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0 pointsjonaustin3y ago0 comments

Vim has been around long enough that I'd argue it's just as much owned by the community at this point.

0 comments

I just checked the repo[0], and it says Bram has authored 95% of all commits to Vim. To say "the community owns Vim" when they've done ~5% of the work reminds me of group projects in school where one person does all the work and everyone else claims credit.

[0] https://github.com/vim/vim

animal_spirits3y ago

For a while Bram would copy paste all proposed changes from other peoples branches to his own branches and therefore giving himself the git-blame for the code. I think only recently he started allowing other people to actually maintain the repo.

kelnos3y ago

I'm not sure this is because no one wants to contribute. I think it's more because Moolenar prefers to do the work himself, and doesn't like to accept much in the way of contributions from others. He's certainly allowed to run his project that way, but I can see why it might turn some people off.

LeonidasXIV3y ago

Which is yet again contrasted with how NeoVim runs things and the 824 contributors to the repository at time of writing. I believe that justinmk, one of the principal drivers of the project specifically stated that he doesn't want to be something like a BDFL and I assume that's also pretty much a reaction to Vim.

j16sdiz3y ago

for a long time vim do send patch over email, and the git history did not preserve the original author info

wirrbel3y ago

Understandable in SVN times, but lack of Attribution in git times

viccuad3y ago

One is not a better parent by controlling their kids for their foreseeable future. One needs to let them join the world and grow on their own, with their own friends.

usrbinbash3y ago

vim is open source, so everyone who wants can fork the repo and change the code however he pleases.

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self_awareness3y ago

If you use something for a long time, this doesn't make you an owner of it.

webkike3y ago

You can argue that, but what would that even mean? Forceful requisition of his website and private keys?

calvinmorrison3y ago

Godwin's Law of HN, soon enough someone will chime in that European Regulators should force someone to do something for the dubious good of the public

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