Bram Moolenaar (; 1961 – 3 August 2023) was a Dutch software engineer and activist who was the creator, maintainer, and
benevolent dictator for life
Benevolent dictator for life (BDFL) is a title given to a small number of open-source software development leaders, typically project founders who retain the final say in disputes or arguments within the community. The phrase originated in 1995 ...
of
Vim,
a
vi-derivative text editor. He advocated for
ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization supporting
AIDS victims in Uganda, and used the popularity of Vim to encourage donations.
From July 2006 until September 2021, Moolenaar was employed by Google, working in the
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
office on
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It was created by Mike Samuel as part of his 20% project at Google. It became available in Software release life cycle#Beta, beta release April 13, 2006, ...
.
He spent part of his time maintaining Vim.
Early life and education
Moolenaar was born in
Lisse
Lisse () is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland in the Western Netherlands. The municipality, which lies within the Duin- en Bollenstreek, covers an area of of ...
, Netherlands, in 1961.
In 1985, he graduated from the
Delft University of Technology
The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...
with a degree in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
.
Vim

In 1988, Moolenaar purchased an
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
computer. Familiar with
vi, which had not been ported to the Amiga at the time, he tested several clones of vi, including
Stevie. Moolenaar took the source code of Stevie and improved upon it. Seeking to match vi, Moolenaar eventually added in additional features, such as undoing multiple levels.
The first version of "
Vi IMitation" was released in 1988 on a public domain disk set made by
Fred Fish
Fred Fish (November 4, 1952 – April 20, 2007) was a computer programmer notable for work on the GNU Debugger and his series of freeware disks for the Amiga.
Fish worked for Cygnus Solutions in the 1990s before leaving for Be Inc. in 199 ...
. Several users ported Vim onto other platforms, such as
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
and
Unix
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
. In version 1.22 in 1992, Vi IMitation was renamed to "Vi IMproved".
Vim is open-source and
charityware
Careware (also called charityware, helpware, or goodware) is software licensed in a way that benefits a Charitable organization, charity. Some careware is Freeware, distributed free, and the author suggests that some payment be made to either a nom ...
; users are encouraged to donate to
ICCF Holland.
A number of other applications have been licensed this way since Vim's inception. Vim has won several awards and has been referred to as one of the most popular text editors.
Other ventures
Other software tools that Moolenaar developed include a software
build tool
Build automation is the practice of building software systems in a relatively unattended fashion. The build is configured to run with minimized or no software developer interaction and without using a developer's personal computer. Build automati ...
written in
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (prog ...
, called A-A-P, which is similar to
make, and a programming language called Zimbu which puts an emphasis on readability of programs.
Moolenaar was a member of the Dutch Unix user group,
NLUUG, which presented him with an award during its 25th anniversary, for his creation of Vim and his contributions to open-source software in general.
Charity
Moolenaar was an advocate of
ICCF Holland, a
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
based in
Kibaale, Uganda which he founded to support children whose parents have died of
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
. In 1994, he volunteered as a water and sanitation engineer for the Kibaale Children's Centre; he made several return trips over the following twenty-five years. In 1995, he made Vim
charityware
Careware (also called charityware, helpware, or goodware) is software licensed in a way that benefits a Charitable organization, charity. Some careware is Freeware, distributed free, and the author suggests that some payment be made to either a nom ...
. An estimated was raised for ICCF Holland in 1997, followed by a year later.
In 1999, donation income totaled approximately . He last visited the Kibaale Community Centre in 2020 before the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Illness and death
Moolenaar reported health problems in October 2022.
On 5 August 2023, Moolenaar's family announced in the Vim
Google Group that Moolenaar had died two days prior, at the age of 62, because of a rapidly developing medical condition.
His funeral was held in Lisse, Netherlands, on 16 August 2023. Vim will be continued by co-contributor Christian Brabandt.
Posthumous fame
Bram Moolenaar was posthumously awarded the 2024 European SFS Award at SFSCON 24, a free software meeting organised since 2004 by the
Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. (FSFE) is an organization that supports free software and all aspects of the free software movement in Europe, with registered chapters in several European countries. It is a registered voluntary associat ...
(FSFE) and the Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ).
References
Citations
Works cited
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External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moolenaar, Bram
1961 births
2023 deaths
Dutch computer programmers
Free software programmers
Google employees
Vi
Delft University of Technology alumni
People from Lisse