Name: iVim
Rating: 4.62657 (158 reviews)

User Reviews for iVim

4.63 out of 5

158 Ratings

3 years ago, djsnipa1chad

This is fantastic!

It’s an amazing port of Vim for iOS! There are super cool features being added at a very steady clip! I absolutely love the new font management feature that was just added. Some of the best features are behind a paywall but that’s only fair because it takes a lot of time to program and implement those features because they aren’t in core Vim and are exclusive to this version. I do wish git wasn’t locked though. Just the core functionality of git, similar to how python is available when using this app. It would be nice to be able to hack together a use for it to manage my repos and then the pay version would be the enhanced, easy to use version. I only mention this because unfortunately, for reasons, I can’t buy subscriptions from the App Store. I want to personally thank the developer(s) of this wonderful app! Your hard work is definitely appreciated. Hopefully soon I will be able to support you with a subscription because my thanks do not pay the bills.

3 years ago, harris985

best text editor on IOS

nuf said really---it's vim, what do you expect? With a keyboard on my ipadI feel like i'm right at home on my linux machine. It works seamlessly, almost too well for something on IOS. It includes all the 3000 something pages of vim documentation, all the scripting capability of vimscript, and all the customizability of vim. If you are a seasoned vim user I recommend you import your .vimrc file and whatever plugins you use regularly. Being on IOS, which sandboxes pretty much everything, some functionalitly is lost and as mentioned in other reviews: the automatic memory management on IOS causes some issues after suspending the app---it's better to save before you leave just so nothing happens to you files. It's ironic that this is objectively the best text editor on IOS, and it developed before IOS was a thing… really makes you think. Anyway TLDR; this is vim, and this is the best app on the app store. Kudos to the kind people who ported it to IOS. Thanks!

6 years ago, Alex Hinnant

A very “literal” port of a truly classic piece of software

iVim does a fantastic job at bringing the power and flexibility of VIM to iOS. However, the problem with the port is that no adjustments have been made to really fit the software into iOS. For example, the app doesn’t seem to know how to cope with iOS’s automatic memory management; if you leave the app and iOS closes it to reclaim system resources, when you open it again everything will be gone. Also, I don’t know if it’s possible or not, but at the very least I personally have not been able to get any plugins to work due to iOS’s sand boxing. Right now, with the selection for developer-oriented tools on the App Store so limited, iVim still stands out, however in my opinion it is only a stopgap. What iPad really needs is a text editor with the power and flexibility of VIM built from the ground up for iOS. Whether that’s an iOS version of Sublime Text or Atom, or something entirely new.

4 years ago, Ahayman

By Far the best

iVim has literally changed how I use an iPad. Having used Vim in some form or another over the past decade, I’d become discouraged to ever use iOS as a productivity machine. Then iOS 13.4 happened, allowing us to remap tab to escape (an essential Vim key). This combined with iVim was one of the key factors for me to purchase a new iPad Pro and use it as my primary writing device. Seriously, if you use Vim at all, iVim is an essential app. Also, the latest update fixed Sharing, allowing me to easily tap on a file in the Files app, and have it automatically open in iVim. It’s great!

2 years ago, donniepennington

Exceptional App

Just a really nice app, and I've tried just about every iPad text editing strategy known to Man over the past several years. An almost complete vim experience with no lag in the UI (compared to running vim in iSH, for example). The plugin in-app purchase is definitely worth it to get a fully customized experience (like: airline, jellybeans, CtrlP, etc.). And, it's great that patched fonts actually work. But, $5/month for "Pro" (version control) is just sad. I'm using Working Copy instead.

4 years ago, sietec

Nothing short of amazing!

iVim is, by far, the best and most comprehensive incarnation of the legendary vIM for a mobile device! In particular, on an iPad Pro and external keyboard, I feel as though I am using the "real thing" on my Mac in iTerm! For those who don't use vIM, I highly encourage you to start. In my opinion, there isn't a text editor that comes close in just about every aspect of functionality. Great job, and the constant feature additions are just an added bonus!

6 years ago, tinyapps

Blazing fast search of large text files

I tried a slew of other text editors and word processing apps, but they were all dog slow when searching a large text file. iVim search of the same file was instantaneous. I created a .vimrc file in the home directory and set it to open the same large file on every launch along with case insensitive search enabled. Simply a delight to use. Terry, thanks so much for crafting this; please consider adding a way to donate via IAP.

11 months ago, JA Morrison

brilliant for offline vim experience

ideally, i would have a perfect network connection, and I would just use mosh and work remotely on my linux boxes. But there are numerous dead zones along my (3-hour) train routes. So, ivim lets me work on my files locally with all the vim goodness, upon which I rely utterly. simply put, ivim lets me leave my large laptop at home and just take my iPad mini and a lightweight keyboard on my long commute. Easily one of my top 5 favourite apps. A tip: this is not neovim; so the new-fangled lua-plugins don't work. But I have essentially always found classic plugins and vimscript ways to do things. Ultimately, it is immensely slick-- just about indistinguishable from working on my linux workstation. Love it!

4 years ago, FryDamage

Latest Updates Make This Perfect!

The latest updates (local app directories and plugin manager) addresses the issues I had with the app the first time I used it. It was a good app, but working with Working Copy was a bit clunky. It’s a fantastic app! There’s a built in terminal that isn’t obvious, but handles all the basic file/directory manipulation you’ll need. I’m so stoked about all of this, I actually wrote a review!

6 months ago, Sandy Campbell

You really need a keyboard with an esc key

I downloaded this and tried it out. I am a very old time vi user, never really got used to any new features in vim. First problem I had on the iPad was after adding a few lines to a text file, I could not escape from insert mode. Had to quit and delete the app. Now I have to try to find out how to map the tap key to the esc key, and have no clue how to do that. I am using the Apple folding folio keyboard with my iPad and it has no esc key. I am sure there is a way to do it, but it is not obvious.

6 years ago, CL___________

Absolutely amazing!

It is an amazing app and I would definitely love to pay for it! One thing though - it would be great to have the documentation elsewhere on the Internet other than having to use ‘help ios’ and scroll down all the time. It would help the beginners immensely! Thank you so much for making this awesome app. Now I can occasionally replace my laptop with my iPad!

4 years ago, Empty B

A superb "keep your hands on the keyboard" editor

It's not hard to learn enough Vim to do basic editing. There's a great help system to help you grow into the impressive power of the editor as you continue to use it. Be sure to read the :help ios section!

4 years ago, teowo

Using vim with a touch keyboard is less of a repugnant idea than I though it would be

I’ve been more and more comfortable using vim lately, this app made my day. One thing I haven’t fuigured out is if I can turn off the pinch/zoom feature. It’s much too sensitive, especially without any dead zone and I’d rather set the font size once and then be able to two finger scroll without the font going haywire.

8 months ago, newCassel

This is my Go-To Text Editor

I've used this a lot and it's pretty robust. An external hardware keyboard is required for serious use; get the on-screen touch keyboard out of sight as quickly as possible. Ipad's sandboxing and limited file storage/access/sharing is annoying but the OS allows enough access to iVim to make it useful. I'm thankful it's available.

5 years ago, Nanocore

Adds to my iPad development machine

This app gets me one step closer to making this new iPad a development machine. My only complaint is the difficulty with getting plugins installed. Not that it can’t be done but maybe because it is so difficult to do it manually then maybe there could be something to help aid getting it setup.

3 years ago, I like to calculate

Impressive!

I used Vi at work over 3 decades ago (on a dumb terminal connected to a minicomputer). It’s been fun re-learning how to operate this powerful mode-based editor. I am very impressed with the great job the developers have done to integrate Vim into iOS/iPadOS. My compliments to these talented designers!

5 months ago, Jungejason

Love the app but hate the subscription model

I don’t use this app much, but it’s very well done. I want to own it but my usage doesn’t justify the subscription price at all.

1 year ago, sgarrison05

Awesome

This puts the original port to shame. I have yet to find any limitation. All your plugins are available! A little tricky with getting them installed but once you get the hang of it, 😎. Yhanks for this awesome app!!

4 years ago, MattfromTucson

An absolute feat

This is a truly impressive implementation of vim, beyond that which I thought possible on iOS. If you like vim and miss using it when writing on your iPad or iPhone, you owe it to yourself to download this app.

5 years ago, JeremyApp

Great but layout issues in new iPad Pro

This is a fantastic port of vim to iOS. I’d love to use it for my daily work but unfortunately it is not optimized for the new iPad Pro models, which have rounded corners that hide the cursor under the display bezel. If we can get an update to fix the layout issues, I’d happily go back to using this.

5 years ago, Mr no 2

Amazing Vim

Absolutely amazing. Simple, works well, it’s efficient, dark mode, it has everything you will ever need, and it does that well; and exceeds in it. Just what I need, works for everybody, and that’s perfect 👌

5 years ago, Escribiente

Finally Vim on iOS

This is the best port of Vim to the iOS. With an external keyboard it is undistinguishable from Vim running on MacOs. It finally allows you to work away from a computer. Thank you very much.

6 years ago, Frank Jonen

Ties in quite well with the iOS platform

It’s just nice to have a capable “everything text based” editor on the iPad. An external keyboard is needed of course but for quick searches and fixes the software keyboard works OK. It’d be really cool if the software keyboard would react to the active Vim colours.

6 years ago, EskilA

Thanks for bringing vim to ios

This really comes in handy when I need any kind of sophisticated text editing, searching etc. On my iPhone

6 years ago, nsardo

Nice!

An *especially* nice detail is the provision to map the caps lock key in settings. =) I use a Bluetooth keyboard, so that little attention to detail is most appreciated!

4 years ago, SongLi Yu

Bug: relativenumber

when I set the relativenumber, it didn’t show the current located number, insdead of zero constant.

7 years ago, JackTan110

This works much better than other Vim versions

Thanks for a great version.

7 years ago, fantasiwei

best version now

I entered a wrong password and save the gibberish. Anyway to recover the original file?

3 years ago, Mlk1952

Love VI…

Hello thanks for adding to IOS. Currently doesn’t seem to work with Apple Keyboard for new Ipad. Is this something you can add?

4 years ago, p.cox

Thankful to have it

Best way I’ve found to use Vim on iPad.

4 years ago, B.A.T. S*cks

Need reading mode, i.e. to hide the keyboard, please!

10 months ago, CliffSpencer

Can’t see command line

The keyboard obscures the command line at the bottom of the screen. When you hide the keyboard, it immediately reappears. Either I’m missing something or the app is somewhat unusable.

5 years ago, addiszx12345

Amazing

I’m learning vim and his is very handy.

6 years ago, Errat1c

Really Good Port!

Already love vim, its great to see a good port on the app store!

3 years ago, Erik Youngdahl

Why does it need to access the internet so I can edit text?

See title.

6 years ago, ToolGuy

Excellent port, extremely useful

I’ve tried most, perhaps all of the previous attempts at porting vi/vim to the iOS ecosystem. While I think it would be rude to complain about “free” software — especially since other attempts have been labors of love with usually a sizeable investment of time, I always found that the trade offs outweighed the advantages. This version changes that equation dramatically. As far as I can tell so far, pretty much everything works as expected. This is no small thing. I first learned “vi” almost 40 years ago and it has always been my editor of choice. I’ve tried many, many newer and supposedly more powerful editors with all sorts of bells and whistles, but I just can’t overcome decades of muscle memory when my brain shifts into “coding mode”. Previous ports always seemed to get much or even most of the functionality but would be missing just enough features that would drive me crazy when my brain was on autopilot and an expected action didn’t happen. This is not to say that earlier attempts weren’t pretty good. But to take full advantage of them, I would have had to adjust to their limitations and differences — which was not acceptable. Literally, the PRIMARY reason I’ve always stayed with vi/vim is because it is the same (and freely available) on all platforms, and my job efficiency was helped immeasurably by this fact. I haven’t tried everything yet, and honestly, I don’t expect perfection (vim is pretty huge and comprehensive), but as far as I can tell, all of the major functionality is there. In addition, iOS specific features such as touch and even dictation have been integrated smoothly. I’m very pleased and impressed. Just wish there was an IAP option to give the developer a “tip”. I really want this app to continue to be available and supported.

5 years ago, karakira

made me love vi/vim

i am a commonlisp hacker (emacs!) and this program has turned my textuality bicurious!

3 years ago, knavels

perfect but...

python-mode plugin installed but got error while loading

2 years ago, BoogerMoroni

a first rate port of vim to ios

there’s so much to love about this port of vim to ios. if you’re looking for something that will just work with the bare elements to do a little bit of code editing via working copy or loving the Files integration. this is where it’s at.

2 years ago, Just Your Usual Reviewer

Terrific feature-packed port of vim

Apple's restrictions around what an iOS app that is published on the App Store is allowed to do make it very hard to build a tool like this with full capability. iVim is about as close as you can get and it does a very good job of bridging native iOS capabilities with standard workflows and tooling. Hardware keyboard capabilities are excellent (although there are some flaws and limitations). Clipboard integration is very good. Integration to the iOS filesystem, cloud filesystems, and remote filesystems is great. It can be launched as the default editor from Files.app, which is wonderful. The shell emulation is a bit wonky and limited due to using an out-of-date scaled-down version of the ios_system framework but it's still miles better than everything else I've tried. The Python interpreter works pretty well with pure Python modules. There's a URL scheme for invoking commands from other apps or shortcuts. There are minor issues: the status line is disabled but the space isn't used for a line of text. The git integration is locked behind a subscription payment and is GUI-only. SSH and SCP capabilities are present but a bit limited. Certain key chords can't be mapped. There's an app focus bug that keeps coming back. pip3 sometimes doesn't work without some manual intervention. I'm happy to give iVim a 5-star review in spite of these things because it's head and shoulders above every text editor available on iOS. It's truly the best editor on the App Store by a long shot. I spend half my day in iVim and adore it. The plugin manager and session restoration capabilities are small one time purchases and well worth it. iVim is absolutely the best way to make full use of your iOS device within App Store

4 years ago, Mc7859

Absolutely indispensable editor for iOS/iPadOS

I've been creating code & documentation of all sorts for more than 40 years, and if there's one tip I can offer, it's this: If you do any amount of typing stuff (code, documentation, notes, logs, etc.) and you aren't using a modal editor, you should be (no gasoline on the Vim/Emacs flame war here...). If you are, and you chose Vim, then you need iVim. That's it. I'm done.

7 years ago, Michael Goerz

By far the best Vim app

The recent option to map caps-lock to escape puts this app in a whole new category. This is the only truly practical version of vim on the iPad (as opposed to the proof-of-concept original by Applidium). For online use, Blink.sh and running vim remotely is still somewhat superior.

Description

iVim is a project that brings the vim editor to the iOS system. It is open source, please visit the App Support URL. Font management Besides some system and embedded monospace fonts, iVim allows users to import and use their own custom fonts. Moreover, iVim supports to render ligatures if your font provides beautiful ones. Extended keyboard By introducing compact buttons, iVim covers as many keys as possible in its extended keyboard, so that you can input symbols without switching among key groups. Moreover, you can customize it to meet your own special needs. Multistage language input iVim adds support to multistage input languages such as Chinese or Japanese. Sharing Through sharing, iVim makes its editing power available to more apps. Via the share extension, iVim can import text or text files from, or export to other apps. Via the document picker, you can also import or edit files or directories in iCloud Drive or documents providers, without leaving iVim. External hardware keyboard iVim supports external hardware keyboards well, just connect your favorite one to the device and start typing. With the native modifier keys mapping option from the system, you can even make the "caps lock" key act both as "ctrl" and "esc" in iOS 13.4 and above. External commands iVim includes some useful external commands that you are familiar with and integrates powerful scripting languages such as Python and Lua. With +terminal feature enabled and a simple shell named "ivish" included, you can run the commands in terminal windows like on a computer. Plugins management (In App Purchase required) iVim provides a plugins manager, "iplug", for you to install and manage plugins easily. Version control (iVim Pro required) iVim has native version control system integrated into its UI and workflow, you get better idea of what is happening to your files, make changes with more confidence, and collaborate in editing more conveniently than ever. iVim Pro iVim provides a monthly subscription (with an introductory 1 week free trial), named "iVim Pro", enabling extra great features: - native version control Subscriptions will be charged to your Apple ID account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscriptions in Account Settings on App Store after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if any, will be forfeited when the user purchase a subscription. Terms of Use: https://github.com/terrychou/docs/blob/master/ivim-terms-of-use.md Privacy Policy: https://github.com/terrychou/docs/blob/master/ivim-privacy-policy.md Type ":help ios" in iVim for more detailed information.