Announcing: Vim (Vi IMproved) version 6.4a BETA
Author: Bram Moolenaar et al.


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

This is a bugfix BETA release of Vim. Since Vim 6.3 dozens of reported
problems have been fixed. Also included are new and updated syntax
files, translated menus and messages.

There are no new features. This release is only fixing bugs.

Once you have installed 6.4a BETA you can find details about the changes
since Vim 6.3 with ":help version-6.4". There is a long list of fixed
bugs.


Testing
-------

This is a BETA test version. Most of the changes were already released
as patches and have been used by many people for a while. I don't
expect problems, thus feel free to install this for real work.

Do watch out for any mistakes with the distribution. I haven't made a
release for quite a while. The "big" Win32 executable now uses Python
2.4 instead of 2.3. For Perl and Ruby a minor update was done to Perl
5.8.7 and Ruby 1.8.3.

Please report anything that doesn't look right. Vim 6.4 should be the
most reliable Vim ever! If everything goes well I'll release Vim 6.4 in
less than a week.


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://www.vim.org. This is also a great
place to find Vim tips and scripts!


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

Information about which files to download for what system:

http://www.vim.org/download.php

All files can be found below this directory:

ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/

A list of mirror sites can be found here:

http://www.vim.org/mirrors.php

An overview of the files:

UNIX:
unix/vim-6.4a.tar.bz2 sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed
unix/vim-6.4a-rt1.tar.gz runtime files part 1
unix/vim-6.4a-rt2.tar.gz runtime files part 2
unix/vim-6.4a-src1.tar.gz sources part 1
unix/vim-6.4a-src2.tar.gz sources part 2
unix/vim-6.3-6.4a.diff.gz diff between 6.3 and 6.4a

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-6.4a-extra.tar.gz extra files
extra/vim-6.4a-lang.tar.gz multi-language files
extra/vim-6.3-6.4a-extra.diff.gz diff for extra files
extra/vim-6.3-6.4a-lang.diff.gz diff for multi-language files
doc/vim64ahtml.zip help files converted to HTML

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim64a.exe self-installing, includes all runtime files
pc/vim64art.zip runtime files
pc/vim64alang.zip files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim64a.zip GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim64aole.zip GUI binary with OLE support
pc/vim64ad16.zip 16 bits real mode - works on any system
pc/vim64ad32.zip 32 bits protected mode - needs 386 and DPMI
pc/vim64aw32.zip console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim64asrc.zip sources for PC (with CR-LF)

AMIGA:
amiga/vim64art.tgz runtime files (always needed)
amiga/vim64abin.tgz executable files
amiga/vim64asrc.tgz sources packed for Amiga
(no binary yet, sorry)


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/maillist.php. An archive
is kept at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim.

If you want to help Vim development 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@...>. 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 reproducible 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". Try
different machines if possible. See ":help bugs" in Vim. Send me a
patch 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!

--
An easy way to determine if you have enough teamwork to be doomed is simply to
measure how long it takes from the time you decide to go to lunch together
until the time you actually eat.
(Scott Adams - The Dilbert principle)

/// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@... -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
/// Sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ \\\
\\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org ///
\\\ Buy LOTR 3 and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/lotr.html ///