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JdeBP__dup_33984
JdeBP @JdeBP__dup_33984@mastodonapp.uk · Feb 12, 2026
Replying to on mastodon.bsd.cafe
@kaveman@mastodon.bsd.cafe Yes. I was mentioning this to @cks@mastodon.social the other day. https://tty0.social/@JdeBP/116030855863806427 I think that it came out in the early 1990s. The copyright dates in the source uniformly say 1983, which would make OpenWatcom vi the earliest vi clone on record (pre-dating #STEVIE by 4 years). However, they say this uniformly, even for its OS/2 and Windows NT parts, which couldn't have existed in 1983. And 1983 pre-dates even Waterloo C. So I suspect some Sybase lawyer has lied in these copyright declarations. Watcom had a non-vi multi-window and menus TUI editor for DOS named wbed.exe at one point. #Watcom #OpenWatcom #vi #retrocomputing #ComputerHistory
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JdeBP__dup_33984
JdeBP @JdeBP__dup_33984@mastodonapp.uk · Feb 11, 2026
Replying to on mastodon.bsd.cafe
@gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafe @joel@gts.tumfatig.net It's a good test. I probably haven't used open mode since I started building #STEVIE from source back in the 1980s. Which of course I used on VDU terminals, not the paper ones. (-: The test for it being Bostic #nvi , in my experience, is whether it supports :qa . #vi
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JdeBP__dup_33984
JdeBP @JdeBP__dup_33984@mastodonapp.uk · Feb 11, 2026
Replying to @JdeBP__dup_33984@mastodonapp.uk
On #Illumos, Jov vi is in /usr/src/cmd/vi: https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate/tree/master/usr/src/cmd/vi On #OpenBSD, Bostic #nvi is in /usr/src/usr.bin/vi/vi; #NetBSD having it in /usr/src/external/bsd/nvi; and #FreeBSD in /usr/src/contrib/nvi: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/main/contrib/nvi FreeBSD has an nvi2 in ports: https://freshports.org/editors/nvi2/ OpenBSD has elvis in ports: https://github.com/openbsd/ports/blob/master/editors/elvis/pkg/DESCR Ritter's Heirloom vi is on SourceForge: https://ex-vi.sourceforge.net STEVIE was posted to comp.sources.unix in 1988: https://sources.vsta.org/comp.sources.unix/volume15/stevie/ Unfortunately, Sven Guckes's vi Clones WWW site was never completed with some of this, notably lacking Heirloom vi, for example. https://guckes.net/vi/clones.html But it does mention oft-overlooked commercial clones such as Watcom's vi, a from-scratch implementation started in 1983 that is also now source-available: https://github.com/open-watcom/owp4v1copy/tree/master/bld/vi #vi #retrocomputing #ComputerHistory #STEVIE #elvis #VIM #NeoVIM #Watcom #OpenWatcom
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