Rest in peace Bram Moolenaar

Bram passed away on the 3rd of August 2003 according to his family. He wrote my favourite editor, Vim. Very few people get to write software that has the same impact as Vim, and there isn’t much software that has lasted 31 years (his first release was on the 3rd of November 1991).

Vim has done all of that and, by all accounts, Bram was always a nice person dedicated to his craft and other more worthy causes. It’s not hard to notice on vim.org or in vim itself that he was a supporter of ICCF Holland, which was a charity that supported children in Uganda. I think it’s great that he was dedicated to helping others. He could have gone down the typical path that many in software follow, trying to get rich or bought up by a larger company in hopes to retire wealthy.

I think he was one of the few developer ‘celebrities’ that defines what software development should be about.

It would have been sad if he passed away at any age, but dying at 62 is quite young. Certainly for someone who, as far as we can tell, didn’t have any bad habits. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of more well-known developers have passed away at younger than they should have done. It may be a pure coincidence, but it is always worth remembering if your job and favourite hobby involves a lot of stationary activity, as it does for me and many other developers. We should try to ensure to maintain a healthy balance and ensure we move more. Even if that may not have been a problem for Bram in particular, being too stationary is something that we risk.

If you can afford to donate to ICCF Holland, I think that would be the best way to pay your respects to Bram Moolenaar.