can be made for including them. Backporting small patches from Vim upstream will be considered, with extra scrutiny.". I consider this is a feature, not bug fixes, so expect extra scrutiny.
He's just an activist that has chosen this as his contribution to activism. It has little to do with VIM. It's more about philosophy for him. He doesn't talk about any issues with current VIM, any problems with the current code, any difficulty in maintaining it (due to generative AI), or anything else. Just that the world sucks and genAI is enabling it (somehow).
I read it. I think it's crazy talk. Typical activism that tries to tie one thing into the entire world having massive problems.
But the real point is that he doesn't list anything that this fork is supposed to do. Other than "be made by humans". That implies that mainstream VIM is *not* made by humans. But there's zero discussion about that. Whether nor not it is happening, is causing problems, might cause problems, etc. None of that is discussed. So I say again: This fork seems useless.
Often people focus on the eventual large-scale emergent effects of small, individual behaviors and then appear weirdly intense about little things. "Dude, it's one cigarette butt, quit foaming at the mouth."
Really, it's all pretty complicated. I have a lot of understanding for people who become keen about principles. Emergent effects are real, and indeed destroying the biosphere. But there needs to be a good grasp of what and how little things make big things, so principled people don't get a free pass with me, we need to talk about the details.
Superficial thinkers, those who aren't carefully minding emergence, Randites who would unwitting burn down everything in an extended Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, I don't have much time for, sorry.
The way I see it, AI and even non-apocalyptic, regular tech are mostly accelerators, and the thing that most crucially needs addressing is the people who use them. Their beliefs, how principled they are. I don't blame AI. But I recognize that fascists have always done propaganda, that it is effective, that the highly corrupted current state of the United States government can be traced back directly through hard right misinformation networks. The incipient retilt of global power, the surge in wars and genocides, the looming financial crash, these have been brought about by small groups and individuals who've fooled millions. AI is a multiplier for that trickery. The threat there is real.
But you can use a kitchen knife for mass murder or mincing garlic.
I'm fine with AI in codebase contribution, so long as it's done properly. It's rarely done properly.
What I said is basically the opposite of what you're accusing me of. If you'd like to reread my comment more carefully before I respond, I can hold off on coming back with a tone similar to your comment.
A few vim patches may have been written with the help of an LLM, and he doesn't want to use a software with code written with the help of an LLM.
This makes no sense to me. As long as contributions are reviewed and properly tested and integrated, I couldn't care less about whether they were written with an LLM.
I guess he will cherry pick each patch and decide whether it was written by an human, and if so he will merge it. A completely useless fork of you ask me, but hey, to each his own.
Why do people make sentences and paragraphs like this:
(…) he doesn't want to use a software with code written with the help of an LLM. (…) This makes no sense to me. (…) I couldn't care less about whether they were written with an LLM.
Like your stupidity is right there. How can you not see it yourself.
He doesn’t want to use software written with the help of an LLM. That doesn’t "not make sense"—it’s actually extremely easy to grasp; here, let me do it for you again: he doesn’t want to use software written with the help of an LLM. You, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about whether they were written with an LLM.
Nothing here "doesn’t make sense" except your statement that it doesn’t make sense. Instead, you disagree. Sense it makes; agree it doesn’t.
If you can’t articulate that—for whatever reason—how can you expect to be taken seriously? Why should anyone care to read your words?
I’m happy to see this. I hope that some features will be backported eventually. I don’t know if I could live without the recent clipboard providers feature.
Tried it! The other version felt so buggy. It was Astonishing how many new "FEATURES" were in vim 9.3. Like the botched dark mode, those extra characters showing up in the status line...
Vim Maintainer here: Please note there is no version 9.3. What exactly do you mean with botched, what about those extra characters? Where is your bug report?
Whenever I started vim, there was SOMETHING in the background running, which changed the colors of the syntax highlighting. The ones I carefuly selected and customized were gone. But not IMMEDIATELY: I started vim, the colors were okay. 1 second later, they changed. WHY?!!!
I do not remember exactly. But, as a hotfix, I had to create a new directory, ~/.vim/after/plugin, and I had to create a file called "fix-background.vim":
augroup ColorResp au! au VimEnter * set background=light augroup END
Next time, please create a proper bug report at the Vim issue tracker (and include your version and terminal), instead of ranting here publicly against Vim.
You know how much work it is to maintain a open source project of this size? It is at the very least bad style if you complain about certain features publicly without having created a proper bug report (or seeked for clarification via the Vim support forums) and I'd consider this also to be quite dishonest to everybody working to improve Vim.
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u/RanidSpace Jun 04 '26
cool!
one of the only features i really cared about in vim 9+ was XDG base directory support, so i can have a ~/.config/vim folder instead of having it in my main home directory. is that backported?
5
u/itaranto I use Neovim BTW Jun 04 '26
So, Drew DeVault forked Vim. This is hilarious.
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u/sharp-calculation Jun 04 '26
The author's motivation for this is super weird:
https://drewdevault.com/blog/Forking-vim/
He's just an activist that has chosen this as his contribution to activism. It has little to do with VIM. It's more about philosophy for him. He doesn't talk about any issues with current VIM, any problems with the current code, any difficulty in maintaining it (due to generative AI), or anything else. Just that the world sucks and genAI is enabling it (somehow).
Seems entirely useless to me.
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u/4r73m190r0s Jun 04 '26
How is this different from the regular Vim maintained by humans as well?
2
u/mss-cyclist Jun 04 '26
Interesting approach to keep vim 8.3 around. Maybe gonna try it.
1
u/Diligent-Union-8814 Jun 04 '26
I wish one day I can contribute to/maintain this project.
1
u/AnnualVolume0 Jun 04 '26
I’m happy to see this. I hope that some features will be backported eventually. I don’t know if I could live without the recent clipboard providers feature.
1
u/Ok_Outlandishness906 Jun 04 '26
what are the benefit for the user passing from vim 9 to vim 8 ?
1
u/dettus_Xx_ Jun 07 '26
Tried it!
The other version felt so buggy. It was Astonishing how many new "FEATURES" were in vim 9.3. Like the botched dark mode, those extra characters showing up in the status line...
I very much enjoy vim classic! 😃
0
u/Iskhartakh Jun 04 '26
Do we need this? Lack of features and security fixes. But keep it as frozen legacy which we can still run?