---
title: "The True History of Vi"
categories: vim
abstract: A short story about how we got the most important editor of all time
date: 2023-03-01T10:57:34+01:00
year: 
draft: false
tags:
- ed
- ex
- vi
- vim
- neovim
- landuke
---
[Landuke](https://lunduke.substack.com/p/the-true-history-of-vi) returns with a brief history of how Vi, the editor, came to be. I learned a lot!

> People don't know that vi was written for a world that doesn't exist anymore.

And the picture that explains it all. It all makes sense now!

{{<img-center "adm-3a-kb.webp" "The keyboard layout of the ADM-3A." "https://lunduke.substack.com/p/the-true-history-of-vi">}}

> While vi may have initially only been distributed to a mere 75 people (as part of the 2BSD archive)… it would go on to become a standard of POSIX, distributed on nearly every UNIX-alike system for the last 40 years.

The full article can be found without a subscription on [Substack](https://lunduke.substack.com/p/the-true-history-of-vi).