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by dylnclrk 4493 days ago
Was Vim a complete rewrite of Vi?
2 comments

Lots of things were a complete rewrite of vi. Vi was a complete rewrite of ex. ex was a rewrite of em, which was in turn a rewrite of ed, which was a rewrite of qed.

Trying to rewrite vim is the wrong approach. Trying to replace it in a backward-compatible way, the way vim did to vi might received a lot better.

Good thing then that they aren't rewriting vim.
Vim started as a Vi clone for the Amiga and later grew to include more features and target more systems.