What is the difference between vim and vi in ​​linux?

Question

vi is the most commonly used, what are the benefits of vim.

Answer 1

Vim is a text editor developed from vi. It is particularly rich in functions that facilitate programming, such as code completion, compilation, and error jumping, and is widely used among programmers. Tied with Emacs to become the most favorite editor for users of Unix-like systems.

Answer 2

vim = Vi IMproved

Now many distributions directly use vi做成vim的软连接了，如果你直接执行vi欢迎界面上显示了VIM - Vi IMproved字样，就说明你实际上用的就是vim

$ ls -l `which vi`
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  3  4 15  2015 /usr/bin/vi -> vim

Answer 3

vim has rich colors and looks comfortable,

Answer 4

The vi of most distros is vim. Some have direct symbolic links. Some have specially compiled a small version. The so-called minor version means that many functions are removed during compilation. Use ./configure --help to see it in the source code.

There are also some distros that actually use other vi clones. This is quite niche.

Answer 5

Uh~, I don’t remember the history clearly.
The main reason is that vim is an enhanced version of vi (vi improved), which has greatly enhanced the functions of vi.
There are so many improvements. If you just help a certain command, the help message will prompt vi: There is no such-and-such command or vi does not have this function.

Answer 6

The difference between Vim and vi is like the difference between IDE development tools and Notepad