Editors and their users create their own communities, no matter if the editor is open source or closed, its what editor users do. Sometimes they form communities within companies, like the Vim editor’s group of enthusiasts at Square who have announced that they have taken all the settings, shortcuts and plugins that they have created and put them all in a single repository, dubbing the project Maximum Awesome. So what’s in Maximum Awesome? Well, it’s built for Mac OS X and includes MacVim, iTerm 2, tmux and a highlighting engine. The plugins already installed include a shared clipboard between Vim and OS X, fast file opening with Sublime Text/Textmate style command-T short cuts, the NERDtree project browser pluging, Git integration and quick commenting.
Of course, it’s not the only Vim enhancement bundle. Another, more cross platform variant, which has also been around longer, is Janus Vim - it works on Linux and Mac OS X, uses MacVim from the splendid Homebrew.
Now… Vim bundles… FIGHT!… may the users win.
Oh and if you haven’t used Vim before, avoid these bundles and learn Vim’s core controls first… start by running vimtutor. Vim takes it’s zen from vi, and vi is a remarkable editor. Knowing your way around it means you’ll rarely be without an editor on any Unix or Unix-like system. Once mastered, you can move on to the bundletastic world of Janus and Maximum Awesome.
This article was imported from the original CodeScaling blog