The All About Linux blog walks through features of the old school text editor Vim, version 7.0, including the interesting "go back in time" functionality.

In Vim 7.0, a new feature has been included which allows a user to jump back or forward to any point of editing. For example, I am editing a document and after a couple of minutes (say 10 min), I realise that I have made a mistake. I can easily take the document to a point 10 minutes back by using the command :

:earlier 10m

Or for that matter, move to a point 5 seconds ahead by using the command:

:later 5s

You can use the command :undolist to see a list of undo branches existing in the buffer. And each branch will have a number associated with it and it is possible to move to the undo level by using the command:

:undo


While I often Vi on my Linux server, it never occurred to me to use Vim on the Mac or PC. But now that Vim 7.0's got tabs, inline spellcheck, bracket highlighting and this useful go back in time feature along with all the other powerful stuff of this editor, maybe I'll toss EditPlus and TextWrangler and going Vim all the time. Maybe.


A visual walk through of a couple of the new features in Vim 7.0 [All About Linux via 43 Folders]

Vim the editor