[Syssiphus]

Nonetheless he is right. As far as I remember Vim is based on the code of an editor that was similar to vi, and not vi itself.

[adrusi]

Vi is a standard not a specific implementation. There was an original Vi, but since it's a standard unix tool, it got cloned by everyone who ever made a unix clone after it was added to BSD.

Vim can be invoked to conform to the vi standard, although usually it only gets used that way when a vim user is on an unfamiliar machine.

[Syssiphus]

Interesting view. I've never seen vi as a standard. But it makes sense.

[baldfat]

Well I made his short two word answer into an explanation.

[groovy2shoes]

I believe it was Stevie (a vi clone for the Atari ST).