A Mastodon post by computer scientist David Chisnall highlights the value of vim's persistent undo feature, which has preserved his work across two decades and major version upgrades. He contrasts this with Neo Vim, a fork that broke compatibility by deleting existing vim undo files without migration or warning, despite the feature being explicitly named 'persistent undo.' Chisnall describes raising an issue, only to be told the format was unstable and users should not rely on data preservation—an attitude he interprets as a fundamental lack of duty of care. He reflects on how this violates Jef Raskin's First Law from *The Humane Interface*: a program may not harm a user's data or, through inaction, allow it to come to harm.

The post underscores that users remember when software disrespects their work, and that trust is eroded not just by bugs, but by dismissive attitudes toward data preservation.