What is the difference between MacVim and Vim?

vim vi macvim
Kevin picture Kevin · Mar 25, 2011 · Viewed 9.8k times · Source

I am trying to get started using VIM on OSX but I am having trouble trying to see which one I should use? I can go to terminal and type vim and the editor comes up, but I have also been reading up online and some people say to use MacVim. I am not sure on what the difference is between the built in vim and MacVim.

Answer

Raimondi picture Raimondi · Mar 25, 2011

The Vim that ships with OS X is outdated and doesn't come with a GUI, if you care about that. MacVim is current and you can use it from the terminal as well, you just have to install the mvim utility that comes with it and make a symlink named vim that points to mvim. See :h mvim in MacVim.

Related questions

vim "modifiable" is off

Trying to create a new file with nerd tree. I hit the a key to create a new file and i get the message: E21: Cannot make changes, 'Modifiable' is off I'm using MacVim and Janus (almost out of the …

Read More
Execute a script directly within vim/mvim/gvim

TextMate has a nice feature that allows you to execute a script from within the current context and shows you the output in a separate window. This lets you write and test code on the go. I'm almost certain there …

Read More
Opening a directory in vim

I'm a mac user giving vim a serious try. Most of the GUI editors I'm used to allow me to open a directory as a "project" by executing a command like: edit ~/www/example.com/ The vim equivalent vim ~/www/…

Read More