vim-pencil VS vimwiki

Compare vim-pencil vs vimwiki and see what are their differences.

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vim-pencil vimwiki
15 112
1,549 8,568
0.8% 0.7%
2.3 6.8
about 1 year ago 4 days ago
Vim Script Vim Script
GNU General Public License v3.0 or later GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

vim-pencil

Posts with mentions or reviews of vim-pencil. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-03-21.
  • Is there a way to make undo sensible?
    1 project | /r/vim | 13 May 2023
  • Using Neovim, latex, and a terminal pdf-viewer
    4 projects | /r/neovim | 21 Mar 2023
    Another option is vim-pencil.
  • How could I use neovim for general writing and annotations?
    3 projects | /r/neovim | 22 Nov 2022
    Both of the above are naturally integrated into billions of nvim plugins. I store files in a cloud folder to have access to them on my phone. There are apps that allow you to work with notes written in markdown like Obsidian. You should have a way to quickly go to your writing files. You could use telescope-project.nvim, startify shortcuts, or any other session plugin. I would also recommend setting up LSP for writing. You will be able to have diagnostics, "code actions" on wrong grammar, allowing you to add words to dictionary and suppress rules. I use ltex_extra.nvim for this. There are also a good set of plugins for writing by one author, just check them at the bottom of the pencil page.
  • Almost monospaced: the perfect fonts for writing
    9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Nov 2022
    Two years ago, I did nanowrimo in Vim with a whole suite of plugins:

    - https://github.com/preservim/vim-pencil

    - https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim.git

    - https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim.git

    - https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

    It was fun, and the setup is almost identical to iA Writer which I appreciate. I even had it all on my phone with Termux!

    Last year I just did it in Markdown in VSCode in "zen mode" which also worked pretty well. It was definitely easier to setup than Vim and had better highlighting of bold/italics/etc.

  • Vim-pencil, Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 26 Jul 2022
  • Research paper + vim help
    3 projects | /r/vim | 20 Apr 2022
    You may like vim-pencil if you use markdown. It adds several small conveniences around word wrap options, among other things. Note also that the author of pencil includes many useful links in the README for conceiving vim as a tool for prose. My workflow is based on pandoc and bibtex. But that part's not vim- specific.
  • How do you write files that are strictly max 80 chars per line?
    1 project | /r/vim | 10 Mar 2022
    The most efficient way to do this is to install the vim-pencil plugin--when you go to edit the file, say :Pencil to activate the plugin, and it'll reformat the text on the fly while you're editing it. Basically it makes vim act less like vim and more like a word processor.
  • Vim for text files
    2 projects | /r/vim | 13 Nov 2021
    You may find vim-pencil usefull. The readme has some good links.
  • How to replace soft wraps with hard wraps irrespective of terminal width
    1 project | /r/vim | 9 Oct 2021
    preservim/vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing
  • History isn't smooth
    2 projects | /r/vim | 4 Oct 2021
    vim-pencil sets undo points at the end of every sentence (and other things) although you might not want to install a full plugin just for that.

vimwiki

Posts with mentions or reviews of vimwiki. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-26.
  • Neorg – organize your life in Neovim
    9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 26 Mar 2024
    No, Neorg does not use the same markup as Org-mode. They use their own specification that is specifically designed to be different from Org-mode spec.

    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvim-neorg/norg-specs/main...

    Furthermore, each item you have listed as a benefit to Org-mode is in fact capable of being done in Markdown via plugins for neovim, and probably other markdown editors, like Loqseq, Roamresearch, or Obisidian, much in the same way you speak of plugins that interface with .org docs.

    https://github.com/wthollingsworth/pomodoro.nvim

    https://github.com/Myzel394/easytables.nvim

    https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

    So, my suggestion is that before dismissing a comment regarding a plugin that is unfamiliar to you, is to read its spec, and then try to understand why people would be perhaps dismissive of that tool, especially when it chooses to conflict with existing, more popular choices.

  • Vimwiki – A Personal Wiki for Vim
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 3 Jan 2024
  • Wrap long lines in markdown tables
    3 projects | /r/vim | 8 Dec 2023
    you might want to look at how vimwiki does markdown tables https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
  • Note taking in Neovim?
    2 projects | /r/neovim | 2 Sep 2023
    I've been thinking of setting up a note taking enviroment in neovim. I've been searching around, and plugins as vimwiki, and nabla.nvim are great choices for me. I'm using Notion right now because of the great commands that brings that make the note taking pretty enjoyable. But the dividers, or putting background to text are features that I don't wanna lose, if possible.
  • Ask HN: Did anyone write a book in Nano?
    3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Aug 2023
    I wrote a manuscript in vim a couple Novembers ago, for NaNoWrimo. I used a couple plugins, primarily Goyo [1] to add some margins, but otherwise, yeah, plain vim.

    I don't think it was really any more productive than my current workflow in Obsidian. Vim keybindings are more useful for editing than for writing (and for editing code in particular, where the changes you're making are much more structured). Also, while the extra features afforded by Obsidian don't really make a difference during the writing process, I find they're really useful for outlines and other preliminary work, which is something of a point against a vim-only workflow unless you want to use vimwiki [2] or something.

    Granted, Obsidian is still a markdown-based tool, so there's still some level of minimalism going on there, but by that point we're really discussing markup vs word processors, which is its own conversation—and to my mind, a much more important one. I much prefer working in markup than in a rich text editor, because plain text is easy to edit and process through the terminal, and because it lets me separate style choices from content.

    I find that the markdown live preview that editors like Obsidian and Typora provide (and which vim doesn't) is a really nice compromise between a slick composing experience and the technical affordances of markup. Between that and Obsidian's hypertext features, I think I'll stick with Obsidian for the foreseeable future.

    [1]: https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim

    [2]: https://vimwiki.github.io/

  • Art Historians, how do you take notes
    1 project | /r/ArtHistory | 30 Jun 2023
    I use vimwiki.
  • Learning Emacs: Where to Start?
    1 project | /r/emacs | 27 Jun 2023
    Hey folks, I have been using Neovim for the past 2 years, don't have any complaints, however, I really want to give Emacs an honest try but not really sure where to start. I want to do basic text editing, programming and something similar to vimwiki (https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki)
  • Notetaking when solving issues and learning stuff
    8 projects | /r/archlinux | 9 Jun 2023
    How about learning vim and using vimwiki ?
  • Reconstructing Obsidian Features in Vim and Bash
    10 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Jun 2023
    What, we're talking about wikis and vim, and not mentioning vimwiki?

    https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

    I tried a whole bunch of personal wikis over the years (I see Zim has been mentioned, that's one of the ones I remember trying) and this is the only one that stuck.

  • What are some ways you used Python to make YOUR life easier?
    5 projects | /r/learnpython | 4 May 2023
    I have created full on programs to systematically created screenshots with the game emulators with RetroArch. Also an automation tool to use a preexisting program named chdman that converts files into a needed format (also unpacking from archives). A little Python script to create a recents list of files for Vimwiki. I also created a program to access 🌈 emojis 🌈. I wrote my own GE Proton downloader and manager. Hell even the window manager I am using on Linux is written and configured in Python, Qtile. I wrote one or two plugins for it and the entire configuration is written in Python, meaning I can use functions, modules and every logic of Python to enhance it. It's Awesome.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing vim-pencil and vimwiki you can also consider the following projects:

goyo.vim - :tulip: Distraction-free writing in Vim

vim-orgmode - Text outlining and task management for Vim based on Emacs' Org-Mode

proselint - A linter for prose.

neorg - Modernity meets insane extensibility. The future of organizing your life in Neovim.

vscode-neovim - Vim mode for VSCode, powered by Neovim

wiki.vim - A wiki plugin for Vim

nvim-lua-setup

obsidian-releases - Community plugins list, theme list, and releases of Obsidian.

vim-markdown - Markdown Vim Mode

neuron.nvim - Make neovim the best note taking application

zim-desktop-wiki - Main repository of the zim desktop wiki project