Vim 6.0ap beta released

52

Author: JT Smith

Vim is an almost 100% compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi. Many new
features have been added: Multi level undo, syntax highlighting, command line
history, filename completion, block operations, etc. Those who don’t know Vi
can probably skip this message, unless you are prepared to learn something new
and useful. Vim is especially recommended for editing programs.

Announcement
------------

This is a BETA test version of Vim.  It is a huge step from Vim 5.x.  Many,
many new features and improvements have been included.  For an overview, with
a few screendumps, look here:

        http://vim.sf.net/whyvim.php


Vim 6.0 has been in alpha testing for quite a while.  Although it appears to
work well, it needs to be tested before we can say it is really stable.
Expect to run into a few problems.


What is Vim?
------------

Vim is an almost 100% compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi.  Many new
features have been added: Multi level undo, syntax highlighting, command line
history, filename completion, block operations, etc.  Those who don't know Vi
can probably skip this message, unless you are prepared to learn something new
and useful.  Vim is especially recommended for editing programs.

Vim runs on almost any Unix flavor, MS-DOS, MS-Windows 3.1, MS-Windows
95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, OS/2, Atari MiNT, BeOS, VMS, RISC OS, Macintosh and
Amiga.

For more information, see http://vim.sf.net.


New since version 5.8
---------------------

The number of changes is huge.  These are just the main new items:

                     Folding - momentarily hide part of the text
    Vertically split windows - mixed with horizontal splits
                   Diff mode - show and remove differences between files
    Easy Vim: click-and-type - for those who really don't like two modes
                 User manual - learn to use Vim, reads like a book
          Flexible indenting - automatic indenting for any language
    Extended search patterns - more regexp power than you will need
               UTF-8 support - Unicode allows editing nearly all languages
      Multi-language support - translated messages and menus
              Plugin support - drop a script in a directory and you can use it
            Filetype plugins - an easy way to setup for editing a type of file
                File browser - browse directories, also on a terminal
Editing files over a network - read and write a remote files directly
 command-line editing window - use any Vim command to edit an Ex command
              Debugging mode - debug your Vim functions and scripts
  Cursor in virtual position - edit tables and draw ASCII pictures
          Debugger interface - use Vim with Sun Visual Workshop
  Communication between Vims - let one Vim tell another Vim what to do
                    Printing - print with syntax colors (MS-Windows only)
           Quickfix extended - see error messages in a window and jump there
      Writing files improved - rename or copy to make a backup file
               Argument list - select groups of files to work on
              Restore a View - save the looks of a window and restore it later
               Color schemes - quickly switch between different color setups

See this page for the details:

        http://vim.sf.net/htmldoc/version6.html



Where to get it
---------------

Information about which files to download for what system:

        http://vim.sf.net/download.php


If you already know what to get, download it from here:

        ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unreleased

Or use one of the mirrors, see:

        ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS


Mailing lists
-------------

For user questions you can turn to the Vim mailing list.  There are a lot of
tips, scripts and solutions.  You can ask your Vim questions, but only if you
subscribe.  See http://www.vim.org/mail.html.  An archive is kept at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim.

If you want to help developing Vim or get the latest patches, subscribe to the
vim-dev mailing list.  An archive is kept at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vimdev.

Subject specific lists:
Multi-byte issues: vim-multibyte  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim-multibyte
Macintosh issues:  vim-mac        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim-mac


Reporting bugs
--------------

Send them to bugs@vim.org.  Please describe the problem precisely.  All the
time spent on answering mail is subtracted from the time that is spent on
improving Vim!  Always give a reproducable example and try to find out which
settings or other things influence the appearance of the bug.  Try starting
without your own vimrc file: "vim -u NONE -U NONE".  Try different machines if
possible.  See ":help bugs" in Vim.  Send me patches if you can!

If something needs discussing with other developers, send a message to the
vim-dev mailing list.  You need to subscribe first.


Happy Vimming!

Category:

  • Open Source