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What is MacVim?

MacVim is a port of the text editor Vim to Mac OS X that is meant to look better and integrate more seamlessly with the Mac than the existing Carbon port of Vim. Here is a list of some of its features:

Safari style tabs, Multiple windows, Toolbar, Transparent backgrounds

GUI Dialogs

Use keyboard shortcuts, no need to reach for the mouse anymore!

Multibyte

With automatic font substitution for wide characters (or set your own with 'gfw').

And more...

• Keyboard bindings to standard Mac OS X short-keys (such as Cmd-z, Cmd-g, Cmd-o, etc.)
• Extensive help files
• Font panel: access to all of your fonts via the standard OS X font panel, proportional fonts render with fixed advancement
• Input Methods for non-English keyboard input
• Full-screen editing
• ODB Editor protocol support
• Client/Server: use the --remote switch on the command line to open files; script the server with remote_send() et al

How to get MacVim

The latest snapshot build is available as a binary download on this page, just click on the link above and to the right. The snapshot is a universal binary that runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. Please note that MacVim is still under development and that new snapshots are released fairly often, which means they have not been thoroughly tested and are not guaranteed to work as expected (save often).

The MacVim source code is available from a public Git repository. Check out the documentation on how to get and compile the source if you wish to build your own binary. Please consider contributing to the MacVim project if you are able.

MacVim is available under the Vim Charityware license, type ":h license" inside MacVim for details.

How to get started

If you need help getting started with Vim then the following Vim introduction and tutorial may be of help. Also, if you've never used Vim and need some convincing before learning a new editor, then the following page may help sway you. (These are by no means the only Vim tutorials out there...use your preferred search engine to find more.)

Vim comes bundled with a tutor which can be quite helpful to go through since it encourages you to experiment as you read. At the moment it requires some trickery to get going, but once there it should be easy to follow. The tutor is a text file which needs to be copied to a folder where it can be modified. To copy the tutor to your home folder, open MacVim and type (make sure you are in normal mode first by hitting Esc):

:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/tutor/tutor ~/

then hit enter. This will place a file named tutor in your home folder. Now, to start the tutor simply open that file in MacVim, e.g. by pressing Cmd-O to show the file open dialog and then browsing to the tutor file.

How to get help

There is a fairly active mailing list called vim_mac where you can post questions about MacVim. Before posting a question, you should consult the FAQ, search the vim_mac archives, and consult the built-in Vim help by typing ":h macvim" inside MacVim.

Since the snapshot is always a couple of versions behind the source code it is also possible that any problems you encounter may already have been fixed. Check the change log for the latest updates to the source code.

Help me!

If you find a bug, then please file an Issue report but first make sure that it has not already been reported by searching for old Issues. Unless you are absolutely sure that you have really found a bug you should probably post a question on the vim_mac mailing list first. (Note that there are several people answering questions on the mailing list whereas there is only one of me responding to Issue reports.)