Vim 8.0 released
Vim has long been an important tool for programmers and anyone else who needs a highly configurable text editor in Linux. And now version 8.0 of Vim has been released, according to an announcement in Google Groups.
Bram Moolenaar posted about Vim 8.0:
Hello Vim users!
Announcing: Vim (Vi IMproved) version 8.0
This the first major Vim release in ten years. There are interesting new features, many small improvements and lots of bug fixes.
Among the new features are:
- Asynchronous I/O support, channels, JSON
- Jobs
- Timers
- Partials, Lambdas and Closures
- Packages
- New style testing
- Viminfo merged by timestamp
- GTK+ 3 support
- MS-Windows DirectX support
Once you have installed Vim 8.0 you can find details about the changes since Vim 7.4.
The news about Vim 8.0 spawned a large thread in the Linux subreddit and folks there shared some humorous thoughts about it:
Jetxee: “It’s a question of feature parity with Emacs :)”
MrMetalfreak94: “It’s slowly reaching feature parity with a 10 years old version of Emacs.”
FredSanfordX: “Insert joke here about vim having already loaded, edited and saved a file before emacs presents a cursor.”
Puzl: “Emacs is the best OS lacking nothing but a good text editor.”
Ramilehti: “There’s always evil mode!”
Px403: “I understand all those words, but what do they mean in the context of VIM?
JSON support : Is VIM now an internet thing?
Lambdas : just for syntax highlighting, or fancy config files or something?
GTK+3/DirectX : Is there a 3D VR mode now or something?”
Traianvs: “Async I/O, jobs and timers will give plugin writers a lot of new options. Async I/O for code checkers/linters is huge. Direct support for packages will also help that. I have no idea about the graphics stuff though.”
Srs1978: “JSON: This allows VIM to communicate with other processes, JSON is the standard way to do so. The support is via two new functions: json_encode(), json_decode().
GTK+3 - The updated gvim to go from gtk+2 to gtk+3. It’s just a new (major) library version.
DirectX - This is used for fonts on Windows, it’s faster and is a 100% win for vim.
Lambdas - new vim script language feature, it’s a 100% bonus.”
EoinDee: “Let us have a moment of silence for all those who are still trapped in their first document.”
43ornot43: “Thank you for your thoughts. I’ve been stuck in here for 13 years. I’ve managed to figure out how to use system commands from inside vim in that time, so I’m able to send this message using curl. I’ve begun to accept my fate and am currently working to create VimOS from within vim; though I still hope to be able to quit this program one day and be reunited with my family. I hope they haven’t forgotten me.”
The 10 best password managers for Linux
Password managers can be incredibly helpful applications when you consider just how many passwords we all have to remember each day. It can be mind boggling to try to recall a password you haven’t used in a while. Fortunately, FossBytes has a helpful roundup of ten of the best Linux password managers.
Devin McElheran reports for FossBytes:
Everyone’s needs are different, and as a result there many forms of password managers. There some built into OSes or computing environments, some are built into or are add-ons for browsers, and some are standalone programs with support for specific applications. We’ll cover a little of each here.
Gnome Keyring and KWallet
Encryptr
Chrome
Firefox
LastPass
Pass
Enpass
KeyPassX
Universal Password Manager (UPM)
Figaro’s Password Manager 2 (FPM2)
Linus Torvalds loves the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition
Laptops are like anything else in life, everybody has a preference for one or another. In the case of Linus Torvalds it turns out that his favorite programming laptop is the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition.
SJVN reports for ZDNet:
I recently talked with some Linux developers about what the best laptop is for serious programmers. As a result I checked out several laptops from a programmer’s viewpoint. The winner in my book? The 2016 Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. I’m in good company. Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator, agrees. The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition, for him, is the best laptop around.
On Google+, Torvalds explained, “First off: I don’t use my laptop as a desktop replacement, and I only travel for a small handful of events each year. So for me, the laptop is a fairly specialized thing that doesn’t get daily (or even weekly) use, so the main criteria are not some kind of ”average daily use“, but very much ”travel use".
Therefore, for Torvalds, “I end up caring a lot about it being fairly small and light, because I may end up carrying it around all day at a conference. I also want it to have a good screen, because by now I’m just used to it at my main desktop, and I want my text to be legible but small.”
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