Subject: Vim version 6.0am ALPHA available
From: Bram Moolenaar <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 21:32:38 +0200

The user manual is complete now.  You are invited to start proof reading.
Keep in mind that it only contains the most useful features, not every detail.

We are getting much closer to a beta test now.  If you are
working on something, please send me a patch the coming week.

Major changes
-------------

The user manual is complete.  Still requires proof reading.

":menu <silent>" adds a menu that won't echo Ex commands.
":map <silent>" adds a mapping that won't echo Ex commands.

The distribution files for Unix have been reorganised.  The ".gz" files are
now small enough to fit on a floppy.  These can be used by (old) standalone
systems.  There is one big ".bz2" file that contains everything.

Other changes
-------------

"copen" opens the quickfix window, ":cclose" closes it.
":cwindow" takes care of having a quickfix window only when there are
recognized errors. (Dan Sharp)

Added the "-M" Vim argument: reset 'modifiable' and 'write', thus disallow
making changes and writing files.

GTK: Allow dropping a http:// and ftp:// URL on Vim.  The netrw plugin takes
care of downloading the file. (MiKael Berthe)

Added the 'imcmdline' option: When set the input method is always enabled when
starting to edit a command line.  Useful for a XIM that uses dead keys to type
accented characters.
Made CTRL-^ in Insert mode and when editing the command line toggle the use of
an input method when no language mappings are present.  Allows switching the
IM back on when halfway typing a line.

Collection of changes for the Macintosh: (Dany St-Amant)
- Reorganized the gui_mac.c (it was a mess)
- Carbonized (while keeping non Carbon code)
  (Some work "stolen" from Ammon Skidmore)
- Improved the menu item index handling (should be faster)
- Runtime command now handle / in file name (MacOS 9 version)
- Added winpos support
- Fixed a bug in the handling of Activate/Deactivate Event
- Fixed a bug in gui_mch_dialog (using wrong pointer)

Added tidy syntax file. (Doug Kearns)

Improved MS-Windows install program a bit more. (Jon Merz)

Made the info for an existing swap file a bit shorter, so that it still fits
on a 24 line screen.

":silent !cmd" no longer redraws the screen.  The user must use CTRL-L if he
wants a redraw.

Fixes
-----

Multi-byte: When formatting lines Vim could crash. (Alexey Marinichev)

Perl: Dynamic loading on Win32 didn't work. (Paul Moore)
Removed some debugging code. (Donnie Smith)

Python: removed Py_GetProgramName(), it's not used.

Motif: Didn't compile when XPM stuff is not available.

VMS does not allow function names longer than 31 characters.  Renamed
gui_motif_create_fontlist_from_fontset() to gui_motif_fontset2fontlist().

menu.c didn't compile without the multi-language feature when the toolbar is
used. (Maurice Barnum)

There was no declaration for strdup(), except in integration.c, where it
causes problems when it's a macro.  Added it to osdef1.h.in.

When configure was told to use the workshop feature, it would still select the
GTK GUI by default.  Give an error message when trying to use workshop without
Motif.

It was possible to make a symlink with the name of a swap file, linking to a
file that doesn't exist.  Vim would then silently use another file (if open
with O_EXCL refuses a symlink).  Now check for a symlink to exist.  Also do
another check for an existing swap file just before creating it to catch a
symlink attack.

When using "vd" to delete an empty line, the first multibyte character in the
next line could be damaged. (Muraoka Taro)

The output of "g CTRL-G" mentioned "Char" but it's actually bytes.

Searching for the end of a oneline region didn't work correctly when there is
an offset for the highlighting.

Athena: The triangle for a submenu could be allocated at the wrong moment.
(David Harrison)

"vimtutor" used "test -e".  Apparently not all systems support that.  Use
"test -f" instead.

Syntax highlighting: When synchronizing on C-comments, //*/ was seen as the
start of a comment.

Mac: Vim was eating 80% of the CPU time. (Dany St-Amant)

GTK: When leaving Insert mode the XIM status wasn't obtained correctly.  When
re-entering Insert mode it would be disabled.

Folding: When 'foldmethod' is "marker", inserting a line break before a marker
opened folds below it.  Was updating the folds twice, once for inserting the
line, which caused all following folds to become nested.

":silent":
- Various commands still produced a message with ":silent": ":write",
  ":substitute", ":put, ":delete".
- Redirecting messages and using ":silent highlight" doesn't produce the same
  output as without the ":silent".  Now at least insert one space.

Thesaurus completion got stuck at end of line.  It could not be interrupted
with CTRL-C either.

Epilogue
--------

WARNING: This is really an unstable version.  Many things have been added
without proper testing.  It does crash.  It may destroy your work.  New
features may change incompatibly in the next version.

This version is for developers, thus it comes as source code only.
If you run into something that doesn't work, please try to figure out why,
try to solve it and send me a patch.  If you can't do that, at least send me
precise information to save me time.

More info about the new 6.0 features with ":help version6".

If you don't like the syntax of a command, the name of an option or how the
new features work, let's discuss this in the vim-dev maillist.

Lots of things are not working yet.  Check ":help todo" for known items.

I NEED YOUR HELP: There is still a lot of work to be done.  If I have to do it
all by myself it will take a very long time until Vim.6.0 is ready.  Please
give a hand by implementing one of the items in the todo list.

You can find Vim 6.0 here: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unreleased/

unix/vim-6.0am.tar.bz2		sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed
unix/vim-6.0am-rt1.tar.gz	runtime files part 1
unix/vim-6.0am-rt2.tar.gz	runtime files part 2
unix/vim-6.0am-src1.tar.gz	sources part 1
unix/vim-6.0am-src2.tar.gz	sources part 2

extra/vim-6.0am-extra.tar.gz	extra files
extra/vim-6.0am-lang.tar.gz	multi-language files

Happy Vimming!