A text editor is a program that allows you to write and edit plain text files, which exclusively consist of character representation and contain no other information than the text itself.

A word processor, on the other hand, is a program that allows you to write and edit rich text files, which contain characters, but also metadata, character and paragraph formatting data (e.g. font size, color, alignment), and page specification data.

Unlike rich text files, plain text files are mainly used by developers for writing code, scripts, programs, and configuration files.

Text editors can either be standalone visual programs such as VSCode, or command line programs accessible through the shell such as Vim.

Note that since Vim is a complex editor with hundreds of available shortcuts and commands, this lesson will only cover the most common ones that you are likely to use on a regular basis.

Installing Vim

To check whether Vim is already installed on your system, you can output its version number using the vim command:

$ vim --version

Installing Vim on Linux

To install Vim on Linux, you need to first update the package information from all the configured sources using the apt update command:

$ sudo apt update

Then use the apt install command:

$ sudo apt install vim

Installing Vim on macOS

To install Vim on macOS, you can use the brew install command:

$ brew install vim