Bram Moolenaar (; <!-- Please add source for birthdate in the Early life and education section. Please do not add the date here without providing a reference. Thank you.-->1961 – 3 August 2023) was a Dutch software engineer and activist who was the creator, maintainer, and benevolent dictator for life 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 office on Google Calendar. He spent part of his time maintaining Vim.
Early life and education
Moolenaar was born in Lisse, Netherlands, in 1961.
Vim
alt=The opening screen of Vim|thumb|The opening screen of Vim
In 1988, Moolenaar purchased an Amiga 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. 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 written in Python, called A-A-P, which is similar to make, and a programming language called Zimbu which puts an emphasis on readability of programs.
Charity
Moolenaar was an advocate of ICCF Holland, a non-governmental organization based in Kibaale, Uganda which he founded to support children whose parents have died of AIDS. 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. An estimated was raised for ICCF Holland in 1997, followed by a year later.
Illness and death
Moolenaar reported health problems in October 2022. in the Vim Google Group that Moolenaar had died two days prior, at the age of 62, because of a rapidly developing medical condition. Vim will be continued by co-contributor Christian Brabandt.