README for vile, version 9.2 ----------------------------- vile is a text editor which is extremely compatible with vi in terms of "finger feel". in addition, it has extended capabilities in many areas, notably multi-file editing and viewing, key rebinding, real X window system support, an optional embedded perl interpreter, and robust support for non-Unix hosts. the authors of vile are Paul Fox, Tom Dickey, and Kevin Buettner. many patches have been contributed by a lot of users. we thank them. more recent additions to this README appear near the bottom. that is, most of the newest stuff is at the end, not up here where you are. visit ftp://dickey.his.com/vile ftp://ftp.phred.org/pub/vile to be sure it's still the latest. impatient? just type "./configure; make", and get a cup of coffee, decaf if necessary. want X11 support? you'd better look at doc/config.doc, although "./configure --with-screen=x11"; make" may well do what you want. want PC support? look for precompiled binaries at the various ftp sites. want to build vile on a PC host? refer to the file README.PC . want VMS support? you'll need to build vile yourself. refer to the file README.VMS . if you like vile, and wish to be informed of new releases, let me know -- i maintain a mailing list for that purpose. don't worry -- the volume won't fill your inbox. paul fox, pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us (original author) kevin buettner, kev@primenet.com tom dickey, dickey@herndon4.his.com (current maintainer) ------------------------------------------------------ Up-to-date copies of vile, including executables for DOS, Win32 and OS/2 are found at ftp://dickey.his.com/vile/ which is mirrored at ftp://ftp.phred.org/pub/vile/ Development patches are found at ftp://dickey.his.com/vile/patches/ ftp://ftp.phred.org/pub/vile/patches/ In addition, we have distributed copies at other sites, including metalabs.unc.edu (Linux), hobbes.nmsu.edu (OS/2) and the VMS Freeware CDROM's. ------------------------------------------------------ Send bug reports to bugs@vile.cx vile-bugs@foxharp.boston.ma.us Requests to be put on the announcement list should go to announce-request@vile.cx vile-announce-request@foxharp.boston.ma.us ------------------------------------------------------ extracts from the original README, from February, 1992: VILE -- VI Like Emacs: a vi workalike put together from Micro-Emacs by Paul Fox ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This editor grew out of a frustration that although lots of eager programmers have tackled rewrites of Emacs, with new and better features (not to mention free source), I've not seen anything similar done with the Second True Editor. (The First, of course, being /bin/ed) ... vile retains the multiple buffer/multiple window features of MicroEMACS, but the "finger-feel", if you will, is very much that of vi. It is definitely not a clone, in that some substantial stuff is missing, and the screen doesn't look quite the same. But what matters most is that one's "muscle memory" does the right thing to the text in front of you, and that is what vile tries to do for vi users. THIS IS NOT A "CLONE"! But it feels good. (Put another way, the things that you tend to type over and over probably work -- things done less frequently, like configuring a .exrc file, are quite different.) ... The collective developers of Micro-Emacs should be complimented that the changes were as easy as they were. ... Paul G. Fox June, 1991, and February, 1992 p.s. By the way, I'm _not_ the same Paul Fox who wrote Crisp, the Brief work-alike. ----------------------- September, 1992 I don't have much to add to the original README -- vile has gotten a lot better since I first released it, thanks to a lot of users and a lot of bug reports. It compiles and runs without modification on most major UNIXes, and under DOS. It offers vi finger feel, and most (not all) of its features. I hope it fills someone's need out there. -pgf 9/92 (Special thanks to Dave Lemke and Pete Rucszinski, for X and DOS support, and (in no particular order) to Eric Krohn, Willem Kasdorp, J.C.Webber, Warren Vik, Julia Harper, Chris Sherman, Thomas Woo, Yanek Martinson, Miura Masahiro, Tom Dickey for lots of bug reports and suggestions and patience.) ------------------------------ April, 1993 Well, here's an update on vile. The first release was a long time ago (a couple of years?). Tom Dickey has been contributing a _whole_ lot of good changes. vile now runs on VMS, and is much more stable on DOS thanks to Tom. For me, vile is becoming an "old" program -- I first worked on it in 1989 sometime. So it's been fun to have someone contributing fixes so energetically. Thanks Tom. One thing that's changed since I first started vile is that "lots of eager programmers" have now tackled rewrites of vi. There are several good work- alikes out there: elvis (the "king" :-), xvi, vim, stevie, and recent versions of vip-mode in GNU emacs. [add "nvi" to that list. and whatever happened to xvi? -pgf 12/94] From what little I've used any of these, they all seem like real good programs. vile feels different from most of them, mainly due to its roots in MicroEmacs. You may or may not like it. If you don't, try one of the others. There's certainly no reason to not have a vi-like editor on just about any machine you choose. (yeah, I know -- I'm assuming you _want_ a vi-like editor... :-) Enjoy. Oh yes -- building it. On UNIX, type "make", and choose one of the predefined targets. Like "make linux". [ not anymore -- use "configure; make" -pgf 12/94] DOS makefiles are named after the compiler they support: makefile.tbc for Turbo-C, makefile.wat. There is support in "makefile" for Microsoft-C, but it's next to useless -- if anyone puts together a good "nmake" makefile, could you pass it along? [that support isn't there anymore. -pgf 12/94] The Watcom C/386 v9.0 compiler should also work -- the makefile to use is makefile.wat. The latest version of vile is usually available for ftp at "ftp.cayman.com", in the pub/vile directory. [not anymore -- it's at "id.wing.net" in the "pub/pgf/vile" directory. -pgf 12/94] Sometimes there's a compiled DOS binary there too. I don't maintain a mailing list, or anything like that to inform folks of new releases -- you just sort of have to check once in a while, or send me mail... [ I've set up a mailing list -- contact me to be added -pgf 7/93] paul ------------------------------ July, 1993 More new features: infinite undo, modification time checking, and, at long last, primitive support for the :map command. [:map is now fully functional -pgf, 12/94] I've also received patches that let vile compile for DOS with the DJ GCC compiler. Have I mentioned filename completion? Tom Dickey provided that and variable/modename/command completion too. If you would like to be informed, via email, of new vile releases (bearing in mind that the newest release may be _more_ likely to be buggy, rather than _less_), please send me mail, and I will add you to my list. The email will probably contain a capsule summary of the most recent changes to the code. Thanks to Tuan Dang for the Watcom and DJ GCC work. I don't know much about djgpp, the DOS port of djgcc, but take a look at makefile.djg. pgf ------------------------------- March, 1994 The X support in xvile has been given a huge boost with contributions from Kevin Buettner -- scrollbars, Motif widget support make it feel like a real application... We now have rectangular regions. DOS support is getting better all the time. The major version number got bumped to 4 somewhere along the line, because Tom and I were getting tired of 3. There are quite a few new "modes", some to support vi functionality, some altogether new. We should have keyboard selections and highlighted regions soon... pgf, pgf@foxharp.boston.ma.us ------------------------------- December, 1994 hmmmm -- lets see. new stuff. see the CHANGES and help files for details. - vile is now completely autoconf'ed -- you should be able to type either "./configure; make" or "./configure --with-screen=x11" to build it on any (unix-like) platform. - :map and :map! are now much more complete, but still by no means done. expect to have to edit your favorite macros to make them work. - :abbr now works. - along with proper :map support comes proper function key support. function keys defined for your terminal in the termcap/info database are now premapped and can be bound to as #-1 etc. so those of you with ESC [ 10 ~ style function keys should be happy now. - mouse clicks which move the cursor now count as proper motion commands in both xvile and vile-in-an-xterm. this means, for instance, that '' or `` will get you back to where you were before you clicked the mouse, and you can apply operators to mouse movements. for example -- click the mouse somewhere, hit 'd' to start a delete operation, and click the mouse somewhere else. the text between the two mouse-click locations will be deleted. - on-line help (just a single line) for every function, available with describe-{bindings,function,key} commands. - new modes to better control beeping and the "working..." message. - autowrite mode now supported, on a global or buffer-by-buffer basis. - popup windows now adjust their size to their contents -- less screen space is wasted for small window, and more is used for big windows. - file and command completion is now more emacs/bash/tcsh-like, in that possible choices are shown when you hit a second TAB key. this can be tuned via a new mode, "popup-choices" - "quoted" motions, which highlight the text they will act on. type a 'q', and start moving around, then type another 'q'. - various fixes to the macro language, for core dumps and usability. - file.bak and file~ backup files now supported. - infinite (?) screen sizes should now be supported under X. - it's now possible to break lines by putting ^M in the replacement pattern. - selections, the modelines, and the cursor, under xvile, can all have different colors. - color support for termcap, at least on the linux console. - put'ing from registers (i.e. 'p' and 'P' commands) should be much faster. - multiple (error) messages arising from running a macro or a startup file will now accumulate in a new popup window. - a simple, probably incomplete file-locking protocol is available, but is not compiled in by default. the organization which contributed the code (Baan Development) uses it to aid their multi-user development. turn on OPT_LCKFILES in estruct.h and "set usefilelock" in your .vilerc to play with it. - Windows NT support -- console mode only. anyone want to port this to the Windows95 console? it's probably not hard, though i haven't looked into it very hard. - lots of bug fixes ------------------------------- Febrary, 1995 xvile now supports color attributes, which means we can do some primitive syntax coloring of C programs, using the external filter, "c-filt". this is still pretty new stuff. expect it to get better with age. ------------------------------- November, 1995 lots of new users in the last year, due to better advertising and inclusion in some of the big linux and freebsd archives. support for NT and OS/2 has gotten much better, and lots of little bugs have been fixed, and features added. Win32 support is very good these days, thanks mostly to the efforts of Rick Sladkey. ------------------------------- June, 1996 gee, i don't remember _what_ we've done recently. enjoy. ------------------------------- September, 1996 tom dickey has volunteered to take over releases, and maintaining "official" sources. i'll still contribute, but more as part of the "audience". tom has done a _huge_ amount of work over the years on vile -- i _really_ appreciate it... -pgf ------------------------------- May, 1998 vile 8.0 is released. Major new features include: an embedded perl interpreter (available on Unix and Win32 hosts), an editable mini-buffer, majormodes, enhancement of user-defined procedures to the point that they may now be bound to user-defined keystrokes, tag completion, and addition of a win32 gui (called winvile). ------------------------------- Oct, 1998 vile 8.1 and 8.2 are released. These are primarily bugfix releases. Refer to the CHANGES files for details. Tom Dickey continues to improve winvile, which now supports scroll bars and two new command-line options that control the editor's geometry and font. Apr, 1999 vile 8.3 is released. This release includes much enhanced syntax filter capabilities. The filters are now much faster, mainly because vile uses a new command attribute-from-filter to apply their output directly as attributes to the buffer rather than modifying (and allowing undo). The organization of the keyword files for the syntax filters is now associated with majormodes. Syntax filters are defined for most of the predefined majormodes which include: adamode jsmode perlmode awkmode keymode sccsmode batmode latexmode shmode cmode lexmode sqlmode cshmode m4mode tcmode cwebmode mailmode tclmode dclmode makemode timode diffmode mmsmode txtmode htmlmode nrmode vilemode imakemode pasmode yaccmode javamode Other changes of note (this is not an exhaustive list): + removed/rewrote code which would prevent us from making vile available under more liberal licensing. + winvile and xvile have icons. + new macro directives added, including: ~local ~hidden ~with ~endwith ~elsewith + many VMS bug fixes and enhancements. 8.3 is a keeper if you use VMS. Nov, 1999 vile 8.4/9.0 is released, distributed with GPL licensing. In addition to improvements to syntax highlighting, e.g., user-definable color schemes, vile's macro language has been extended + procedures can be parameterized. + several new functions simplify handling of external filenames, and parsing strings. Further improvements have been made to winvile: drag/drop, file open dialog, better integration with the Windows Explorer and DevStudio. Jan, 2000 vile 9.1 is released. Highlights since 9.0: + continued improvement of syntax coloring (much work here) + add an Exporter-like mechanism to Perl5 interface. Instead of exposing a module's functions to the caller, it exposes them to vile as registered commands. By renaming the extensions as `.pm', and making some minor changes to use Vile::Exporter, an extension becomes visible by simply adding: use extension; to vileinit.pl. There is also provision for only including some commands provided by the extension, and for overriding the keybinding defined by the developer (documented in the attached module). Of course you can still say: require extension; and do the registering yourself if you so choose. + vile's perl interface includes a new Vile::Window module, which may be used to manipulate vile windows. Examples of the use of this module may be found in winops.pm. + rename most .pl files to .pm (makefile.in). + add/improve several perl scripts, including - capture.pl - implements a perl version of capture-command. This version incrementally updates the window however. - shell.pl - revised to use IO:Pty instead of Comm.pl (which seems to be no longer maintained). - Manual.pm - display embedded POD documentation. + implement watchfd support for the termcap/terminfo versions of vile. + added autocolor feature, which updates color syntax highlighting when the keyboard is inactive for a specified period. + Vileserv now also works for vile. + changed vmsbuild.com to accept a compiler specification on the VMS command line, which is much more convenient than editing the build script by hand. compiler defaults to VAXC on Vax hosts and DECC on Alpha hosts. + Several Win32-specific improvements: - add the Win32 common dialog "save as" feature to both console vile and winvile. - modify directory.pm and dirlist.pm to make them work on win32, i.e., by not executing portions that will not work (such as mime types). - implement autoscrolling feature for winvile, which makes the buffer scroll in the direction where the mouse leaves the window, automatically extending selection highlighting. + modify backspacelimit mode to allow backspacing through a newline when nobackspacelimit is specified. + add single-quoted strings, which eliminate the need for escaping backslash (useful in startup/command files) + Added binding / support for ^X-_ aka "historical-buffer-to-current-window". + modify logic in ins_any_time() to interpret control characters which are bound to GOAL or MOTION commands rather than inserting them without quoting. This allows ^E and ^Y as commands within an insert. Oct, 2000 vile 9.2 is released. Highlights since 9.1 (modulo bug fixes): + improve performance of syntax highlighting with configure option for compiling-in any of the syntax filters. Use the configure --with-builtin-filters option. Both internal (built-in) and external filters are supported. + add key binding functions for the different editing modes (insert, command, minibuffer and default), making it simpler to bind a space or tab to a given function without having it confused for a function while in insert mode. + Vileserv now uses the registry, so 'perl "use Vileserv"' in your .vilerc automagically adds the commands startserv, stopserv, and vileserv-help. + added gdb.pm, which runs gdb in a vile window and tracks changes in editor. (Must be used with shell.pm.) Several Win32-specific improvements: + allow pasting of one line of text into mini-buffer. + winopen, winopen-nocd, winsave, and winsave-nocd accept an optional directory argument, which specifies the initial directory opened by the Open/Save Win32 common dialogs. Other Modes: + add insert-exec mode to control logic in ins_any_time() which interprets control characters which are bound to GOAL or MOTION commands rather than inserting them without quoting (see 9.0a and 9.0b changes). This restores the default behavior, since some users had control characters bound to a function which was then executed. + add unique-buffers mode, which does dev/inode checking to be sure files aren't edited more than once. Syntax Filters: + add syntax filters for sed, imake + implement abbreviations for syntax keywords, using '*' as the default delimiter. + filters now attribute multi-line regions when appropriate, e.g., multi-line comments in C. Macros and Scripting Support: + add &dquery function which prompts for input with a given default value. + implement function &error, which returns true if its argument was an ERROR token. Modify built-in functions to return ERROR if an argument was ERROR. + add variable $filename-expr, to specify the actual pattern used for %F in [Error Expressions]. On DOS and Win32, this is initialized to a more complex pattern, to accommodate drive letters. + make the ~local directive work for modes. + add ~trace directive, which sets or reports the value of the $debug variable. Use this to trace into internal buffer [Trace]. + add macros/shifts.rc, which implements left/right shifting of words in the current line to align with the cursor. Other Changes: + modify color support in xvile to allow the pre-8.3s color scheme as a special case: setting bcolor to fcolor makes xvile use the bcolorN resources on syntax-highlighted text rather than the color selected by bcolor (which is actually taken from the fcolorN resource in this case). + added pushd, popd, dirs commands with accompanying [DirStack]. ------------------------------- $Header: /usr/build/vile/vile/RCS/README,v 1.84 2000/11/04 12:14:23 tom Exp $ -------------------------------