Bram Moolenaar facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bram Moolenaar
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Moolenaar in 2007
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| Born | 1961 Lisse, Netherlands
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| Died | 3 August 2023 (aged 61–62) |
| Known for | Vim, ICCF Holland |
| Awards | NLUUG Awards |
Bram Moolenaar (1961 – 3 August 2023) was a Dutch software engineer and activist who was the creator, maintainer, and benevolent dictator for life of Vim, a vi-derivative text editor. In addition to his work on Vim, Moolenaar was an advocate for ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization supporting AIDS victims in Uganda, and used the popularity of Vim to encourage users to donate to the organization.
From July 2006 until September 2021, Moolenaar was employed by Google working in the Zürich office. He was able to spend part of his time maintaining Vim.
Life and career
Early life and education
In 1985, Moolenaar graduated from the Delft University of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering.
Vim
In 1988, Moolenaar purchased an Amiga computer. Familiar with vi, which had not been ported to the Amiga at the time, he tested several clones of vi, including Stevie. Moolenaar took the source code of Stevie and improved upon it. Seeking to match vi, Moolenaar eventually added in additional features, such as undoing multiple levels. The first version of "Vi IMitation" was released in 1988 on a public domain disk set made by Fred Fish. Several users ported Vim onto other platforms, such as MS-DOS and Unix. In version 1.22 in 1992, Vi IMitation was renamed to "Vi IMproved".
Vim is open-source and charityware; users are encouraged to donate to ICCF Holland. A number of other applications have been licensed this way since Vim's inception. Vim has won several awards and has been referred to as one of the most popular text editors.
Other ventures
Other software tools that Moolenaar has developed include a software build tool written in Python, called A-A-P, which is similar to make, and a programming language called Zimbu which puts an emphasis on readability of programs.
Moolenaar was a member of the Dutch Unix user group, NLUUG, which presented him with an award during its 25th anniversary, for his creation of Vim and his contributions to open-source software in general.
Charity
Moolenaar was an advocate of ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization for AIDS victims based in Kibaale, Uganda. In 1994, he volunteered as a water and sanitation engineer for the Kibaale Children's Centre. Since 1996, he has made several return trips. In 1995, he made Vim charityware. An estimated US$2,000 was raised for ICCF Holland in 1997, followed by US$4,000 a year later. In 1999, donation income totaled approximately US$7,000.
Death
On 5 August, Moolenaar's family announced in the Vim Google Group that Moolenaar had died on 3 August. His funeral will be held in the Netherlands.
See also
In Spanish: Bram Moolenaar para niños
