Vi(m) just gets better by jtr · review - 2 May 2004, 18:59

Today I discovered vimspell, a spell checker for vi (okay, it is really for ‘vim’, but I prefer typing ‘vi’). It works similarly to a popular word processor. As one types, mispelled words are highlighted and underlined. I am a very good speller (being a grammar snob and using proper English – even in everyday ‘chitchat’) so it only helps me when my ~60wpm fingers do not notice they hit the wrong key(s). The world’s fastest and best text editor just got better (well, this tool may be old, but *I* just found it…).

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  1. Old in a certain sense: CoolEdit had that feature back in the 2.x series, as I recall. Since discovering Nedit I’ve stopped using CoolEdit; for console work I still favor Joe (now version 3.0!) which just began offering syntax highlighting—something vim had long ago. :-)
    — Ed Hurst    May 2, 10:40 PM    #
  2. nano! nano! nano!
    — Eric Pell    May 4, 12:07 AM    #
  3. I forgot to mention I believe there is a huge difference between tools coders want, which I am not, and tools that writers want, which I pretend to be. Vim and nano are terrible for writers, though Gvim with Cream is getting there. *nixland text editors are almost entirely for coders, so when a project presents features more appropriate to word processing, and it’s not too complicated, they have my undying gratitude.
    — Ed Hurst    May 4, 12:25 PM    #
  4. Eric is right. Nano is the best… vim, well, it isn’t. :-P
    — Timothy R. Butler    May 4, 11:53 PM    #
  5. Yeah, yeah. If I sit down in front of a Linux or UNIX system, I know vi (or vim) is available. Nano? Dunno.
    — jtr    May 5, 01:25 PM    #
  6. Emacs is good for writers and coders.
    — Ed Heil    May 22, 10:14 AM    #
  7. I installed the spell checker, but uninstalled it again after just a few minutes of testing. When you paste in a large block of text (which I often do) it can take 10-15 seconds to parse it for spelling errors. Normally it’s instantaneous. Bummer, it’s a cool idea. :)
    — topher    May 24, 09:36 AM    #