Announcing: Vim (Vi IMproved) version 7.0g BETA


This is the last BETA release of Vim 7 (hopefully). The last few days
there have been too many changes to do a release. This is the last
chance to report problems. It would be very disappointing to discover a
problem just after sending out the final release!

Since the fifth BETA release there are mostly bug fixes. Here is
a summary:
- For Motif and GTK tooltips were added to the tab page labels, so that
you can see the full path.
- Help files with a non-utf-8 byte reported an illegal byte when
'encoding' is "utf-8".
- Restricted what the expression for ":map <expr>" can do to avoid
unpredictable problems.
- Prevent that CTRL-R = in Insert mode can start Visual mode.
- Typing a multi-byte character or a special key at the hit-enter prompt
did not work (old problem).
- 'formatexpr' could not work properly without knowing what character is
going to be inserted. Added the v:char variable.
- With 8 colors Search highlighting could make text disappear.
- Allow "all" to appear together with other values in 'eventignore'.
- Win32: Dropping a shortcut on the Vim icon edited the shortcut instead
of the file it refers to (old problem).
- In Insert mode the matchparen plugin highlighted the wrong paren when
there is a string just next to a paren.

The coming days I will only fix serious problems, to avoid that changes
introduce new bugs.


Since Vim 6.4 many new features have been added. To mention a few:

- Spell checking support for about 50 languages
- Intelligent completion: Omni completion
- Tab pages, each containing multiple windows
- Undo branches: never accidentally lose text again
- Vim script supports Lists and Dictionaries (similar to Python)
- Vim script profiling
- Improved Unicode support
- Highlighting of matching parens, cursor line and cursor column
- Translated manual pages support.
- Internal grep; works on all platforms, searches compressed files
- Browsing of remote directories, zip and tar archives
- Printing multi-byte text

Once you have installed Vim 7.0g BETA you can find details about the
changes since Vim 6.4 with ":help version7". The changes since version
7.0f are at the end.


Testing
-------

This is a BETA test version. Please give it a good test and report
anything that isn't right. That includes a crash but also a typo in the
documentation.

I will not make an Amiga or OS/2 binary for Vim 7. A Mac version should
be available soon on http://macvim.org/


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

Vim 7.0g is also available (after a few hours) from Subversion, CVS and
with Aap:
http://www.vim.org/develop.php


An overview of the files:

UNIX:
unix/vim-7.0g.tar.bz2 sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-7.0g-extra.tar.gz extra (non-Unix) files
extra/vim-7.0g-lang.tar.gz multi-language files
doc/vim70ghtml.zip help files converted to HTML

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim70g.exe self-installing, includes all runtime files
pc/vim70grt.zip runtime files
pc/vim70glang.zip files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim70g.zip GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim70gole.zip GUI binary with OLE support
pc/gvim70g_s.zip GUI binary for Windows 3.1 (untested)
pc/vim70gd16.zip 16 bit console version for MS-DOS
pc/vim70gd32.zip console version for MS-DOS/Windows 95/98
pc/vim70gw32.zip console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim70gsrc.zip sources for PC (with CR-LF)

DIFFS TO PREVIOUS BETA:
unix/vim-7.0f-7.0g.diff.gz sources + runtime files
extra/vim-7.0f-7.0g-extra.diff.gz extra files
extra/vim-7.0f-7.0g-lang.diff.gz multi-language files


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#vim

If you want to help Vim development or get the latest patches, subscribe
to the vim-dev mailing list. See http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-dev

Subject specific lists:
Multi-byte issues: http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-multibyte
Macintosh issues: http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-mac

Before you ask a question you should search the archives, someone may
already have given the answer.


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!

--
(letter from Mark to Mike, about the film's probable certificate)
For an 'A' we would have to: Lose as many shits as possible; Take Jesus
Christ out, if possible; Loose "I fart in your general direction"; Lose
"the oral sex"; Lose "oh, fuck off"; Lose "We make castanets out of your
testicles"
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" PYTHON (MONTY) PICTURES LTD

/// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@... -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
/// sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ \\\
\\\ download, build and distribute -- http://www.A-A-P.org ///
\\\ help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org ///