Cultural Learnings of `VIM` for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of `UNIX`

Understanding UNIX through the lens of VIM
VIM as a microcosm of UNIX systems

`whoami`

https://github.com/ms-jpq
Wang, Hao
Life status: NEET, traveling the flat planet sphere
hao@bigly.dog

What Did I Make

https://github.com/ms-jpq

`VIM` Related

chadtree, NerdTree but chad
coq.nvim, CoC.nvim but coq
lua async await, coroutine based control flow for libuv

Misc

sad, interactive TUI sed(ish)
noact, React virtual DOM in 70 lines (fully typed)
lots more...

Core tenants of the `UNIX` machine spirits

Files
Text
Processes

TLDR

VIM ⇆ Files are Text ⇆ Everything is a File ⇆ Processes communicate via Flies ⇆ UNIX

Recursion

Emergent property
VIM ⇆ Recursion ⇆ Tree of Processes ⇆ UNIX

What makes `VIM` special?

I reject my humanity

HJKL 👏
←↑↓→ ✋
Relative line positioning?
Delete 3 characters to the left?

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.

Servitor to the Machine God

Prepped chicken, steamed rice, raw eggs, frozen lettuce
Blend .into() smoothie
Breakfast, lunch, dinner

VIM is more of a syntax editor

Syntax ↔ Semantics

TreeSitter 🌳🪑

Select part of syntax you want to alter → Change / Delete

Whataboutism

These all have TreeSitter 🌳🪑

Whatabout emacs
Whatabout helix
Whatabout zed
~~Whatabout atom~~
Whatabout vscode

GNU's Not Unix

UNIX is nothing without its userspace

I'd just like to interject for a moment.

What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.

Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it.

Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.

Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run.

The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system.

Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux.

All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

- Richard, Emacs.

What about "ad hoc" syntax

No TreeSitter
Informal

`ini` style: systemd, samba, mypy, php, git, warcraft3, fallout, literally every other program

[Match]
Name              = vtor
Driver            = dummy

[Link]
RequiredForOnline = no

[Network]
DHCP              = no
IPv6AcceptRA      = no

Domains           = ~onion ~exit

`Nginx` style: lighttpd, haproxy, dhclient, etc

server {
  server_name "";
  include     /usr/local/opt/nginx/conf/listen.nginx;

  location / {
    alias           /usr/local/opt/nginx/index/;
    sub_filter_once off;
    sub_filter      "@SCHEME" $scheme;
    sub_filter      "@HOST" $optimistic_host;
  }
}

`XML`ish style: openvpn, cups, apache, etc

Listen 80
<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot "/www/example1"
  ServerName www.example.com
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot "/www/example2"
  ServerName www.example.org
  # Other directives here
</VirtualHost>

Incantations for the machines

Emergent grammars

"…" ⇒ CI"
'…' ⇒ CI'
<…> ⇒ CI>
(…) ⇒ CI)
{…} ⇒ CI}
Consecutive "word" characters /[A-z1-9_]+/ ⇒ CIw
Not whitespace characters [^s]+ ⇒ CIW

`COKE` `VIM` Classic

std{in,out,err} are files too

Text IO

'shell' 'sh' string (default $SHELL or "sh", Win32: "cmd.exe")
:help grep
:help ctags
:help make
:help unnamed
:help terminal

Installing `NVIM` on Windows comes with full `UNIX` suite via `msys2`

Recursive Bash HTTP Server

A TCP socket is a file
HTTP is a text protocol
bash → socat → bash recursion

#!/usr/bin/env -S -- bash -Eeu -O dotglob -O nullglob -O extglob -O failglob -O globstar

set -o pipefail

ADDR='127.0.0.1'
PORT='8888'
if [[ -t 0 ]]; then
  printf -- '%q ' curl -- "http://$ADDR":"$PORT"
  printf -- '\n'
  exec -- socat TCP-LISTEN:"$PORT,bind=$ADDR",reuseaddr,fork EXEC:"$0"
fi

tee <<-EOF
HTTP/1.1 200 OK

EOF

fortune | cowsay
gay <"$0" >&2

Other shell recursions

chroot: before / after file system isolation
ip netns exec: before / after network isolation
ssh

bash -> ssh -> sshd -> bash

UNIX Trees

PID 1

(open)launchd

MacOS
Some BSDs

-+= 00001 root /sbin/launchd
 |--= 00490 root /usr/libexec/logd
 |--= 00491 root /usr/libexec/smd
 |--= 00492 root /usr/libexec/UserEventAgent (System)
 |--= 00494 root /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Uninstall.framework/Resources/uninst
 |--= 00495 root /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Framework
 |--= 00496 root /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaRemote.framework/Support/mediar
 |-+= 00499 root /usr/sbin/systemstats --daemon
 | \--- 00769 root /usr/sbin/systemstats --logger-helper /private/var/db/systemstats

systemd

Good Linux distributions

systemd,1
  |-5/flow_checks,841 --daemon --http-prefix=/ntop --disable-login=1
  |-agetty,971 -o -p -- \\u --noclear tty1 linux
  |-chronyd,777
  |-cron,944 -f -P
  |-dbus-daemon,603 --system --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activati
  |-dnsmasq,1137 --conf-file=/run/local/dnsmasq/wg0/dnsmasq.conf
  |-dnsmasq,1468 --conf-file=/run/local/dnsmasq/enp1s0/dnsmasq.conf
  |-haproxy,967 -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid -f /usr/local/opt/h
  |   `-haproxy,974 -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid -f /usr/local/o
  |-irqbalance,608 --foreground

`NVIM` Tree Sitter

NVIM leaf
Tree of Processes

\-+= 08871 iiiiii nvim
  \-+= 08872 iiiiii nvim --embed
    |--= 08873 iiiiii /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.fr
    |--= 08874 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/.config/nvim/pack/modules/start/chadtree/.vars/runt
    |-+= 08875 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/.config/nvim/pack/modules/start/coq_nvim/.vars/runt
    | \-+- 09191 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/pack/modules/start/coq_n
    |   |-+- 09198 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/pack/modules/start/coq
    |   | \--- 09233 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/pack/modules/start/c
    |   \--- 86848 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/pack/modules/start/coq
    |--= 08882 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/var/bin/typos-lsp
    |-+= 08901 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/.local/share/.codeium/bin/3dee3c5d9fe70aff1993c1a94
    | \--- 08924 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/.local/share/.codeium/bin/3dee3c5d9fe70aff1993c1a
    |--= 09011 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/.local/asdf/installs/nodejs/20.8.0/bin/node /Users/
    |--= 09151 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/var/bin/marksman server
    \--= 09152 iiiiii /Users/iiiiii/Library/Preferences/nvim/var/lib/ltex-ls/jdk-11.0.1

nvim --embed ??
Plugins
LSP servers

OCI Containers

Tini, S6, supervisord, etc

podman-init,1 -- docker-entrypoint.sh postgres
  `-postgres,2
      |-postgres,59
      |-postgres,60
      |-postgres,62
      |-postgres,63
      |-postgres,64
      |-postgres,65
      `-postgres,69

`UNIX` multi-tenancy

HIER (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard)
XDG

`:help runtimepath`

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim,
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS[1]/nvim,
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS[2]/nvim,
…
$XDG_DATA_HOME/nvim[-data]/site,
$XDG_DATA_DIRS[1]/nvim/site,
$XDG_DATA_DIRS[2]/nvim/site,
…
$VIMRUNTIME,
…
$XDG_DATA_DIRS[2]/nvim/site/after,
$XDG_DATA_DIRS[1]/nvim/site/after,
$XDG_DATA_HOME/nvim[-data]/site/after,
…
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS[2]/nvim/after,
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS[1]/nvim/after,
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/after"

`man -- systemd.unit`

/etc/systemd/system.control/*  ~/.config/systemd/user.control/*
/run/systemd/system.control/*  $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control/*
/run/systemd/transient/*       $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient/*
/run/systemd/generator.early/* $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early/*
/etc/systemd/system/*          ~/.config/systemd/user/*
/etc/systemd/system.attached/* $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user/*
/run/systemd/system/*          /etc/systemd/user/*
/run/systemd/system.attached/* $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/*
/run/systemd/generator/*       /run/systemd/user/*
.                              $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator/*
.                              $XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user/*
.                              $XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user/*
…                              …
/usr/lib/systemd/system/*      /usr/lib/systemd/user/*
/run/systemd/generator.late/*  $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late/*

What is the Most UNiX Program?

# M 16 4

Most ~~American~~ UNIX problem solver
POSIX standard
Text templating language
Somehow only data structure is list
Gratuitous system(const char *command)
No loops, only recursion

TLDR2, Subsequent Moviefilm

Everything is a file
Files are mostly text
Processes communicate via files

Please Clap 💁‍♀️

https://github.com/ms-jpq/vim.conf-2023

Planning on moving from Vancouver to Seattle
TN work VISA needed, since I'm Canadian

Cultural Learnings of VIM for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of UNIX

whoami

What Did I Make

VIM Related

Misc

Core tenants of the UNIX machine spirits

TLDR

Recursion

What makes VIM special?

I reject my humanity

Servitor to the Machine God

VIM is more of a syntax editor

TreeSitter 🌳🪑

Whataboutism

These all have TreeSitter 🌳🪑

GNU's Not Unix

What about "ad hoc" syntax

ini style: systemd, samba, mypy, php, git, warcraft3, fallout, literally every other program

Nginx style: lighttpd, haproxy, dhclient, etc

XMLish style: openvpn, cups, apache, etc

Incantations for the machines

Emergent grammars

COKE VIM Classic

Text IO

Installing NVIM on Windows comes with full UNIX suite via msys2

Recursive Bash HTTP Server

Other shell recursions

UNIX Trees

(open)launchd

systemd

NVIM Tree Sitter

OCI Containers

UNIX multi-tenancy

:help runtimepath

man -- systemd.unit

What is the Most UNiX Program?

# M 16 4

TLDR2, Subsequent Moviefilm

Please Clap 💁‍♀️

About

Languages

Cultural Learnings of `VIM` for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of `UNIX`

`whoami`

`VIM` Related

Core tenants of the `UNIX` machine spirits

What makes `VIM` special?

`ini` style: systemd, samba, mypy, php, git, warcraft3, fallout, literally every other program

`Nginx` style: lighttpd, haproxy, dhclient, etc

`XML`ish style: openvpn, cups, apache, etc

`COKE` `VIM` Classic

Installing `NVIM` on Windows comes with full `UNIX` suite via `msys2`

`NVIM` Tree Sitter

`UNIX` multi-tenancy

`:help runtimepath`

`man -- systemd.unit`