Vim is a text editor first introduced by Bram Molinar in 1991 for Amiga PCs. But then it moved to several operating systems. This software was first introduced as Vi IMitation, which was later renamed Vi IMproved. The reason for naming this software is that Vim was developed as a VIA editor developer. Molinar encourages users to donate to charity to support Ugandan children. Here, we want to teach you How to Install Vim Text Editor on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step. 

Introduction to Vim

Vim is a powerful text editing software. This version has a graphical environment and can be run in the terminal. Gvim is one of the most popular graphical environments of this editor, which provides the user with header features, etc. Vim is one of the most popular old text editors for Linux and Linux VPS. This software is older than Linux itself.

The Vim text editor is a modal editor. That is, we have different modes in it. For example, when you press the i button in Vim, it may print the letter i or take you to insert mode.

Vim has three modes:

1- Command mode: In this case, every button that is entered from the keyboard is interpreted as a command.

2- Insert mode: In this case, each button that is inserted in the character editor corresponds to that button.

3- Visual mode: In this mode, all visual tasks such as highlighting and selecting a part of the text can be done.

Key Features of Vim Text Editor

Vim has the ability to exchange messages with other processes in the background. This feature allows servers to work and restore the result to Vim. Another feature of Vim is JSON support. JSON is capable of supporting all programming languages on the server. As a result, with this feature, you can easily write very complex plugins in any language and run them in separate processes. Vim can do many things automatically. For example, typing three letters can delete five words, and is very useful for people who have used Vim for a long time, such as developers.

Install Vim Text Editor on Ubuntu 20.04

To install Vim Text Editor on Ubuntu, you can follow the steps below. It should be noted that, in this section, you will learn how to install Vim using both Git and PPA methods.

First, update your system by following the instructions below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Now, you can install Vim Text Editor from Git according to the following commands:

sudo apt install git 

git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git

cd vim

./configure

sudo apt install ncurses-dev

sudo yum install ncurses-devel

make

sudo make install

In the second method, you can install Vim using the PPA repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/vim

sudo apt update

sudo apt install vim

Finally, you can verify the installation of Vim by executing the following command:

vim --version

How to Use Vim Text Editor on Ubuntu 20.04

After confirming the installation of Vim, you can now easily use Vim with the following commands:

vi file.c

vim file.c

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

Troubleshooting Vim on Ubuntu

Vim is a popular and powerful text editor, but it can have its quirks and issues, especially for new users. Here are some common Vim issues on Ubuntu and their solutions:

1- Vim can be slow on certain systems

Solution:

Try disabling plugins in your ~/.vimrc temporarily to identify if a specific plugin is causing the slowness. You can also try using Neovim as it is designed to be faster and more extensible than Vim.

2- Vim does not highlight syntax by default

Solution:

You can enable syntax highlighting by running ‘syntax enable‘ within Vim or by adding syntax enable to your ~/.vimrc file.

3- Line numbers are not displayed

Solution;

Enable line numbers by running ‘set number’ within Vim or by adding the set number to your ~/.vimrc.

Conclusion

Vim needs a lot of practice to become proficient. Once you master it, you will see how much faster and more efficient things are done. In this article, we tried to teach you how to install Vim on Ubuntu 20.04. You can successfully install Vim by executing the above commands. For more useful information and tips, we recommend using our step-by-step tutorial. You can also contact us via message in the comments section.