Announcing: Vim (Vi IMproved) version 7.0


Vim 7 is ready! After years of development this feature packed editor
is waiting for you.

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

- Spell checking support for about 50 languages
- Intelligent completion for C, HTML, Ruby, Python, PHP, etc.
- 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 cursor line, cursor column and matching braces
- Translated manual pages support.
- Internal grep; works on all platforms, searches compressed files
- Browsing remote directories, zip and tar archives
- Printing multi-byte text

Once you have installed Vim 7.0 you can find details about the changes
since Vim 6.4 with ":help version7".


Credits
-------

A lot of people helped making Vim 7 possible by providing patches,
suggestions, bug reports and proofreading the documentation. You can
find their names with ":help version7". Many thanks to all of them!

Also thanks to Vim sponsors who supported me while working on Vim 7. I
am now going back to a paid job. Please continue sponsoring Vim. The
money now goes to help children in Uganda. The more you help them the
more I will feel obliged to work on Vim. There is a drought right now,
we need to help 200 families with food. http://www.vim.org/sponsor/


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

Information about which files to download for what system:
http://www.vim.org/download.php

A list of mirror sites can be found here:
http://www.vim.org/mirrors.php

Downloading through ftp from:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/

Downloading through http from:
http://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/

Using rsync:
rsync://ftp.nl.vim.org/Vim

Using Subversion:
http://www.vim.org/subversion.php

Anonymous CVS is five week behind and doesn't have Vim 7.0 yet.


An overview of the files:

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

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-7.0-extra.tar.gz extra (non-Unix) files
extra/vim-7.0-lang.tar.gz multi-language files
doc/vim70html.zip help files converted to HTML

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim70.exe self-installing, includes all runtime files
pc/vim70rt.zip runtime files
pc/vim70lang.zip files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim70.zip GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim70ole.zip GUI binary with OLE support
pc/gvim70_s.zip GUI binary for Windows 3.1 (untested)
pc/vim70d16.zip 16 bit console version for MS-DOS
pc/vim70d32.zip console version for MS-DOS/Windows 95/98
pc/vim70w32.zip console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim70src.zip sources for PC (with CR-LF)

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

SPELL FILES
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/
http://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/

You should be able to do ":set spellang=xx" and Vim will offer you to
download spell files for "xx".



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!

--
Well, you come from nothing, you go back to nothing... What have you
lost? Nothing!
-- Monty Python: The life of Brian

/// 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 ///