If you use Textmate and basically miss the project drawer in Vim, there is a version of MacVim which has that integrated ( see https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots ) .
There is also Vico ( http://www.vicoapp.com/ ) which is a new Mac text editor with vi bindings, and well worth taking a look at.
In Vim for developers that use other software, tooalloy
macvim
C2011–2014
alloy / macvim
macvim
MacVim with file browser
11Distinct people
13Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
595GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
MacVim with file browser
GitHub
Where it is used
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What people are saying
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 2:17:07 AM UTC.
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Mentions over time
HN mentions by year13 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2011-08-09 22:31:02 UTC to 2014-12-10 17:25:14 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Vim - the text editor - for Mac OS X
MacVim homepage http://macvim-dev.github.io/macvim
Vim README https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/blob/master/README_vim.md
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
6 sourcesThis fork of Macvim has a very Textmate-like file browser baked in.
https://github.com/alloy/macvim/downloads
https://skitch.com/ericschiller/gtbb9/index.html.haml-dev-sa...
In TextMate 2 (Public) AlphaMacvim fork with native file browser
19 points · Open discussionActually surprisingly good; one of the main aspect that I think has been really well handled is the tab/pane handling.
Here for the preview; https://skitch.com/hunvreus/f592a/backbone.js
Pretty clean UI elements, nice highlighting; so far I like it.
I'm also playing with mvim with the file drawer; https://github.com/alloy/macvim.git, neat too.
In Textmate 2 - Alpha this yearMy response wasn't meant as harsh, it just lacked a smiley ;)
I work on a lot of OSS projects and our company does consultancy. This means I browse other’s projects on a daily basis (i.e. I don’t know the filenames yet). That, combined with the fact that I have a deep love for GUI design and platform consistency, has made me come to the conclusion that something like NERDTree wasn't working for me. I tried to keep on going for a few more weeks, but in the end I decided that writing a file browser would cost me less time than I lost during these few weeks.
I’m glad I wrote it, because now I’m perfectly happy with my MacVim setup, which I wasn't before. I’m also very glad I did not decide to revert to using TextMate or any of the other new closed source editors.
To conclude, it’s a bit of a feeling-thing. I’d invite you to try it out for a
Read the rest
while to see if it works for or against your flow. No hard feelings either way :)
PS: It might not be apparent from the article, but the browser provides a few more functions that os x users might be used to in other apps. See the last screenshot: https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots.
Alloy's MacVim fork aims for better OS X integration:
https://github.com/alloy/macvim
You're not going to get a better editor than vim or emacs. If you really refuse to learn either, there's always SublimeText 2, which is in beta right now. It's what most imagine TextMate 2 would have been (and yes, I'm aware that TM2 is being developed, but it's nothing more than vaporware to me at this point).
In 2011 Rubyist’s guide to a Mac OS X development environment