Vis is a terminal-based text editor that combines the modal editing approach of vi with the structural regular expressions of the sam editor. It aims to provide efficient text manipulation without the complexity of a large editing environment.
Unlike traditional vi, Vis treats selections as fundamental editing primitives. Multiple selections can be manipulated simultaneously, making it possible to apply changes across different parts of a document. Its structural regular expressions extend editing beyond the conventional line-oriented approach.
The editor concentrates on text management rather than incorporating every possible development tool. Functions such as clipboard integration, digraph handling and fuzzy file selection are delegated to separate utilities. Vis does not attempt complete compatibility with vi or Vim.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Modal editing – familiar vi-style commands and keyboard navigation.
- Multiple cursors and selections – edit several regions of text simultaneously.
- Structural regular expressions – sam-inspired command language for sophisticated text manipulation.
- Undo tree – navigate previous revisions of a text buffer.
- Unicode support – edit text containing characters from different writing systems.
- Handles arbitrary files, including large, binary and single-line files.
- Syntax highlighting – uses Parsing Expression Grammars through LPeg.
- POSIX Extended Regular Expression support for text searching.
- Clipboard integration, digraph support, file selection and word completion through external utilities.
- Lua scripting – customise editor behaviour, commands and key mappings.
- Plugin support – extend functionality through the Lua API.
- External command integration – process text using other command-line tools.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux and macOS.
Website: github.com/martanne/vis
Support: Wiki
Developer: Marc André Tanner and contributors
License: ISC License
Vis is written in C and Lua. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn Lua with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Vim-like Text Editors | |
|---|---|
| Neovim | Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability |
| Helix | Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor. |
| Lapce | Modern editor in Rust which uses native GUI and GPU rendering |
| NvChad | Neovim config aiming to provide a base configuration |
| LunarVim | IDE layer for Neovim |
| Kakoune | Implements Vi’s "keystrokes as a text editing language" model |
| Vis | Combining modal editing with structural regular expressions |
| vile | Text editor that combines aspects of the Emacs and vi editors |
| pyvim | Implementation of Vim in Python |
| gVim | Vim with a built-in GUI |
| amp | Vim-like editor written in Rust |
| Vy | Vim-like in Python made from scratch |
| moe | Command-line editor inspired by Vim |
| wig | Modal, Vim-like text editor |
| sled | Simple text editor with a terminal UI |
| red | Modern modal text editor written in Rust |
| ad | Adaptable text editor |
| hat | Hackable modal text editor |
| HAKO | Lightweight terminal-based modal text environment |
| xvi | Portable multi-file text editor |
| aretext | Minimalist text editor with vim-compatible key bindings |
| Levee | Also known as Captain Video |
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