This year at VIMRC 2025, I presented on "VIM and Korean: Breaking Through the Limitations." Honestly, this topic had been lingering like homework for me for a long time. If you're a developer who loves VIM, you've probably experienced this inconvenience at least once—the Korean input issues.
Every time you switch from Normal mode to Insert mode, you have to be mindful of language switching, and when you press ESC during Korean character composition, unintended characters get inserted. These small inconveniences accumulate and eventually lead to decreased productivity. It's a problem that doesn't exist for English-speaking developers, but it's a daily reality for those of us who use Korean. Rather than just enduring this problem, I wanted to solve it directly.
In this presentation, I shared actual development cases of how we were able to solve this problem through Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ-based plugin development, as well as creating separate applications. Beyond just technical approaches, I honestly discussed the trial and error in the process of defining the problem and finding solutions. While it's not a perfect solution, I hoped it could at least provide a clue for other developers struggling with this issue.
The event was attended by many people who love deep development culture. These were people who view VIM not merely as an editor, but as a philosophy and workflow. Active exchanges continued as everyone shared their know-how on settings, customization, and workflows, and I learned a great deal in the process. I was particularly impressed by the VIM community's characteristic solid technical skills and obsession with detail. Deep consideration went into every single line of configuration, every key binding, and I could feel once again how this ultimately leads to a better development experience.
After the presentation, while talking with various people, I was able to confirm that this wasn't just my concern alone. Many people were experiencing similar inconveniences and finding solutions in their own ways. That's why I released all the plugins and applications introduced in the presentation as open source. I hope they can be freely used to improve Korean productivity in development environments, and furthermore, that we can improve them together.
VIMRC 2025 wasn't just a place where I gave a presentation—it was precious time where I could have deep conversations with people who love VIM. DevFive will continue to contribute to technical research that improves developer experience and the expansion of the open source ecosystem. We want to create a culture where we don't just pass by even small inconveniences, but solve them together.
