Vim 9.0 arrives with a new scripting language and plugins, improvements and more

Vim

Recently the release of the new version of Vim 9.0 was announced, a version in which a series of quite interesting improvements have been implemented, of which we can highlight, for example, a new scripting language and complements, as well as new color schemes, new configurations and more.

For those who do not know about Vim, they should know that this is a cross-platform text editor extremely customizable inspired by vi software, a popular text editor on UNIX systems. The main feature both Vim and Vi consists in that they have different modes between which to alternate to perform certain operations, which differentiates them from most common editors, which have only one mode in which commands are entered using key combinations or graphical interfaces.

Vim has excellent documentation in text format, it is very broad and easy to understand. The user can access it by searching the description of various functionalities that can solve their problem. By highlighting the Vim help syntax, keywords are highlighted.

Main new features of Vim 9.0

In this new version of Vim 9.0 that is presented, it is highlighted that introduces a new scripting language and plugins, Vim9 Script, which provides syntax similar to JavaScript, TypeScript, and Java. The new syntax is easier to learn for beginners, but not backwards compatible of the old scripting language. At the same time, support for the previously used language and support for existing plugins and scripts are fully preserved: old and new languages ​​are supported side by side.

In addition to reworking the syntax, Vim9 Script supports compiled functions which can significantly increase performance. In tests, functions compiled to bytecode allowed to increase the speed of execution of the script between 10 and 100 times.

Also, Vim9 Script stopped processing function arguments as associative arrays, which caused a lot of overhead. Functions are now defined with a "def" statement and require an explicit list of arguments and return types. Variables are defined by the expression "var" with an explicit type specification.

On the other hand, it is also highlighted that splitting expressions on several lines no longer requires backslashes, in addition to the fact that the error handling mechanism has been completely redesigned and that the functions do not require the «call» keyword to execute, but « let” to assign values.

Also noteworthy in the simplified module creation was the ability to export individual functions and variables for use in other files. Comments are separated by "#" instead of double quotes.

Of the others changes that stand out from this new version of Vim 9.0:

  • Class support is planned for future releases.
  • Includes a set of color schemes.
  • Improved support for spell checking and input completion.
  • Added new settings: 'autoshelldir', 'cdhome', 'cinscopedecls', 'guiligatures', 'mousemoveevent', 'quickfixtextfunc', 'spelloptions', 'thesaurusfunc', 'xtermcodes'.
  • Added new commands: argdedupe, balt, def, defcompile, disassemble, echoconsole, enddef, eval, export, final, import, var, and vim9script.
  • The ability to open the terminal in a popup window (popup terminal) and select the color scheme of the terminal is provided.
  • Added LSP (Language Server Protocol) server interaction channel mode.
  • Added support for the Haiku operating system.

Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it about this new version of Vim 9.0, you can check the details In the following link.

How to install Vim 9.0 on Linux?

For those interested in installing this new version, They will be able to do it by executing any of the following commands according to their system.

For those who are Ubuntu users and derivatives, they can do this by adding the following repository to the system and performing the Vim installation. The commands are the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/vim-daily

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt install vim

In the case of those who are Arch users Linux and derivatives:

sudo pacman -S vim

Flatpak

flatpak install flathub org.vim.Vim

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