[This is not directly about Vim, skip this if you don't care
about Vim's charity]

I have updated the page for the Lord of the Rings Video and DVD.  The
second part "the Two Towers" is now also included.

The extended version of "the Two Towers" will be released in a couple of
weeks.  If it is anything like the extended version of "The Fellowship"
(and the contents listing indicates it) then this is the version I can
recommend.

In case you were thinking of getting a Lord Of The Rings DVD or video,
using the links on this page will give 15% of the sales to Vim's charity
project in Uganda:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html

--
Dogs must have a permit signed by the mayor in order to congregate in groups
of three or more on private property.
		 [real standing law in Oklahoma, United States of America]

  /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@... -- http://www.Moolenaar.net   \\\
///          Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.Vim.org          \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

You can find the Vim desktop calendar here:

	 http://www.moolenaar.net/

On one side there is an easy-to-read 2004 calendar.  On the other side
there is brief info on Vim, ICCF Holland and A-A-P.

You can print this on one sheet of paper, fold it and add a bit of glue
to make it stand on your desk.

It is available in Dutch and English, PostScript and PDF, A4 and Letter
paper.

              Happy Vimming in 2004!

--
George:  "I just got a new set of golf clubs for my wife!"
   John:  "Great trade!"

  /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@... -- http://www.Moolenaar.net   \\\
///          Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.Vim.org          \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of effort.  For the past
two years I have attempted to do this next to a full-time job.  During
that time the todo list kept getting longer and longer.

I have thought about various solutions.  I have decided to ask Vim users
to sponsor my work on Vim.  Through donations I will be able to have a
part-time job and spend much more time on Vim, fixing bugs and adding
new features.

If you want to sponsor my work on Vim, please visit the new sponsor
pages on the Vim web site:

	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/

To give something back to the people who make a donation, they will be
able to vote for new features.  This is how it works:

1.  You make a donation of at least 10 euro.

2.  You will be e-mailed a sponsor key.  Enter this key on your account
     page on the Vim website.  You can easily create an account if you
     don't have one yet.

3.  You can enter your votes on the voting page, only available for
     sponsors who have entered their sponsor key.  The more you donate
     the more your votes count.

4.  The voting results appear on the results page.  It is visible for
     everybody:  http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php

5.  If you make a donation of 100 euro or more your name appears on the
     Vim sponsors list (if you enable this on your account page).


More information can be found in the FAQ:

	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php


The sponsor pages have been made with PHP and MySQL.  If something looks
wrong, let me know.

Happy Vimming!

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
159. You get excited whenever discussing your hard drive.

  /// 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        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

Last week the possibility to sponsor Vim was created.  A reaction was
that bosses and bookkeepers might not like the terms "sponsoring" and
"donation", but would be willing to register Vim.

I have adjusted the text on the web site to allow for registering Vim.
The benefits are the same as for sponsoring.  This is the summary:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Sponsor Vim development

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of effort. For a few
years Bram has attempted to do this next to a full-time job. During that
time the todo list kept getting longer and longer.

In order for Bram to support Vim properly he needs your support. Through
your donations Bram will be able to have a part-time job and spend more
time on fixing bugs and adding new features.


Registered Vim user

You can become a registered Vim user by sending at least 10 euro. This
works similar to sponsoring Vim (see above). Registration was made
possible for the situation where your boss or bookkeeper may be willing
to register software, but does not like the terms "sponsoring" and
"donation".


Voting for features

To give registered Vim users and sponsors an advantage over lurkers,
they can vote for the items Bram should work on. How does this voting
work?

    1. You send at least 10 euro. See here for ways to transfer money:
   	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/index.php#methods
    2. You will be e-mailed a registration key. Enter this key on your
       account page. You can easily create an account if you don't have
       one yet.
    3. You can enter your votes on the voting page. You can only access
       this page after entering a registration key. Your votes will be
       counted for two years.
    4. The voting results appear on the results page, which is visible
       for everybody: http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php

Additionally, once you have send 100 euro or more in total, your name
appears in the Vim hall of honour. But only if you enable this on your
account page.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

For more information: http://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php

There is one new item to vote on:
- create a vim-script maillist, for announcements about new and updated
   scripts

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
10E. You start counting in hex.

  /// 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        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

A collection of items this time.


NEW ITEM TO VOTE ON

Upon request I have added one item to vote on:

   add autocommand events for Insert mode, before/after inserting a character

I also corrected the description for improving Mac OS 9.  Don't know how
it became corrupted, hopefully this doesn't happen again.

More info about voting can be found here:
	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php


TRANSLATED MESSAGES AVAILABLE

I have made the most recent message translations available on the ftp
site.  Like the runtime files, you can run an Aap script to download
them.  Or just get the one you need.  Info is here:
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/messages/README
Note that you must have the gettext tools to be able to use these files.


DOS VERSION OF RUNTIME FILES

Updating the runtime files on Dos/MS-Windows systems had the
disadvantage that all files were downloaded with a unix fileformat.
The dos version of the files are now also available, and the Aap script
has been adjusted to automatically select the filetype to use.  This
works by checking the filetype.vim file, thus make sure that file has
the right fileformat for you.  Info is here:
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/README.txt

You can download the dos runtime files directly from:
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/dos/


MAILLISTS DOWN

The Vim maillists were down on Sunday and Monday morning.  The
connection to the maillist server was broken.  No messages should be
lost, the backup mail server did its work.  But messages were not
distributed until the maillist server was back online.  Thanks to the
people at math.fu-berlin.de for fixing the problem!


VIRUS FLOOD

There is a very busy virus/worm active now.  Although my system won't be
affected, the number of messages I receive is so big that I can hardly
manage to keep up with downloading them from my mail server.  A few
messages might get lost in the masses (I already got more than 10000).

- If you have an MS-Windows system, you MUST have a virus scanner and
   update it daily.  There are too many ways to catch a virus or worm
   now.  Don't think it won't harm you.

- If you maintain a mail server, please install a virus filter.  And set
   it up so that it won't bounce a message back (the From address is
   mostly fake, it will just generate more traffic and tell innocent
   people that their system is infected).

- If you wrote that virus, please report to the nearest police station
   and go to jail.

--
If you don't get everything you want, think of
everything you didn't get and don't want.

  /// 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        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

ICCF FINANCIAL REPORT

Many Vim users support the Kibaale Children's Centre, where AIDS
victims are being helped.  Most of the money is handled by the ICCF
Holland foundation.  The financial report for 2003 is now available
here:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/jaar2003.pdf

It is good to see that we have more sponsors than ever, thus more
children are being helped.  The amount of one-time donations dropped
though, this means less money is available for the clinic.


GETTING VIM WITH GNU ARCH

David Brown made his GNU Arch repository publicly available.  This is an
alternative to using CVS, especially useful when the SourceForge CVS
server is down again.  You can find instructions here:

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

Thanks David!


NEW ITEMS TO VOTE ON

Upon request I have added two items to vote on:

- Add a portable GUI toolkit for nice dialogs in Vim script
- Make Vim available as a .net object

Note that this doesn't mean these would actually be implemented, but the
votes give me an idea of what people prefer.

I have made the full list of features to vote on visible on the voting
page.  This makes it possible to view and print the list to decide what
to vote on.

More info about voting can be found here:
	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php

--
How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity:
16. Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard Kim.

  /// 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        ///
  \\\  Help AIDS victims, buy here: http://ICCF-Holland.org/click1.html  ///

VIMDOC WEBSITE UPDATED

The vimdoc pages were lagging behind, there was no active maintenance.
Dan Sharp took the initiative and has updated the pages now.  Most
noticable is the new look, but the contents has also been improved.

You can find the pages here:
	 http://vimdoc.sf.net

Thanks to Dan Sharp!


VIM DOWNLOAD PAGES UPDATED

The Vim download pages are visited very often.  I made the index a bit
easier to read and split off the parts about sources and patches to
their own page.  The main download page now only contains the list of
all systems.  That should make it a bit simpler to find what you want.

A new page has been created for the translated help files.  There isn't
much yet, only a link to the French translation.  The italian one should
be added soon and more changes to come later.

I want to express my appreciation to the people who did the
translations.  This is a huge achievement!  The use of translated help
files is possible only after the recent patch 6.2.299, thus I hope more
translations will become available now.


NEW ITEM TO VOTE ON

Upon request I have added one item to vote on:

- Add option to highlight the screen line (and column) of the cursor

Note that this doesn't mean this would actually be implemented, but the
votes give me an idea of what people prefer.

More info about voting can be found here:
	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/faq.php

--
ARTHUR: Listen, old crone!  Unless you tell us where we can buy a shrubbery,
         my friend and I will ... we will say "Ni!"
CRONE:  Do your worst!
                  "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/ \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
  \\\  Buy at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

Progress on Vim 6.3

I started with a list of 130 problems reported over the past year.  I
currently have 22 to do.  I also managed to fix problems as soon as they
were reported, thus the list is only getting shorter.  We are getting
much closer to a 6.3 release!

If you have a specific problem that should be fixed for 6.3, please
report it now.  Don't try suggesting new features, bug fixing still has
priority.


Vim sponsoring and registration

Upon request I have added the possibility to subscribe to Vim sponsoring
or registration.  This means you can donate a (small) amount every
month, quarter, year or other period automatically.  This works through
PayPal.

	 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/subscribe.php

The sponsoring is going well.  I am considering making plans for Vim 7
that involve quite a bit of work.

--
    LAUNCELOT leaps into SHOT with a mighty cry and runs the GUARD through and
    hacks him to the floor.  Blood.  Swashbuckling music (perhaps).
    LAUNCELOT races through into the castle screaming.
SECOND SENTRY: Hey!
                  "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/ \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
  \\\  Buy at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

I'm getting closer and closer to a 6.3 beta version.  It looks like I
have made all the changes to the messages, thus this would be a good
moment for translators to update their files.

See the download page on how to get the latest version, including all
patches: http://www.vim.org/download.php.
Note that CVS usually lags behind about half a day.  You need up to
patch 6.2.514.  If you are impatient use Aap with "aap CVS=no" to apply
all the patches.

To see what message files I currently have look here:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/messages.  Either make a diff against one of
these files or send me the whole updated file.

All maintainers of syntax, indent and other plugins are also requested
to send any updated versions.  To check what I currently have look here:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime.  For a simple way to obtain them see
http://www.vim.org/runtime.php.

Especially pay attention to e-mail addresses and URLs.  I often get
remarks on script files that should go to the maintainer, but the
address in the header no longer works.

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
47. You are so familiar with the WWW that you find the search engines useless.

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

Announcing:  Vim (Vi IMproved) version 6.3a BETA
                                the Amiga resurrection edition
     Author:  Bram Moolenaar et al.


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

This is a bugfix BETA release of Vim.  Since Vim 6.2 hundreds of
reported problems have been fixed.  Also included are new and updated
syntax files, translated menus and messages.

The main new feature are:
- Support for translated help files.  The files themselves are available
   separately, see http://www.vim.org/translations.php.
- More conversions are possible on Macintosh and MS-Windows without help
   of the iconv library.
- Amiga binaries are included again.  My Amiga was miraculously healed
   from a harddisk problem.
- The Win32 self-installing exe now also includes vim.exe, the console
   version.  Despite that the file size is smaller than before, because
   of a new compression algorithm.
- When formatting text, marks are kept at the same position.
- Support for the NetBeans interface on MS-Windows.
- MS-Windows: Vim can run inside an MDI window of another application.
- Mousewheel support on the Macintosh

Once you have installed 6.3a BETA you can find details about the changes
since Vim 6.2 with ":help version-6.3".  There is a long list of fixed
bugs.


Testing
-------

This is a BETA test version.  Although most of the changes were already
released as patches and have been tested for a while, some problems may
appear.  Please report everything that doesn't look right.  Vim 6.3
should be the most reliable Vim ever!


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

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-6.3a-extra.tar.gz     extra files
extra/vim-6.3a-lang.tar.gz      multi-language files
doc/vim63ahtml.zip              help files converted to HTML

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim63a.exe                  self-installing, includes all runtime files
pc/vim63art.zip                 runtime files (all of them)
pc/vim63alang.zip               files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim63a.zip                  GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim63aole.zip               GUI binary with OLE support
pc/vim63ad16.zip                16 bits real mode - works on any system
pc/vim63ad32.zip                32 bits protected mode - needs 386 and DPMI
pc/vim63aw32.zip                console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim63asrc.zip                sources for PC (with CR-LF)

AMIGA:
amiga/vim63art.tgz              runtime files (always needed)
amiga/vim63abin.tgz             executable files
amiga/vim63asrc.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 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 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!

--
Birthdays are healthy.  The more you have them, the longer you live.

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

BOOK

A new Vim book is available: "Vim ge-packt", by Reinhard Wobst.

This is a small sized book, but its 350 pages contain lots of useful
information. Currently only available in German. Written for Vim version
6.2, thus it also explains things like exception handling
("Ausnahmebehandlung"). The book was published April 2004.

Lots of tables and examples that make it easy to read. The author has
added a lot of useful tips. You can either find the section that
explains the thing you want to do, or read it from start to end and
encounter things you never thought about looking for.

Compared to the "big" Vim book by Steve Oualline this is more a
reference guide than a tutorial. Explanations for the more advanced
features are explained better, there is less text for a first-time Vim
user. It's about a third of the price.

If you order this book from Amazon.de, please use the link on this ICCF
page, so that 7.5% of the price goes to help orphans in Uganda:
	 http://iccf-holland.org/click5.html#gepackt


PRESENTATION

I will be doing a presentation "Wat schuift dat?" about making money
with Open Source software at the NLUUG conference on May 27th in Ede,
the Netherlands.  This will be in Dutch.  More info here:
	 http://www.nluug.nl/events/vj04/


BETA TESTING

The Vim 6.3a beta release has triggered quite a few bug reports,
especially for Windows 98.  I have now adjusted so much code that a
second beta test version will be required.  Especially because the NSIS
installer has been adjusted.  With a bit of luck 6.3b will be ready in a
couple of days.

--
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

Announcing:  Vim (Vi IMproved) version 6.3b BETA
     Author:  Bram Moolenaar et al.


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

This is a bugfix BETA release of Vim.  Since Vim 6.2 hundreds of
reported problems have been fixed.  Also included are new and updated
syntax files, translated menus and messages.

The main new feature are:
- Support for translated help files.  The files themselves are available
   separately, see http://www.vim.org/translations.php.
- More conversions are possible on Macintosh and MS-Windows without help
   of the iconv library.
- Amiga binaries are included again.  My Amiga was miraculously healed
   from a harddisk problem.
- The Win32 self-installing exe now also includes vim.exe, the console
   version.  Despite that the file size is smaller than before, because
   of using LZMA compression.
- When formatting text, marks are kept at the same position.
- Support for the NetBeans interface on MS-Windows.
- MS-Windows: Vim can run inside an MDI window of another application
   (see ":help -P").
- Mousewheel support on the Macintosh.

Since the 6.3a release several problems have been fixed.  The most
important ones:
- The NSIS installer didn't work on Windows 98.
- Editing files on Windows 98 was impossible when 'encoding' was "utf-8".
- Win32: Characters not in the active codepage were not displayed
   correctly in the window title and menus.
- A few files were missing, such as src/os_mac.c and the Russian tutor.

Once you have installed 6.3b BETA you can find details about the changes
since Vim 6.2 with ":help version-6.3".  There is a long list of fixed
bugs.


Testing
-------

This is a BETA test version.  Although most of the changes were already
released as patches and have been tested for a while, some problems may
appear.  Please report everything that doesn't look right.  Vim 6.3
should be the most reliable Vim ever!


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

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-6.3b-extra.tar.gz         extra files
extra/vim-6.3b-lang.tar.gz          multi-language files
extra/vim-6.3a-6.3b-extra.diff.gz   diff for extra files
extra/vim-6.3a-6.3b-lang.diff.gz    diff for multi-language files
doc/vim63bhtml.zip                  help files converted to HTML

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim63b.exe                  self-installing, includes all runtime files
pc/vim63brt.zip                 runtime files (all of them)
pc/vim63blang.zip               files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim63b.zip                  GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim63bole.zip               GUI binary with OLE support
pc/vim63bd16.zip                16 bits real mode - works on any system
pc/vim63bd32.zip                32 bits protected mode - needs 386 and DPMI
pc/vim63bw32.zip                console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim63bsrc.zip                sources for PC (with CR-LF)

AMIGA:
amiga/vim63brt.tgz              runtime files (always needed)
amiga/vim63bbin.tgz             executable files
amiga/vim63bsrc.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 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 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!

--
     [clop clop]
ARTHUR:  Old woman!
DENNIS:  Man!
ARTHUR:  Man, sorry.  What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS:  I'm thirty seven.
ARTHUR:  What?
DENNIS:  I'm thirty seven -- I'm not old!
                                   The Quest for the Holy Grail (Monty Python)

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

Announcing:  Vim (Vi IMproved) version 6.3
     Author:  Bram Moolenaar et al.


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

This is a bugfix release of Vim.  Since Vim 6.2 hundreds of reported
problems have been fixed.  Also included are new and updated syntax
files, translated menus and messages.

Two Beta versions revealed a number of problems, mostly for MS-Windows
98.  They have all been fixed and tested again.  A few old problems were
also fixed.  I am confident that the 6.3 release is the most stable Vim
ever!

The main new features are:
- Support for translated help files.  The files themselves are available
   separately, see http://www.vim.org/translations.php.
- More conversions are possible on Macintosh and MS-Windows without help
   of the iconv library.
- Amiga binaries are included again.  My Amiga was miraculously healed
   from a harddisk problem.
- The Win32 self-installing exe now also includes vim.exe, the console
   version.  Despite that the file size is smaller than before, because
   of using LZMA compression.
- When formatting text, marks are kept at the same position.
- Support for the NetBeans interface on MS-Windows.
- MS-Windows: Vim can run inside an MDI window of another application
   (see ":help -P").  Doesn't work for all MDI applications though.
- Mousewheel support on the Macintosh.

Once you have installed 6.3 you can find details about the changes since
Vim 6.2 with ":help version-6.3".  There is a long list of fixed bugs.


What is next?
-------------

Vim 7!  If I keep getting donations from sponsors and registered Vim
users I will be able to add several "big" features.  The list of votes
is an indication of the items that might get added in Vim 7:
         http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php


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

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, obtaining Vim
through Aap, CVS, etc.:

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

All files can be found below this directory:

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

A list of mirror sites can be found here:

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

An overview of the files:

UNIX:
unix/vim-6.3.tar.bz2           sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed
         The same in parts that fit on a floppy:
   unix/vim-6.3-rt1.tar.gz        runtime files part 1
   unix/vim-6.3-rt2.tar.gz        runtime files part 2
   unix/vim-6.3-src1.tar.gz       sources part 1
   unix/vim-6.3-src2.tar.gz       sources part 2

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-6.3-extra.tar.gz     extra files
extra/vim-6.3-lang.tar.gz      multi-language files
doc/vim63html.zip              help files converted to HTML

DIFFS between 6.3b and 6.3:
unstable/unix/vim-6.3b-6.3.diff.gz          sources and runtime files
unstable/extra/vim-6.3b-6.3-extra.diff.gz   extra files
unstable/extra/vim-6.3b-6.3-lang.diff.gz    multi-language files

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim63.exe                  self-installing, includes all runtime files,
                                    gvim.exe, vim.exe, etc.
pc/vim63rt.zip                 runtime files (use with one of the binaries)
pc/vim63lang.zip               files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim63.zip                  GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim63ole.zip               GUI binary with OLE support
pc/vim63d16.zip                16 bits real mode - works on any system
pc/vim63d32.zip                32 bits protected mode - needs 386 and DPMI
pc/vim63w32.zip                console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim63src.zip                sources for PC (with CR-LF)

AMIGA:
amiga/vim63rt.tgz              runtime files (always needed)
amiga/vim63bin.tgz             executable files
amiga/vim63src.tgz             sources packed for Amiga


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.  First search the archive, it is full of useful
hints.

If you want to help Vim development or get the latest patches, subscribe
to the vim-dev mailing list.

Subject specific lists:
Multi-byte issues: vim-multibyte
Macintosh issues:  vim-mac

More info on the maillists and links to the archives:
         http://www.vim.org/maillist.php


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 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 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.


Sponsoring
----------

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes an awful lot of time.  Through
your donations Bram will be able to have a part-time job and spend more
time on Vim.  See:
         http://www.vim.org/sponsor/


Happy Vimming!

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
65. The last time you looked at the clock it was 11:30pm, and in what
     seems like only a few seconds later, your sister runs past you to
     catch her 7am school bus.

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

I will be doing a Vim tutorial during the SANE conference in September.
It is intended for Vim users who know the basic editing commands and
want to learn how to edit more effectively.

This tutorial presents Vim solutions to every-day editing tasks, such as
answering e-mail, writing source code and creating web pages. Practical
examples will be given for clever solutions, which you can adjust to
your own situation: Formatting text, finding your way in a tree of
source files, using search patterns, etc.

An introduction is given to customizing Vim to your needs. Writing Vim
scripts with functions, creating user commands and mappings that you can
automate editing tasks with. And when Vim is not enough, know how to
invoke external commands and use the Perl or Python interface.

     Date: September 27, 2004
Location: RAI Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  Website: http://www.sane.nl


THE SANE 2004 CONFERENCE

The Vim tutorial is part of the SANE 2004 conference.  There are several
other interesting tutorials, given by experts in the field.  Examples:

- MySQL by the writer of the MySQL documentation.
- Linux Firewals by the programmer of the firewall code in the 2.0
   kernel.
- FreeBSD 5.2 by Kirk McKusick.

Presentations at the conference:

- Keynote by Paul Kilmartin, Director of eBay.
- Presentations by Unix veterans Peter Salus and Wietse Venema.
- Oscar winner John Nelson on the special effects in the movie
   "I Robot".
- And many others.


FREE SOFTWARE BAZAAR

Also interesting is the Free Software Bazaar on Wednesday evening.
Many Open Source developers will be there.  Free entrance!

I will lead a Vim 7 Birds Of a Feather session.  An overview of the
groups that already confirmed they will be present can be found here:

	 http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane2004/bazaar.html

There is still room for more Free and Open Source developers to join the
Bazaar.  A unique opportunity to show the people what you are working on
and get direct feedback.

Richard Stallman will do a presentation at the Bazaar.

--
Sometimes you can protect millions of dollars in your budget simply by buying
a bag of cookies, dropping it on the budget anylyst's desk, and saying
something deeply personal such as "How was your weekend, big guy?"
				 (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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

I will be doing a Birds Of a Feather session on Vim:

         Subject: Vim 7: Wishes and implementation
            Date: September 29
            Time: between 9 pm and 10 pm
           Place: Amsterdam, RAI congress center

I plan to talk about what the plans are for Vim 7: what users would
like to see added (using the voting list) and how to implement that.
This is a discussion, I plan to do more listening than speaking.

The BOF takes place during the Free Software Bazaar, part of the SANE
conference.  The Bazaar is free to attend, no registration required.
Richard M. Stallman will do a presentation at the Bazaar.  For more
information see:

	 http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane2004/bazaar.html


TUTORIAL

There also is a Vim tutorial on Monday, September 27.  It is intended
for Vim users who know the basic editing commands and want to learn how
to edit more effectively.

This tutorial presents Vim solutions to every-day editing tasks, such as
answering e-mail, writing source code and creating web pages.  Practical
examples will be given for clever solutions, which you can adjust to
your own situation: Formatting text, finding your way in a tree of
source files, using search patterns, etc.

An introduction is given to customizing Vim to your needs.  Writing Vim
scripts with functions, creating user commands and mappings that you can
automate editing tasks with.  And when Vim is not enough, know how to
invoke external commands and use the Perl or Python interface.


THE SANE 2004 CONFERENCE

The Vim tutorial is part of the SANE 2004 conference.  There are several
other interesting tutorials, given by experts in the field.  Examples:

- MySQL by the writer of the MySQL documentation.
- Linux Firewals by the programmer of the firewall code in the 2.0
   kernel.
- FreeBSD 5.2 by Marshall Kirk McKusick, author of the FreeBSD 5.2
   internals book.

Presentations at the conference:

- Keynote by Paul Kilmartin, Director of eBay.
- Presentations by Unix veterans Peter Salus and Wietse Venema.
- Oscar winner John Nelson on the special effects in the movie
   "I Robot".
- And many others.

For more information and registration: http://www.sane.nl

--
"Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with nail clippings thrown in."
                                                          -- Larry Wall

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

The BOF session on Vim 7 was a great success.  About 40 to 50 people
appeared and we had a good discussion.  We talked quite some time about
clever completion (intellisense) and how to implement that.  Among the
other subjects was how to navigate through the undo tree.  This is
followed up with a discussion on the vim-dev maillist.

A recording of the BOF session can be found on the ftp site.  It lasts
for about 43 minutes.  It is available in Ogg Vorbis (about 22 Mbyte)
and mp3 (about 31 Mbyte):

	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/extra/sane2004_vim_bof.ogg
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/extra/sane2004_vim_bof.mp3

Thanks to Aschwin Marsman for making the recording.

The BOF session was part of the Free Software Bazaar at SANE 2004.
More info and pictures can be found at http://www.sane.nl.

--
From "know your smileys":
  :-& Eating spaghetti

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

A few weeks ago I have visited Vim's charityware project in Uganda.
You can find my report with a few pictures here:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/news.html

A dutch version is also available:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/newsn.html


If you enjoy using Vim, please consider sponsoring a child or making a
donation to the Kibaale Children's Centre.

If you have questions about the project, feel free to ask me.

Here is the text without the pictures:

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Visit to Kibaale Childrens Centre, November 2004

More of the same - that could be the boring summary of my trip;  but this
actually means things are going very well.  Quite often a project in Africa
goes down the hill after a few years of success, so a childrens centre that
started over ten years ago and continues to grow can be regarded a remarkable
achievement.


SCHOOL

The school has added two more classes: one for primary and one for secondary.
Within a few years there will be two classes at every level.  A block with two
new classrooms has been built.  The vocational school, which teaches tailoring,
carpentry and building, continues to run well.  The carpentry students were
busy making furniture for the new secondary library and study room.  It is a
good
example of how the children learn a useful profession, and we save money at
the same time!  There is a total of about seven hundred children in school
now.  While I was there the P7 group was writing their exams.  To help the
children do their studies properly they were allowed to sleep at the school,
so that they could study in the evening by the light provided by the
generator.

Forty-four children in S4 were taking their last exams: Biology and Swahili.
This is the final class for them at the project; after the results have
arrived they will have to decide what to do next.  We hope that many of them
can continue in advanced level, teacher training or something like that, but
that is expensive.  It is not only the cost of the school; they also need to
pay for boarding, since the distance to their homes is too great.  They
can only undertake this level of education when a sponsor offers to pay for most
of
the costs.

The special needs class is a remarkable group.  There are five children who
are deaf, and five children with mental disabilities.  I talked to their
teacher, Judith.  She finds it a challenge to teach these children, since it
takes a lot of time before they understand something.  The progress they make
and the smile on their faces is her reward.  These children are not sponsored
yet, and the staff required causes the cost to be relatively high.  But we
do want to continue to help these children.


CLINIC

The clinic was busy as ever.  On Monday morning, when the doctor arrived, the
patients quickly lined up to await their consultation.  This went on for the
whole day; the doctor only went home when it was getting dark.  Fortunately, the
government now provides us with some of the standard medicine.  Treatment for
less common problems still needs to be paid for by us and is sometimes
very expensive.  Half of the one-time donations is used to cover this.


STAFF

The foreign volunteers at KCC currently number five.  Jackie Ammeter is the
director for almost five years now; she understands the local people very
well and knows how to deal with the problems that are encountered every day.
Kenny Corpeno takes care of the sponsorship administration.  All the letters
to and from sponsors go through her.  She also handles special requests from
needy children, for example when they run out of food.  That happened often
this year, because of a serious drought.  I am glad I met Kenny and hope to
continue working with her.  Margaret Kolthammer takes care of the school
administration.  Sandi and Earl help Jackie with whatever needs to be done.  A
nice team, I am grateful for their hospitality and company during my visit.

There is a large number (about eighty) of Ugandan staff at the project - too
many to get to know more than a few.  Some of the veterans are the site
manager Patrick, his wife and teacher Ellen, the child assistant Cephas, the
cook Bira and headmaster Peter.  It is good to see that many things are taken
care of by Ugandans and that their experience grows.  They form a good team to
keep the project running.  That they work well together can be observed by the
growing number of married couples :-).


PROBLEMS

Is there nothing negative to mention?  Well, not on a big scale.  But there
are small problems that keep coming back, such as girls in school getting
pregnant and guardians abusing children.  Even though many attempts are made
to avoid this, it still happens.  I think we can only continue to try hard to
educate the people about these issues, so that the number of cases goes down.


NATURE

In the past years my time in Uganda was limited and I could only visit the
project.  Fortunately, this time I managed to make a weekend trip to Murchison
Falls national park, a very nice nature reserve.  Farming is prohibited in
this area and the wild animals have priority.  I saw elephants,
giraffes, many birds and even lions.  The center of the park is an impressive
waterfall in the river Nile.  The water falls fifty meters with so much
power that it makes the rocks shake.  It shows what a beautiful country Uganda
is.


COMMUNICATION

As a special task on this trip I wanted to improve the communication
facilities.  That has always been a problem, since internet and fax is only
available in the city.  Answering a simple question often takes weeks.  There
is a GSM network in the region, but the signal at the project site is very weak.
I
brought a specific phone, antennas and cables with me for experiments.
Unfortunately, the phone died before I could do any measurements.  It took a
week to find out that it could not be repaired.  I managed to obtain a
replacement phone in the city, but that one didn't work with the antennas.
That was very frustrating, but then I got lucky: the village phone that was
ordered months ago finally arrived two days before my trip ended - and the
antenna plugs it uses fit the cables that I brought.  Walking around with this
setup, an antenna on a pole and pointing it in all directions, I managed to
find a few spots with good signal.  As a result it is now possible to use a
mobile phone at the project without having to climb a hill.  The next step is
to setup e-mail.  Since I didn't have a data cable for this phone I couldn't
do that this trip.  Also, a data connection is only possible for post-paid and
we need to reserve budget for it.  Hopefully we will manage to find money and
make e-mail work soon.


CONCLUSION

I had a very good time in Uganda and was pleased to see to the project is
running well.  More and more children profit from our work and help.  I am
already looking forward to my next trip!


Bram Moolenaar
Treasurer ICCF Holland

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

--
The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

  /// 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 at Amazon and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/click1.html ///

For those people that vote for Vim features: I have added a new item:

	 make it possible to use Vim as a plugin in Eclipse

Several people asked for it.  You may want to shift your votes around.

Note that I can't promise this plugin will be written by me.  The
Eclipse interface is very complex.  But I would like to know how much it
is wanted, compared to the other features.

For more information about voting: http://www.vim.org/sponsor/index.php


As a side note: If you didn't get the Lord of the Rings yet, you might
want to order it through this ICCF page:
	 http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html
This will help needy children in Uganda (Vim's charity).

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
47. You are so familiar with the WWW that you find the search engines useless.

  /// 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   ///

This has become a tradition: I have made the Vim calendar for 2005
available on my website (scroll all the way down):

	 http://www.moolenaar.net

This is a desktop calendar, folded from one sheet of paper.  On one side
it has all the days nicely aligned, on the other side is brief info
about ICCF Holland (Vim's charity), Vim, A-A-P (a project I did last
year) and Zimbu Labs (my little company).

It's available in English and Dutch as PDF and compressed PostScript.
The English version both in A4 and Letter size.

I wish you all a nice holiday season and happy Vimming in 2005!

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
97. Your mother tells you to remember something, and you look for
     a File/Save command.

  /// 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   ///

Many Vim users support the Kibaale Children's Centre in Uganda, where
AIDS victims are being helped.  Most of the money is handled by the ICCF
Holland foundation.  The financial report for 2004 is now available here:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/jaar2004.pdf

And in Dutch:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/jaar2004n.pdf

The total amount sent to the project in Uganda is about the same as the
previous two years.  Although it's nice to be stable, I was hoping for a
bit more.  The project keeps growing!

The challenge for 2005 will be to support the children that finished
secondary school and now want continue at advanced level, university, or
learn a profession.  It is important to give them help with their final
phase in education.  But, as parents of teenagers know, it's also the
most expensive phase.

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
193. You ask your girlfriend to drive home so you can sit back with
      your PDA and download the information to your laptop

  /// 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   ///

The Vim website has been quite slow lately.  This was mostly caused by
the MySQL server being heavily loaded.

I have now setup caching for the index page.  This information doesn't
change that often, thus doing a database query every time isn't really
needed.  The page is now updated every ten minutes.

Hopefully the only thing you notice is the fast loading.  If you spot
another problem, let me know.

--
If Microsoft would build a car...
... You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

  /// 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   ///

This message is about Vim's charity, not about Vim itself.  If you are
not interested, please just skip it.  Flame me if you want...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In October I am going to visit the Kibaale Children's Centre in Uganda.
Communication with the project has always been difficult, because they
are in a remote area.  Last year I managed to setup a GSM antenna so
that they could be called.

I have now heard that the phone broke down.  I don't know why or if they
can get it fixed.  But at least I want to bring another phone on my
trip, either as a replacement or as a backup.  I also want to setup
e-mail, because this is the most convenient method and has much lower
cost.

For this purpose I'm looking for a second hand phone.  Hopefully someone
has one laying around because he got a new one.  The phone may be
scratched and look ugly, so long as it works properly.

I can't use just any phone, because it needs to be connected to a GSM
antenna and to a computer.  The cables for this are hard to get and/or
expensive.

The preferred models are Nokia 5110/6110/7110/6210/6310.  These all use
the same cables and have an antenna connector on the back (usually
covered by a round rubber plug).  For these I can easily get cables that
I know will work (I used a Nokia 7110 last year).  Thus I can use these
even if you don't have the cables.

For other models I would need a complete set:
- Phone with internal modem
- Antenna cable (adapter) which fits an FME plug.  Note that signal
   strength matters, thus it should be a good cable, not an inductive
   coupled one.
- PC cable to USB, with software that supports using the phone as a modem.

If you are in Europe you can send it directly to me:

	 Bram Moolenaar
	 Clematisstraat 30
	 5925 BE  Venlo
	 The Netherlands

When outside of Europe we need to be aware of taxes.  If you can clearly
mark the package as something up to $20 it should be OK.  If it goes
over that I have to pay taxes (also over the transport costs), this may
make it unattractive.

I'm packing my bags October 15, thus it should be here before then.
Sooner is better, so that I can try it out before leaving.  In case of
any doubt, please ask me before sending anything.

Here you can read the report of my trip last year, with a picture of the
GSM antenna I setup then: http://iccf-holland.org/news.html

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
244. You use more than 20 passwords.

  /// 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   ///

It looks like Vim 7 is still far from a release.  There are quite a few
things to be worked on.  And I'm going to Uganda for about a month, that
pushes it further forward.

Vim 6.3 was released over a year ago.  There are patches, but many
people prefer installing Vim directly, with all the updated runtime
files.  Therefore I'm planning a 6.4 release.  This is just going to be
Vim 6.3 with all the patches included and the most recent runtime files.

If there is some bug that was fixed in Vim 7 but not put back into Vim
6.3, let me know and I'll see if the risk is small enough to do that
now.  Stability is the main goal of this release, thus I will reject
anything that I am not confident about.

The most recent runtime files can be found here:
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/
If you spot an outdated file there, please ask the maintainer to send me
an update.

Don't send requests for new features, I will ignore them.

It has been a long time since I made a release, I'm first going to make
Vim 6.4a beta.  Mostly to verify the release building is OK.

Schedule:
Right now, until October 7: Maintainers send me updated runtime files
     Weekend of October 8/9: Vim 6.4a beta
     Less than a week later: Vim 6.4

--
MICHAEL PALIN PLAYED: 1ST SOLDIER WITH A KEEN INTEREST IN BIRDS, DENNIS, MR
                       DUCK (A VILLAGE CARPENTER WHO IS ALMOST KEENER THAN
                       ANYONE ELSE TO BURN WITCHES), THREE-HEADED KNIGHT, SIR
                       GALAHAD, KING OF SWAMP CASTLE, BROTHER MAYNARD'S ROOMATE
                  "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/ \\\
\\\              Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.A-A-P.org        ///
  \\\     Buy LOTR 3 and help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF.nl/lotr.html   ///

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   ///

For people building Vim on Unix: You should use the path available here:

	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/patches/6.4a/6.4a.001

Sorry about this.

I routinely did "make depend" without checking the results.  It appears
a newer gcc interprets the "-MM" argument in a different way, messing up
the generated dependencies.  #@#$!*&!  This won't be easy to work around
either (please throw some rotten food in the direction of the gcc
maintainers! :-).

Now you know why BETA tests are required...

--
The only way the average employee can speak to an executive is by taking a
second job as a golf caddie.
				 (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   ///

Because of the annoying problem with dependencies in src/Makefile, I
made a Vim 6.4b release for Unix only.  For other systems there are no
changes (except a few less important changes in the help files).

This makes it simpler for people on Unix systems to try out the new 6.4
BETA without the need to apply a patch.  This should also give the
autoconf code to work around the gcc -MM problem some testing.

You can find Vim 6.4b here:
	 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/unix/

--
While it's true that many normal people whould prefer not to _date_ an
engineer, most normal people harbor an intense desire to _mate_ with them,
thus producing engineerlike children who will have high-paying jobs long
before losing their virginity.
				 (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   ///

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


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

This is a bugfix 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.

A Beta version revealed a few problems, mostly in the creation of the
generated files.  This has been fixed and tested again.  I am confident
that the 6.4 release is the most stable Vim ever!

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


What is next?
-------------

Vim 7!  If I keep getting donations from sponsors and registered Vim
users I will be able to add several "big" features.  One of the new
features is spell checking, it already works quite well.  The list of
votes is an indication of other items that might get added in Vim 7:
         http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php


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

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, obtaining Vim
through Aap, CVS, etc.:

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

All files can be found below this directory:

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

A list of mirror sites can be found here:

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

An overview of the files:

UNIX:
unix/vim-6.4.tar.bz2           sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed
         The same in parts that fit on a floppy:
   unix/vim-6.4-rt1.tar.gz        runtime files part 1
   unix/vim-6.4-rt2.tar.gz        runtime files part 2
   unix/vim-6.4-src1.tar.gz       sources part 1
   unix/vim-6.4-src2.tar.gz       sources part 2
unix/vim-6.3-6.4.diff.gz       diff between 6.3 and 6.4

VARIOUS:
extra/vim-6.4-extra.tar.gz     extra files
extra/vim-6.4-lang.tar.gz      multi-language files
extra/vim-6.3-6.4-extra.diff.gz    diff for extra files
extra/vim-6.3-6.4-lang.diff.gz     diff for multi-language files
doc/vim64html.zip              help files converted to HTML

DIFFS between 6.4b and 6.4:
unstable/unix/vim-6.4b-6.4.diff.gz          sources and runtime files
unstable/extra/vim-6.4b-6.4-extra.diff.gz   extra files
unstable/extra/vim-6.4b-6.4-lang.diff.gz    multi-language files

MS-WINDOWS:
pc/gvim64.exe                  self-installing, includes all runtime files,
                                    gvim.exe, vim.exe, etc.
pc/vim64rt.zip                 runtime files (use with one of the binaries)
pc/vim64lang.zip               files for translated messages and menus
pc/gvim64.zip                  GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
pc/gvim64ole.zip               GUI binary with OLE support
pc/gvim64_s.zip                GUI binary for Windows 3.x with Win32s
pc/vim64d16.zip                16 bits real mode - works on any system
pc/vim64d32.zip                32 bits protected mode - needs 386 and DPMI
pc/vim64w32.zip                console version for Windows NT/2000/XP
pc/vim64src.zip                sources for PC (with CR-LF)

AMIGA:
amiga/vim64rt.tgz              runtime files (always needed)
amiga/vim64bin.tgz             executable files
amiga/vim64src.tgz             sources packed for Amiga


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.  First search the archive, it is full of useful
hints.

If you want to help Vim development or get the latest patches, subscribe
to the vim-dev mailing list.

Subject specific lists:
Multi-byte issues: vim-multibyte
Macintosh issues:  vim-mac

More info on the maillists and links to the archives:
         http://www.vim.org/maillist.php


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.


Sponsoring
----------

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes an awful lot of time.  Through
your donations Bram will be able to have a part-time job and spend more
time on Vim.  See:
         http://www.vim.org/sponsor/


Happy Vimming!

--
The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through
three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and
Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases.
For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can
we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by
the question 'Where shall we have lunch?'
		 -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

  /// 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   ///

The Vim 6.4 binaries for OS/2 are now also available.  Thanks to David
Sanders for making these.

You can find the Vim 6.4 files here: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/

os2/vim64rt.tgz              runtime files (always needed)
os2/vim64os2.tgz             executable files, including EMX libraries

Install instructions can be found in the README_os2.txt file.

Happy Vimming!

--
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

  /// 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   ///

After I returned from my trip to Uganda I had a big pile of mail waiting
for me, both paper and electronic.  I have now finished dealing with
this.  If you expected a reply from me but didn't get it, please send
your message again.  It might have been caught by the spam filter.


Now about my trip, visiting Vim's charity project in Uganda.  You can
find my visit report online here, with pictures:

	 http://iccf-holland.org/news.html (English)
	 http://iccf-holland.org/newsn.html (Dutch)

I'll include the English text below.

We are currently looking for donations and sponsors to help the children
that are finished at our school and want to continue at advanced level,
university or a professional training.  This costs much more, not only
for the school but also because the children need to rent a room in the
city and pay for their meals.  This part of their education is very
important, it turns them into skilled workers.  So please consider
helping them.

If you are going to do your Christmas shopping at Amazon, use the links
on this page: http://iccf-holland.org/click1.html
It doesn't cost you anything and will help the children in Kibaale.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Progress and complications

In the past years Uganda has seen an economic growth of about 5% per
year. This is very noticeable in the streets. You can see more vehicles
driving around, new shops, and better dressed people. Kibaale now has a
real petrol station! It is operated manually, since there is still no
electricity, but it works. Now we don't have to drive to Rakai to get
petrol and diesel.

The Kibaale Childrens Centre has grown a little bit. There is one new
block of classrooms and a big rainwater tank at the primary school is
almost finished. This will provide clean water for the children. Water
has always been a problem in this area; last year I reported the
borehole was fitted with a filter to improve the water quality. It still
works, but the amount of water is not enough for the 700 children at the
school.

Last year about a dozen of the children sponsored through ICCF Holland
finished secondary school and are now doing advanced level, business
school or another form of professional training. This means these
children have to move from their simple house in Kibaale to "the big
city" and find a place to live there. We need to pay for their housing,
food, education, books, etc. Obviously that is quite expensive; and
since they are far away from Kibaale and in many different places it's
difficult to keep track of these children.

The office at the project is currently struggling to manage this. Most
of the issues can be solved with money, but we need to make sure it is
used for the right purpose. There have been reports of a school where
money went missing and a student that faked a letter. We need to verify
the requests, which takes time and effort. I hope this won't result in
some of the honest children being slowed down in their studies.

I interviewed Namate Rose. She first studied in our school in Kibaale,
continued at advanced level in Masaka and has now finished university in
Jinja. She is confident that she did well and her exam results will be
positive. That will make her a qualified secondary school teacher. It is
very good to see one poor orphan that we helped become an educated
person; I hope many will follow.


Ssese Islands

One of the children I wanted to visit is in an agricultural school on
Ssese islands. Friends of Dave and Ruth Frith sponsor a couple of
children there, and so we planned to combine work with pleasure: visit
the children and have a day off at the nice islands. Well, it didn't
work out as planned...

We managed to get to the ferry landing site quite early, and noticed it
was coming in. But instead of letting us aboard they brought in welding
equipment and started to fix the ferry. At first they said it would take
a couple of hours, but it turned out to be five! In the meantime a lot
of vehicles arrived that all wanted to go to Ssese islands. When they
finally started boarding it became a race to be the first on the ferry.
This involved a lot of brutal driving, resulting in scratches and broken
lights. We didn't want to risk damaging the vehicle and failed to get on
board. Oh well, maybe next year.

But the day wasn't finished yet. On our way back to Kibaale we found a
huge python. Someone apparently killed it and left it stretched on the
road (see the pictures page ). There was no way around it, I had to
drive over it. After taking a couple of pictures we continued driving
back to Kibaale and had two flat tires! Makes you wonder whether it was
caused by driving over the snake. To make matters worse the vehicle had
no spanner. Friendly Ugandans stopped to help us, even though it was
already dark.

Fortunately there was a second chance to make a trip. We went to lake
Mburo national park for a weekend. I'm glad I could see some of the
beautiful nature that Uganda has. Lake Mburo is the smallest park and
the only one that has zebras. I enjoyed driving around and seeing many
wild animals, including impala, buffalo, hippo and topi. No flat tires
this time!


Internet

Last year I failed to setup e-mail at the project, but I did learn from
the experience, and this time I came prepared. I brought several phones,
a special antenna and a bag with cables. Last year I found that with
this antenna it is possible to get a good signal for a mobile phone. I
had heard that the phone provider MTN had started to support GPRS, but I
was not sure if it would work in Kibaale, so that was the first thing to
try out. I visited an MTN service desk in Kampala before going down to
Kibaale, and they entered settings in the Nokia 6310 that I brought. The
first day in Kibaale I managed to make this phone work to connect my
computer to the internet. Great!

The cost is reasonable, 5 shillings per Kbyte. A big advantage is that a
slow or failed connection will not make sending data more expensive. The
disadvantage is that browsing the internet quickly costs a few thousand
shillings (1500 shillings is a US dollar). Thus I had to find a way to
do e-mail efficiently, avoiding webmail. This kept me busy for a few
weeks, because several attempts failed. I finally figured out that MTN
has a firewall that blocks many ports. Fortunately my friend Cor in
Kampala could setup a simple POP/SMTP account for me on standard ports
and that worked. Hopefully it keeps on working the coming year.

This still isn't ideal, a flat-rate connection would be preferred.
Therefore I also tried another system, called CDMA, but could not detect
any signal in Kibaale. The progress in Uganda continues, hopefully a
more cost effective solution will become available soon.


More...

At the project many of the usual activities continue. Arleen had
restarted her work to improve the quality of teaching. She does teacher
training and curriculum development. Trying the improve the quality of
education is something that will never stop. The clinic was busy as
always. I joined the nurses on a immunization trip. It continued until
late, and we had to drive back in the dark.

We worked hard to get the children make a Christmas card for their
sponsor. It's quite a challenge to help them write a good letter. Each
year I ask them to write in a way that the sponsor gets useful
information. I was in the S1 classroom for this, and now know how hard
it is to explain to these children in remote Kibaale how to write
something that a person in Holland would like to read. The cultural
difference is huge. They often end up writing a "thank you" note,
instead of relating important things that happened in their family.

Photos and text are quite limited in what they can show about what goes
on at the project. I brought a video camera, interviewed several people,
and filmed the children in the classrooms, on the playground and in
their homes. The coming months I will edit the four hours of video into
to a short documentary. People with sufficient bandwidth will be able to
download it.


Plans

The coming year the center will concentrate on quality improvement. That
means we do not start new activities but do better at what we are
currently doing. A problem is that this isn't popular with people making
donations, as we will not be able to show a new building; but we do need
to invest in better guidance for the older students, repair some of the
buildings, continue teacher training, get more books for the library,
etc. We are helping 700 children, and we will do our best to help them
grow and become responsible adults.


Bram Moolenaar

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
244. You use more than 20 passwords.

  /// 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://www.ICCF.nl         ///

This has become a tradition: The Vim desktop calendar for 2006 is now
available!  It is made from one sheet of paper that you need to fold.
It has a useful calendar on one side, brief information about ICCF
Holland, Vim, Aap and Zimbu Labs on the other side.

The Calendar is available in Dutch and English.  You can find the links
here:

	 http://www.moolenaar.net/index.html#Calendar

I think just about everybody can use PDF now, so I didn't make
PostScript files.  Let me know if you do need them.


Past, Present and Future

In 2005 we have seen the Vim 6.4 release and meanwhile work on new
features for Vim 7 continued.  The Vim 6 series is really into bugfixing
mode now, I spend most time working on Vim 7.  I see more remarks
appearing about the nice features it provides, and get problem reports
for Vim 6.x about things that have been fixed in Vim 7.  I suppose it's
about time to get Vim 7 ready for a release!

However, some of the new features are still unfinished and once the
release is out we need to be backwards compatible.  Thus I don't want to
rush things.  I will try to cut down on adding big new features now,
otherwise Vim 7 will never be ready.  It's difficult enough to get some
of the more complicated features (spell checking, omni completion) to a
quality level that people expect of a Vim release.

What happens after Vim 7 very much depends on the support I'm getting.
Fortunately there are quite a few sponsors, but it's still barely enough
to make a living.  Thus I might have to go back to work for money, which
means I won't have so much time for Vim.  We'll see what happens.

--
Why is "abbreviation" such a long word?

  /// 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://www.ICCF.nl         ///