How many of you have heard of [[http://moolenar.net|Bram Moolenar]]? He’s the author of [[http://vim.org|Vim]] (now working at Google Netherlands, actually). Probably some of you have heard of him. Maybe many of you have heard of him. But how many of you have heard of Dr. Chip Campbell? Not many, I suppose.

One of the hallmarks of popular F/L/OSS (Free/Libre/Open) projects is the excellent community around them (think Drupal or WordPress). Now, I lurk around on a lot of mailing lists, and one of the friedliest, warmest and educational mailing list I’ve seen is the [[http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim|Vim users list]].

I see people asking all kinds of questions on this list. From the very basic editing questions (like “how do I delete a word?”) to some really non-trivial stuff. Rarely have I seen anyone been beaten upon for posting a “silly” question. Not only that, people are quick and clever in responding with solutions. It is not uncommon for a “How do I…” question to get tens of responses — detailing how to do the same thing in several different ways. The depth and breadth of solutions is invigorating and the welcoming attitude of the community is heart-warming.

And so, the point of this point. I just want to thank all these wonderful people (Benji Fisher, Yakov Lerner, Dr. Chip, Antoine Mechelynck, Hari Krishna Dara, Yegappan Lakshmanan to name a few) who have made Vim a better editor for me and countless others.

PS: This has nothing to do with Vim, per se. I had to start off with //some// project, and Vim is as good as any other. I’ll come back to other software some other time — in the meantime, why don’t you go and praise some people from your favorite community. Let them know you appreciate their guidance and support.