*todo.txt* For Vim version 5.3. Last modification: 1998 Aug 30 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar TODO list for Vim *todo* This is a veeeery long list of known bugs, current work, and desired improvements. To make it a little bit accessible, the items are grouped by subject. In the first columns of the line a classification is used to be able to look for "the next thing to do": Priority classification: Amount of work expected: 9 next point release q quick fix 8 next release s small change 7 as soon as possible l a little work 6 soon w some work 5 should be included b big change 4 nice to have m major change 3 consider including ? on hold (don't know how to fix it) 2 maybe not - unclassified 1 probably not - unclassified *known-bugs* -------------------- Known bugs and current work ----------------------- Win32 GUI known bugs: 8 ":set lines=30" in $VIM/_gvimrc, lines becomes 32 (Negri) 8 MessageBox used for error messages can be too big. There is no way to scroll it, or even hit the OK button (but you can hit return). 8 Win32 GUI: 'mousefocus' is disabled until the next mouse click, when trying to exit by hitting the X in the title bar. (Webb) 8 When the 'shell' cannot be executed, should give an appropriate error msg. 8 Add a flag to ignore error messages for shell commands (for mappings). 9 Using the mouse wheel on a Logitech mouse, a scroll up sometimes doesn't work properly. When syntax highlighting is off, it's OK. Timing problem? Or is cursor position not updated correctly? Also seems to happen when dragging a status line, causing the text to scroll the wrong direction. 9 Scrollbar width doesn't change when selecting other windows appearance. 9 With 'nowrap', the bottom scrollbar sometimes shows a small thumb. (Webb) 8 Drawing text transparantly doesn't seem to work (when drawing part cursor). 8 The compose key doesn't work properly (Cepas). 8 CTRL key doesn't always work in combination with ALT key. It does work for function keys, not for alphabetic characters. 8 CTRL-- doesn't work for AZERTY, because it's CTRL-[ for QWERTY. How do we know which keyboard is being used? 9 Clipboard doesn't work as it should: - When pasting, interrupting with CTRL-C or CTRL-Break doesn't work. - Selecting text while editing a command-line, or output of ":set", has an implied copy to the clipboard. Remove this, and add a command character to copy/cut/delete the selected text. --> Add 'o' flag to 'guioptions': When included, the unnamed buffer is copied to the clipboard, and the other way around. When excluded, only the "* register equals the clipboard. (Shan) 9 Screen redraw problems when: ":split file" (or CTRL-W ^), causing the ATTENTION message. Also when there are two windows and using ":recover". (Webb) 'dir' must have more than one directory. 8 When using ":se guifont=Courier_New" bold chars leave pixels behind, in front of a character, after a TAB. (McRae) 8 When cursor blinking is off, using "zt" on the first character of a line, which is not blank, the cursor isn't shown. (Webb) 8 When scrolling, and a background color is dithered, the dither pattern doesn't always join correctly between the scolled area and the new drawn area (Koloseike). 8 Resizing the window at the hit-return prompt doesn't redraw. 8 When selecting a bigger font, window can become larger than the screen. But on a click in the window, it resizes. (Aaron) 7 File/Print uses notepad, which puts the name of the temp file on top of each page. How do we get the actual file name there? 7 Dialog buttons can't be selected properly with cursor keys, when the default is not the first button. Tsindlekht has a solution, but then the pointer is not on the default button. 8 install.exe, vimrun.exe and ctags are not build from Gvim_vc.mak. When added, check that this works from the command line and from the IDE. 8 ":r !mycommand" doesn't pass the environment to the external command. 7 In compatible mode, ":set sm", cursor doesn't move to matching (. After ":set cpo-=m" it works. Need a flush-output somewhere? (Glauber) Vi incompatibility: 8 Check wildcard handling: :file {\*} -- '*' (always) '*', if '*' exists '{\*}', otherwise :file {\\} -- '\' '{\}', complains "Missing }" even if '\' does exist 9 Implement 'tagstack' option: when off, disable pushing tags onto the stack (Vi compatible). Useful for mappings. 8 With undo/redo only marks in the changed lines should be changed. Other marks should be kept. Vi keeps each mark at the same text, even when it is deleted or restored. (Webb) Also: A mark is lost after: make change, undo, redo and undo. 8 When using ":n" ":rew", the prev. context mark is in the same place as the cursor, not on the first line. 8 text is put in register 1 when using "c" and "d" with a motion character: % ( ) ` / ? N n { } (from Nvi manual). 8 When stdin is not a tty, and Vim reads commands from it, an error should make Vim exit. 8 Unix Vim (not gvim): Typing CTRL-C in Ex mode should finish the line (currently you can continue typing, but it's truncated later anyway). 8 When loading a file in the .exrc, Vi loads the argument anyway. Vim skips loading the argument if there is a file already. When no file argument given, Vi starts with an empty buffer, Vim keeps the loaded file. (Bearded) 8 Add 'swapignore' option? (Tsirkin) 8 In insert mode, when using or , don't wipe out the text, but only move back the cursor. Behaves like '$' in 'cpoptions'. Use a flag in 'cpoptions' to switch this on/off. 8 In Ex silent mode or when reading commands from a file, what exactly is not printed and what is? Check ":print", ":set all", ":args", ":vers", etc. At least there should be no prompt. (Smulders) --> Make a difference between informative messages, prompts, etc. and error messages, printing text, etc. 7 When interrupting reading a file, Vi considers the buffer modified. Add a 'cpoptions' flag for this? 7 CTRL-L is not the end of a section? It is for Posix! Make it an option. 7 Implement 'prompt' option. Init to off when stdin is not a tty. 7 CTRL-T in insert mode inserts 'shiftwidth' of spaces at the cursor. Add a flag in 'cpoptions' for this. 7 Vi doesn't do autoindenting when input is not from a tty (in Ex mode). 7 "z3" should still use the whole window, but only redisplay 3 lines. 7 ":tag xx" should move the cursor to the first non-blank. Or should it go to the match with the tag? Option? 7 Implement 'autoprint'/'ap' option. 7 Support enctrypted files (-x option). See also -z. 6 After ":cd", meaning of file names for existing buffers changes. Do we care? 7 Add flag in 'cpoptions' that makes after a count work like (Sayre). 7 Add flag in 'cpoptions' that makes operator (yank, filter) not move the cursor, at least when canceled. (default vi compatible). 7 Make "5dd" on last-but-one-line not delete anything (vi compatible). Change cursor_down()??? Many other commands will change too: "5j", "c5j", etc. Add flag in 'cpoptions'? 7 This Vi-trick doesn't work: "Q" to go to Ex mode, then "g/pattern/visual". In Vi you can edit in visual mode, and when doing "Q" you jump to the next match. Nvi can do it too. 7 Support '\' for line continuation in these commands: (Luebking) g/./a\ g/pattern1/ s/pattern2/rep1\\ line 1\ line 2\\ line 2\ line 3\\ . line4/ GUI: 8 Motif Dialog: Pointer should be moved to the default button. Accelerators don't work yet. 8 Motif Popup menu isn't working yet: - Adding PopUp menu stops keyboard input until any menu is used. - Using ":set guioptions-=m" pops up the menu, even though there is no code for it... 8 Menu priority for sub-menus for: Amiga, Mac, VMS, Athena, BeOS. 8 Add menu separators. Start and end with '-'? Must be some way to remove each separately. ":amenu -1-", ":amenu -2-"? (Win32: ../../patches/geddes_separator) 8 Add dialog for search/replace to other GUIs? Tk has something for this, use that code? Or use Native dialog. 9 Basic flaw in the GUI code: NextScreen is updated before calling gui_write(), but the GUI code relies on NextScreen to represent the state of where it is processing the output. 9 When running an external program, it can't always be killed with CTRL-C. e.g. on Solaris 5.5, when using "K" (Keech). Other 'guipty' problems on Solaris 2.6. (Marley) 9 gui_check_colors() is not called at the right moment. Do it much later, to avoid problems. 9 On Solaris: Using a "-geometry" argument, bigger than the window where Vim is started from, causes empty lines below the cmdline. (raf) 9 When selecting the output from ":vers", including the hit-return message, it works OK, unless another window is clicked on. When getting window focus, and there is a Visual selection, grab the selection again? We somehow loose the selection when moving another window to front. Check how xterm does this. 9? GUI Athena: When using "menu a.b.c.d lll", the "b" submenu does not disappear. 9 Athena: Popup menu is shown on button up. Should be shown on button down, but then it doesn't work properly. 9? Athena: Use one of the Syntax menu items. Then ":aunmenu Syntax", Vim crashes. 8 Athena GUI has extra stripes here and there. (Zeitlin). 9? Athena: When using ":unmenu" in menu item, the reversing of menu items is wrong. Happens with Syntax/manual. Problem with not removing the reversed text when destroying the menu item? For Rochholz Vim crashes. After removing a menu completely, then adding another menu: The removed menu reappears, but doesn't do anything. 9 gui_update_cursor() is called for a cursor shape change, even when there are mappings to be processed. Only do something when going to wait for input. Or maybe every 100 ms? 9 Between version 5.0h and 5.0i the Home and End keys stopped working for Micheal Schulz (Linux and AIX). Cannot reproduce it! 9 Adding many menu items, making two rows, still doesn't work properly on HPUX (Motif 1.2). 8 X11: When the window size is reduced to fit on screen, there are blank lines below the text and bottom scrollbar. "gvim -geometry 80x78+0+0". When the "+0+0" is omitted it works. 8 X11: doesn't work. (Riehm) 8 When the character cell of some fonts is different (ascent/descent), the cursor leaves an underline behind (Hiebert). 8 When starting an external command, and 'guipty' set, BS and DEL are mixed up. Set erase character somehow? 8 A dead circumflex followed by a space should give the '^' character (Rommel). Look how xterm does this. 8 When trying to start GUI while $DISPLAY is invalid, falls back to vim with the options set to gvim values. - Reset everything and redo the initializations? - Check for valid $DISPLAY before trying to start the GUI? - Try connecting to the X server early. Maybe with XtOpenDisplay()? Also: gives strange error messages when repeating ":gui" (free() already freed flashes by?). Error message is followed by strange characters (starting with '$'). 7 The compiled-in highlight defaults allocate colors, which will never be freed. Move them to a startup script? Only use bold and underline for the compiled-in defaults. 7 The cursor in an inactive window should be hollow. Currently it's not visible. 7 Under Linux, gvim with Lesstif crashes when using a menu. 7 GUI with Lesstif: adding a menu item that doesn't fit crashes Vim. 7 GUI with Lesstif: Tear-off menu's don't work. Lesstif problem? 8 Motif: Tear-off menu item crashes Vim on some machines. (Netherton) It works fine for me, maybe it's a Motif problem. 8 With non-Visual text selection in Insert mode, the character under the cursor is not drawn correctly. 8 With non-Visually selected text, moving the start/end of the area with a right mouse drag, should also move the cursor position, so that the cursor is always at the start/end of the area 7 GUI on Solaris 2.5.1, using /usr/dt/..: When gvim starts, cursor is hollow, after window lowered/raised it's OK. (Godfrey) 8 Problem in Athena, when "j" or "k" repeated quickly, display is messed up (Lauther). 8 Athena: When dragging last status line with the mouse, small black lines appear in the command line pseudo-scrollbar (only when status line moved quickly). 8 When starting GUI with ":gui" while 'writedel' is non-zero, escape sequences are split up. 8 When starting GUI with ":gui", and window is made smaller because it doesn't fit on the screen, there is an extra redraw. 8 When setting font with .Xdefaults, there is an extra empty line at the bottom, which disappears when using ":set guifont=". (Chadzelek) 8 When font shape changes, but not the size, doing ":set font=" does not redraw the screen with the new font. Also for Win32. When the size changes, on Solaris 2.5 there isn't a redraw for the remaining part of the window (Phillipps). 8 Window should be redrawn when resizing at the hit-return prompt. - Flashes really badly in certain cases when running remotely from a Sun MSDOS/DJGPP: 9 Under "old" Windows 95, ":e filename/" deletes an existing "filename". (Kim) Is this fixed now? 8 Vim busy waits for new characters or mouse clicks. Should put in some sort of sleep, to avoid eating 50% of the CPU time. Test on an unpatched Windows 95 system! 9 DOS: Make CTRL-Fx and ALT-Fx work. Use bioskey(2) to get modifier mask. CTRL-F1 = CE-5E, CTRL-F2 = CE-5F, .., CTRL-F10 = CE-67 ALT-F1 = CE-68, ALT-F2 = CE-69, .., ALT-F10 = CE-71 also doesn't work: produces a two-byte code. Shifted cursor keys produce same codes as unshifted keys. 7 F11 and F12 under MSDOS don't work. Can this be fixed? Check the interrupt list for a BIOS function for an extended keyboard. - Hitting CTRL-P twice quickly (e.g. in keyword completion) on a 8088 machine, starts printer echo! (John Mullin). - Mapping things like doesn't work, because it generates an extended key code. Use a translation table? - MSDOS 16 bit version can't work with COMSPEC that has an argument, e.g.: COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:4096 (Bradley) Caused by BCC system() function (Borland "make" has the same problem). 9 Check if with DJGPP 2.01 the problem of a path starting with a backslash is still present. 9 Can't read an opened swap file when the "share" command has not been used. At least ignore the swap files that Vim has opened itself. 8 Mouse: handle left&right button pressed as middle button pressed. Add modifier keys shift, ctrl and alt. 7 When too many files are open (depends on FILES), strange things happen. The Dos16 version runs out of memory, in the Dos32 version "!ls" causes a crash. Another symptom: .swp files are not deleted, existing files are "[New file]". MSDOS, OS/2 and Win32: 9 OS/2: Intro message doesn't work!? 9 ml_setname() contains code to handle ":!cd dir", but mf_do_open() doesn't. Is this a bug? How can the ":!cd dir" problem be reproduced anyway (Webb). 9 In MSDOS version(s): typing ESC three or four times crashes Vim, when 'visualbell' is set (Kielhorn). 8 Environment variables in DOS are not case sensitive. Make a define for STRCMP_ENV(), and use it when comparing environment var names. Also: dos16 and dos32 need toupper() before getenv(). Windows 95: - Win32 version: changes font size in DOS box? (Man) - There is an occasional lockup when repeating a key while scrolling. Vim unlocks when resizing the window. Might be a Windows 95 problem. 8 Editing a file by it's short file name and writing it, makes the long file name disappear. Use Unix method for making a backup file? Better: make the way the backup file is made (copy or rename) an option, not a #define (also needed for OS/2, the icon goes to the backup file). Use FindFirstFile()->cAlternateFileName in fname_case() (George). 8 Doing wildcard expansion, will match the short filename, but result in the long filename (both DJGPP and Win32). Win32: 9 Add an option (command line?) not to switch console buffers. Required for telnetd (Ford). Change termcap_mode_start() and termcap_mode_end(). 9 Mapping on Win32 doesn't work correctly. 9 tmpnam() uses file in root of file system: "\asdf". That doesn't work on a Netware network drive. Use same function as for Win32 GUI? - Re-install the use of $TERM and support the use of different terminals, besides the console. 8 When dropping a shortcut on gvim (.lnk file) edit the target, not the shortcut itself. - Under NT, these abbreviations don't always work correctly (Shahar): :ca head split ../h/%<.h :ca srcf split ../cpp/%<.cpp - When exiting, sends ^M^M^J to the console in raw mode (Webb). Amiga: 9 Expanding file name for syntax files doesn't work correctly? (Campbell). 8 Executing a shell, only one option for 'shell' is separated. Should do all options, using white space separation. "Small" problems: 8 CTRL-A can't handle big "long" numbers, they become negative. Check for "-" character, if not present, use unsinged long. 8 ":let a = expand("`xterm`&")" starts an xterm asynchronously, but gives an error message. ":let a = expand("`xterm&`")" runs the xterm synchronously. What is happening here? 9 Check handling of overwriting of messages (start of edit(), in normal()). Completely new policy? Message history? Wrong now: errors in c.syn cause wait_return for each message. Very wrong: errors while redrawing cause endless loop. "Vim normal.c", with an existing swap file, there is no hit-return for the warning message. Wrong: "!ls:pwd", output of "pwd" is removed by redraw. Improvement: When writing and reading a file (with ":wn" or 'autowrite'), write the file messages after each other on the same line. That's what Vi does. When exiting, with xterm changing screens, there is an extra empty line (was included to get prompt in col 0 after error message). Starting with "ex filename", file message is overwritten with "entering Ex mode" message. - Add flag to 'shortmess' to allow overwriting of all informative messages, so the hit-return isn't shown that often. - When termcap has been stopped, and swapping screens, should not do any cursor positioning, only '\n' and '\r'. 9 On non-Unix systems it's possible to write over a readonly file, when 'readonly' is not set. Need to check the file permissions explicitly. Add a mch_writable(perm) function for each OS. 8 Make it possible to disable the special meaning of "#" in the first column for ">>". 8 When doing ":qa", and there is a change in a buffer that is being edited in another window, the current window will also be editing the buffer with the change. Should jump to the window with the changed buffer. 8 Should replace "screen_Columns" with "Columns", and use "new_Columns" for the value to be used for Columns. Same for "Rows". Helps when using a GUI with threads. 8 Add suspending with CTRL-Z at the "more" prompt, and when executing a long script in do_cmdline(). 8 When using 'hidden', many files will be open. When Vim runs into the maximum number of open files, error messages will appear. Detect that this problem is present, and close any hidden files that don't have changes. 8 With 'viminfo' set such that the ".viminfo" file is written on a FAT filesystem, an illegal file name may be created: ".vim". 8 "dd" on the last line of the file, causes the last but one line to be redrawn. Should not be necessary. 8 Using "gqj" near the last line of the window, makes the window scroll up, even though this isn't necessary. 8 When backspacing, start of Insert should be adjusted. E.g., "iasdfaasdfasdfasdfasdf" stops at start of Insert, while this is not logical. 9 In replace mode, when 'expandtab' and 'smarttab' are set, and inserting Tabs, backspacing doesn't work correctly for Tabs inserted at the start of the line (unless 'sts' is set too!). 9 incsearch is incorrect for "/that//this/;//" (last search pattern isn't updated). 9 '[ and '] should be set to start/end of line when using a linewise operator (e.g., ":w"). - Redraw bug: After /pat, "." doesn't always redraw (when line gets longer?). - These mappings don't work with the Win32 version: (Bradley) nmap ,p {V} nmap ,> ,p,> vmap ,> > 8 Should be able to compile Vim in another directory, with $(srcdir) set to where the sources are. Add $(srcdir) in the Makefile in a lot of places. (Netherton) 7 For xterm, can get the title with "[21t", no need to use X11 calls. This returns "]l<Esc>\". 7 Add 'titlerestored' option, to set the text for the title when Vim has exited (copy of "oldtitle"). 8 Support ACLs (Access Control Lists, Security Descriptor in WinNT). Check with Windows NT or HPUX 10.*? Add configure check for it, add code for when overwriting a file (viminfo or ":w" command) that copies the ACL to the new file. Use info from Maximo: GetNamedSecurityInfo and SetNamedSecurityInfo. 7 In xterm, recognize both vt100 and vt220 cursor keys. Change add_termcode() to not remove an existing entry for a name, when it's needed. 8 core dump within signal function: gdb doesn't show stack backtrace! option to skip catch_signals()? 8 Pasting with the mouse in Replace mode inserts the text, instead of overwriting, when it is more than one line. 8 When using search history, the trailing '/' or '?' needs to be changed depending on the search command. When there was no '/' or '?', add one, so flags can be added easily? 8 CTRL-F at the end of the file, when 'so' is set, redraws twice. When the window is small (< 2 * 'so') it behaves differently. 8 CTRL-E and CTRL-Y don't work in small window when 'so' is 4 (Acevedo/in.226). E.g., when using CTRL-E, window height 7, window might actually scroll down when last line of buffer is displayed. --> Remember if the previous command was "cursor follows screen" or "screen follow cursor" and use this in cursupdate(). 7 tilde_replace() can only handle "~/", should also do "~user/". 8 If writing to the swap file fails, should try to open one in another directory from 'dir'. Useful in case the file system is full. 8 Add 'o' flag to 'mouse'? 9 Make 'A', 'N' and 'I' flags for 'mouse' work for non-GUI. 8 When dragging status line with mouse, sometimes a jump when first clicking on the status line (caused by 'winheight'). Select window on button up, instead of on button down. 9 term_console is used before it is set (msdos, Amiga). 8 There are often a few <CR> on a row sent to the screen, should not be necessary. - Text is scrolled up and down: (acevedo) - set scrolloff to something >1 (i always use "set so=4") - set the win. hegiht to scrolloff + 1 (i'd do ^W5_) - load a file with scrolloff + 2 lines - put the cursor in line scrolloff +1 (5G) - if you move the cursor along the line (h, l, insert text, etc) the text is crolled with each keystroke (once up, once down,...) sometimes with <Esc> the text is scrolled up and down whitout stop!!!! 8 When performing incremental search, should abort searching as soon as a character is typed. 8 Make CTRL-C on Unix generate a signal, avoid using select() to check for a CTRL-C (it's slow). 8 When writing viminfo file, handle CTRL-J in filename (needs to be escaped with CTRL-V). (Acevedo) 8 When starting Vim, switch terminal to RAW mode asap, so typeahead is handled correctly (without the need for a <CR>). 8 Now that the swap file is hidden for DOS (not anymore!), it's difficult to delete. Add a command in Vim to delete a swap file? Maybe something like "vim -r -delete", which promts with a choice of swap files to delete? 9 Perl interface: Check for errors. Vim crashes when using illegal window number? 8 When the value of $MAKE contains a path, configure can't handle this. It's an autoconf bug. Remove the path from $MAKE to work around it. 8 How to set VIMRC_FILE to \"something\" for configure? Why does this not work: CFLAGS='-DVIMRC_FILE=\"/mydir/myfile\"' ./configure 8 The temporary file is sometimes not writable. Check for this, and use an alternate name when it isn't. Or add the 'temptemplate' option: template for the temp file name ":set temptemplate=/usr/tmp/?????.tmp". 7 Get error "*, \+ or \( operand could be empty" for pattern "\(.\)\1\{3}". Don't check when compiling, check while matching. 7 When switching to Daylight Saving Time, Vim complains that a file has been changed since last read. Use another function to get the file time stamp? 7 When doing ":new" you get the message "Empty Buffer". That's not useful, and can cause a hit-return prompt. Remove that message. I can't reproduce these: - With backupdir=~/tmp,/tmp nowritebackup nobackup patchmode=.smr and the patchmode file exists, backup files in the tmp directory are left lying around - they should be deleted! (Riehm) 9? Crash when changing fonts in Athena (Hiebert). gui_mch_set_scrollbar_pos gets an "sb" argument that points to all zero entries...? 9? Crash in Motif GUI, when pasting text with middle mouse button while in insert mode. SunOS 4.1.3 only? (Janssen). - On Diamond Viper 132x43 mode crash on exit (John Lange) [These have been reported for version 3.0, they may not appear in this version] - MSDOS: After writing on a network the 'w' bit for others is set. Problems that will (probably) not be solved: - Moving the cursor removes color in color-xterm. This is a color-xterm problem! color-xterm ver. 6.1 beta 3 and later work properly. - In zsh, "gvim&" changes the terminal settings. This is a zsh problem. (Jennings) - Problem with HPterm under X: old contents of window is lost (Cosentino). - Amiga: When using quickfix with the Manx compiler we only get the first 25 errors. How do we get the rest? - Amiga: The ":cq" command does not always abort the Manx compiler. Why? - Linux: A file with protection r--rw-rw- is seen readonly for others. The access() function in GNU libc is probably wrong. - MSDOS: When using smartdrive with write-back buffering, writing to a readonly floppy will cause problems. How to test for writable floppy first? - When doing a CTRL-Z and typing a command for the shell, while Vim is busy (e.g. writing a file), the command for the shell is sometimes eaten by Vim, because the terminal mode is changed from RAW to CBREAK. - An old version of GNU tgoto can't handle the terminfo code for "AF". The "%p1" is interpreted as "%p" and "1", causing color not to be working. Fix: Change the "%p1" in the "AF" and "AB" terminfo entries to "%p". (Benzinger). *extensions-improvements* --------------------- extensions and improvements ---------------------- Considered for release 5.4: 8 Include patches from wittig, for AIX and dtterm clipboard stuff. 7 Add (some of) the 'mousepointer' patch from Ralston. 5 Add command to jump to next defined mark (see patch from Sieger). - Add 'bindsidescroll' option: patches/locksidescroll. Change: 'scrollbind' option for each window, 'scrollopt' list of flags for how to bind windows: 'h'orizontal, 'v'ertical, 's'earch, 'r'elative, etc.. Also 'e'xecute some commands (search, vertical movements) in all bound windows. - Use "patches/selectfile.tgz" as a base for a file selector in Vim. 8 Add $CDPATH patch from Raf? Change it a little: add 'cdpath' option, which is filled from $CDPATH. "." is dir of current file, "" is current directory. Suggestion in docs to change it when it's wrong: let &cdpath=substitute(substitute($CDPATH,',','\\,','g'),':',',','g') - Use a current directory per window? See patches from Chen. Does a "chdir" when switching to another window. ":lcd" only works for the current window, ":cd" for all windows. - Consider adding patches/list_indent (indenting for bullet lists). - cursor up/down in insert mode moves to column where insert started. Use different commands for this "<C-G><UP>" and "<C-G><Down>"? Use set_curswant or not? (patch from Lord) - Include VSEL, perhaps? (Bigham) - Add patches from Burgnara for { and } in Ex address? Also "[[" and "]]"? - Patch from Airey to add buffer menu (../../patches/airey.buffer_menu). - Scope arguments for ":tag", e.g.: ":tag class:cPage open", like Elvis. - Add language settings in the syntax files. With "if want_syntax" and "if start_language". And to switch language off: "if stop_language". Considered for release 6.0: - Folding. - Vertically splitting the screen. Show differences between files. - Editing the command line with Normal mode Vi commands. - Further support for editing files in projects (see ":idselect"). Documentation: - Replace <a-z> by {a-z}, to avoid confusion with <C-S> as CTRL-S. - Replace an <Esc> that is the escape key, not five characters, with {Esc}? - Use tags sorting from ctags.c when making vim_tags for non-unix machines. - Make a few sample menu sets (.gvimrc files) for novice vi users, novice Vim users, C programmers, ... - Check text editor compendium for vi and Vim remarks. Tests: - Find a way to skip tests that can't be done. For non-Unix systems, but also for e.g. the Perl interface. Highlighting: 8 2html.vim: correct tabs when 'ts' is not 8 (do ":retab! 8" in new window). 8 When using a cterm, and no ctermfg or ctermbg are defined, use start/stop sequences. Add remark in docs that :if 'term' == "term-name" should be used. 8 When listing syntax items, try to sort the keywords alphabetically. And re-insert the [] if possible. 8 Make it possible to use color of text for Visual highlight group (like for the Cursor). 8 Keep more context for syncing, but not for every line. Make this settable with some command ":syn sync context=1000 skip=10" (store state for 1000 lines, every 10 lines). Store the context with the window, instead of the buffer. Useful when there are two windows on the same buffer. 8 Highlight non-printable characters with "SpecialChar", linked to "Special". Display them with the digraph characters, if possible. 8 Reduce the number of regexp in c.vim (for speed). 8 Add a flag to temporarily disable highlighting. Set it while dragging the status line. 8 Add an option to restrict the updating of syntax highlighting to the current line while in Insert mode. 8 When guessing value of 'background', the syntax file has already been loaded (from the .gvimrc). After changing 'background', load it again? 8 Add ":syn resync" command, to re-parse the whole file until the current display position. 8 Should support "me" offset for a region start pattern. To be used to allow searching for the end pattern inside the match of the end pattern. Example: syn region pikeXX start="([^{]" end=")" should work on "()". 8 When using a regexp for "contains=", should delay matching with it until redrawing happens. Set a flag when a group is added, check this flag when highlighting starts. 7 Add "semitrans": Add highlighting. E.g., make the text bold, but keep the colors. And add colors, so that Green+Red becomes Yellow. 6 Not possible now: Two regions that add up. E.g. for this html: <B> bold text <I> italic+bold text </B> italic text </I> 7 Add an explanation how a list of words can be used to highlight misspelled words. 7 Should find a better way to parse the :syntax and :highlight commands. Use tables or lists that can be shared by parsing for execution and completion? 7 Add a few sets of colors (e.g. Borland Turbo C one). With a menu to select one of the sets. 8 Add offsets to sub-matches: "\(a*\) *"he=e1-1 'e' is end of match 'e1' is end of sub-match 1, 's2' is start of submatch 2, etc. 8 Add more command line completion for :syntax. 8 Add more command line completion for :highlight. 8 In Insert mode, when there are typeahead characters, postpone the highlighting (for "." command). 8 Syncing on comments isn't 100% correct when / / lines mix with / * and * /. For example: What about a line that starts with / / and contains * /? 8 Ignore / * and * / inside strings, when syncing. 8 Add possibility to sync on something else, when the syncing in one way doesn't find match. For HTML: When no <script> is found, try looking for a '<'. (Fleiner) 8 Replace the synchronizing method with a state machine specification. Should be able to start at any line in the file, search forwards or backwards, and use the result of matching a pattern. 7 Build a few more syntax files from the file "/usr/share/misc/vgrindefs": ISP, LDL, Icon, ratfor. And check "nedit/source/highlight.c". - Make it possible to add "contains" items for all items in a group. Useful when extending an already existing syntax file. - Allow the use of "blink". Make a new attr when it's used. - Add line-continuation pattern for non-syncing items too? - Allow "\a" in end (and skip) pattern, use first sub-match of start pattern. To be used in e.g.: 'start="[/=+]" end="\a"' No, can't use "\a", because "\b" means backspace. Use "\#1" instead? 8 Add cursor-column highlighting. Enable it with 'cursorcolumn' option, set highlighting with "CursorColumn" group. Useful for aligning text. Also cursor-row highlighting. - Add possibility to highlight specific columns (for Fortran). - Add possibility to highlight the whole line, including the right margin (for comment blocks). - Add 'hlmatch' option: List of flags: 'c': highlight match for character under the cursor. 'b': highlight the previous (, and its match. 'a': highlight all text from the previous ( until its match. Also for {}, <>, etc.? 'e': highlight all braces without a match (slow?) 7 Make it possible to use all words in the tags files as Keyword. Can also be done with a script (but it's slow). 7 Make it possible to call a ":" command when a match is found. Should allow for adding keywords from the text (e.g. variables that are set). And allows for sections with different highlighting. 7 Add highlight group for commandline: "Commandline". Make sure it highlights the command line while typing a command, and any output from messages. And external commands? 8 Make a version that works like less, but with highlighting: read stdin for text, exit at end of file, don't allow editing, etc. moreim? lessim? Built-in script language: 9 Add a way to catch errors: :try : [commands that can fail] :catch [error-type] : [error handling] :endtry 8 Add functions: append(lnum, string) append a text line bufwinnr({expr}) return window number of buffer {expr} match({pat}, {string}, [count]) get index of count'th match stridx(bigstr, smallstr) return index of first smallstr in bigstr strridx(bigstr, smallstr) return index of last smallstr in bigstr sprintf(format, arg, ..) How to prevent a crash??? chistory(nr) command history line shistory(nr) search history line rhistory(nr) redo history line attributes() return file protection flags "drwxrwxrwx" perl(cmd) call Perl and return string shorten(fname) shorten a file name, like home_replace() getoption({bufid}, {name}) get value of option {name} in buffer {bufid} setoption({bufid}, {name}, {value}) idem, but set to {value} fnamemod({fname}, {mod}) {mod} can be ":p:h" etc., to be applied to {fname} getmap({name}, {mode}) get the rhs of a mapping, "" if not present. 8 Completion for function names after ":function" and ":delfunction". 8 ":onerror"/":enderror" command in user functions: handle error situations. 7 Add optional arguments to user functions: :func myFunc(arg1, arg2, arg3 = "blah", arg4 = 17) 6 User functions: Functions local to buffer "b:func()"? 8 Add ":let var[{expr}] = {expr}". 8 Add variable that contains the current/previous Visual mode? 8 The "= register should be writable, if followed by the name of a variable, option or environment variable. 8 ":let &option" should list the value of the option. 8 ":echo $VIM" should use the internal value of $VIM. 7 Add synIDlist(), making the whole list of syntax items on the stack available (separated with '\n'). 8 Add ":silent <cmd>", silently run a command: no echoing, no hit-return prompt. Use ":silent!" to also skip error messages. Should work for ":silent !cmd" (instead of "!~cmd"). Still do the messages for ":redir"? 9 Make last message available "msg" variable (like "errmsg")? 8 Add autocommand-event for when a variable is changed: :au VarChanged <varname> <commands> 9 Add per-buffer and per-window variables: b4:xxx buffer 4 variable b4:&yyy buffer 4 option 'yyy' w2:xxx window 2 variable 8 Add command line completion for ":let" and ":if" 8 Add "has("gui_capable")", to check if the GUI can be started. 8 Add possibility to use variables like registers: characterwise (default), linewise (when ending in '\n'), blockwise (when ending in '\001'). reg0, rega, reg%, etc. Add functions linewise({expr}), blockwise({expr}) and charwise({expr}). 8 Support using '\' at the end of the line for continuation. For all :sourced files? 7 Add variable that contains the return value of the last external command. 7 Make it possible to do any command on a string variable (make a buffer with one line, containing the string). Maybe add an (invisible) scratch buffer for this? result = scratch(string, command) result = apply(string, command) result = execute(string, command) "command" would use <> notation. 7 Add function to generate unique number (date in milliseconds). 6 "g{if cond}" "g{while cond}", etc. in Normal mode, for mappings. 6 Like Lotus: <IF cond>commands<ELSE>commands<ENDIF> (in any mode, handle in vgetorpeek()) ":map _a athe term is <IF $TERM=="xterm">xterm<ELSE>unknown<ENDIF>.<Esc>" Use "<IF expression>commands<ELSE>commands<ENDIF> 6 Add catching errors for a block of commands ":try" - ":endtry"? When error has occurred, errmsg variable will have been set. Performance: 9 Check out-of-memory for ":g/^/,$/s//@/" on 1000 lines. Vim hangs because of all the error messages. 7 Include turbo_loader patches, speeding up reading a file? 7l do_cmdline(): Avoid that the command line is copied to allocated memory and freed again later all the time. For while loops, and for when called with an argument that can be messed with. Generic solution: Make a struct that contains a pointer and a flag that indicates if the pointer should be freed when replaced. - Further improve finding mappings in maphash[] in vgetorpeek() 8 Dragging the status line doesn't scroll but redraw. 8 Syntax highlighting is slow when deleting lines. 8 "p" and "P" redraw everything after the put text. Should insert lines. - "out of memory" after deleting (1,$d) and changing (:%s/^/> /) a lot of lines (27000) a few times. Memory fragmentation? - Do profiling on: - :g/pat/normal cmd - 1000ii<Esc> - deleting 10Mbyte worth of lines (netscape binary) - ":g/^/m0" on a 450Kbyte file. And the "u". - highlighting "~/vim/test/longline.tex", "~/vim/test/scwoop.tcl" and "~/vim/test/lockup.pl". - loading a syntax file to highlight all words not from a dictionary. 7 Screen updating can be further improved by only redrawing lines that were changed (and lines after them, when syntax highlighting was used, and it changed). - On each change, remember start and end of the change. - When inserting/deleting lines, remember begin, end, and line count. - Use macros/duarte/capicua for profiling. Nvi 1.71 is the fastest! - When using a file with one long line (1Mbyte), then do "$hhhh", is still very slow. Avoid calling getvcol() for each "h"? - Executing a register, e.g. "10000@@" is slow, because ins_typebuf has to move the previous commands forward each time. Pass count from normal_cmd() down to do_execreg(). - Repeating insert "1000i-<Esc>" displays --INSERT-- all the time, because of the <Esc> at the end. Make this work faster (disable redrawing). - Avoid calls to plines() for cursor line, use w_cline_height. - When only need to redraw the status lines in status_redraw_all(), need to update NOT_VALID to force the redraw. Should detect that only the status lines need to be redrawn (add STATUSLN between VALID and NOT_VALID?). - After :set nowrap remove superflous redraw with wrong hor. offset if cursor is right of the screen. Code size: - Put getline() and cookie in a struct, so only one argument has to be passed to do_cmdline() and other functions. 8 move common files between os_unix.c and os_vms.c to one file? Screen updating: - screen_line(): - insert/delete character stuff. - improve delete rest of line (spaces at end of line). - When moving or resizing window, try to avoid a complete redraw (esp. when dragging the status line with the mouse). - When 'lazyredraw' set, don't echo :ex commands? Need a flag to redraw when waiting for a character. Autoconf: 8 Should use acconfig.h to define prototypes that are used by autoheader. - Autoconf: Use @datadir@ for the system independent files. Make sure the system dependend and system independed files are separated. (Leitner). - Add autoconf check for waitpid()/wait4(). - Remove fcntl() from autoconf, all systems have it? - Set default for 'dictionary', add search for dictionary to autoconf. Perl interface: 8 Rename typemap file to something else? 7 Make it possible to compile with non-ANSI C? 6 Tcl/Tk has the "load" command: load a shared library (.so or .dll). 7 When $VIM is not set, set it. Useful for Perl (Waggoner). Shared libraries: 6 Add support for loading shared libraries, and calling functions in it. :libload internal-name libname :libunload internal-name :liblist :libcall internal-name function(arg1, arg2, ...) :libcall function(arg1, arg2, ...) 6 Have a look on how Perl handles loading dynamic libraries. Tags: 8 When output of ":tselect" is long, getting the more-prompt, should be able to type the tag number directly. 8 Add "**" wildcard from 'path' to 'tags': search a tree for tags files. And some way to search directories upwards in the tree: "./.../tags;$HOME", where the part after ';' tells where to stop. 7 Add 'tagingnorecase' option from Vile: ignore case for tags. 7 Make output of ":tselect" a bit nicer. Use highlighting? 7 Highlight the "tag 1 of >2" message. New highlight group, or same as "hit bottom" search message. 7 When using ":tag" at the top of the tag stack, should add another entry, so CTRL-T can bring you back to where you are now AND to where you were before the previous ":tag" command. (Webb) 7 When using CTRL-] on someClass::someMethod, separate class from method and use ":ta class:someClass someMethod". Include C++ tags changes (Bertin). Change "class::func" tag into "func" with "class=class"? Docs in oldmail/bertin/in.xxx. 7 Add ":tagargs", to set values for fields: :tagargs class:someclass file:version.c :tagargs clear These are then the default values (changes the order of priority in tag matching). 7 Support for "gtags" and "global"? With ":rtag" command? See ~/src/global". There is an example for how to do this in Nvi. Or do it like Elvis: 'tagprg' and 'tagprgonce' options. (Yamaguchi) 7 Disallow changing the buffer for commands from a tags file. Also for commands from a local .vimrc? Sort of strict secure mode. 7 Support "col:99" extra field, to position the cursor in that column. With a flag in 'cpoptions' to switch it off again. 7 Better support for jumping to where a function or variable is used. Use the id-utils, with a connection to "gid" (Emacs can do it too). Add ":idselect", which uses an "ID" database (made by "mkid") like "tselect". 6 Don't store the search pattern from a tag command in the search history (with an option)? Win32 GUI: 8 Could keep console open to run multiple commands, to avoid the need to hit return in every console. Also: Look at how Emacs does runs external commands: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html. 9 Need a separate PopUp menu for modeless selection. Need two new commands: Copy selection to clipboard, Paste selection (as typed text). 8 Dropping a file on a gvim that edits a modified buffer splits the window. Make an option to replace the current file (use ":e" instead of ":sp")? When dropping multiple files, display the first one and adjust the arglist. Or make it an option for the user to chose betwen ":e" and ":sp"? 7 Keep the console for external commands open. Don't wait for a key to be hit. Re-open it when the user has closed it anyway. Or use a prepended command: ":nowait {cmd}", or ":quiet", which executes {cmd} without any prompts. 7 Should be able to set an option so that when you double click a file that is associated with Vim, you can either get a new instance of Vim, or have the file added into an already running Vim. GUI: 8 When NO_CONSOLE is defined, more code can be excluded. 8 Visual highlighting should keep the same font (bold, italic, etc.). 8 Add possibility to set pointer shape (for different modes). 8 Add flag to 'guioptions' to not put anything in the clipboard at all? 8 Should take font from xterm where gvim was started (if no other default). 8 Should support a way to use keys that we don't recognize yet. Add a command that adds entries to special_keys somehow. How do we make this portable (X11, Win32, ..)? 7 Add a flag to 'guioptions' that tells not to remove inactive menu items. For systems where greying-out or removing menu items is very slow. The menu items would remain visibly normally, but not do anything. 7 Add ":minimize" and ":maximize", which iconize the window and back. Useful when using gvim to run a script (e.g. 2html.vim). 7 X11: Is it possible to free allocated colors, so that other programs can use them again? Otherwise, allow disabling allocating the default colors. Or allocate an own colormap (check UAE). With an option to use it. For the commandline, "-install" is mostly used for X11 programs. 6 Big change: Move GUI to separate program "vimgui", to make startup of vim a lot faster, but still be able to do "vim -g" or ":gui". 7 Should support multi-column menus. 6 Make it possible to "drag the text" (grab a character and move it up/down). Use Alt-LeftMouse for this? (Goldfarb) 7 More explicit mouse button binding instead of 'mousemodel'? 7 Add option to set the position of the window on the screen. 'windowpos', which has a value of "123,456": <x>,<y>. 7 Add toolbar for non-Win32 GUIs. 7 Make it possible to put the toolbar on top, left, right and/or bottom of the window? Allows for softkey-like use. 6m Separate the part of Vim that does the editing from the part that runs the GUI. Communicate through a pseudo-tty. Vim starts up, creates a pty that is connected to the terminal. When the GUI starts, the pty is reconnected to the GUI process. When the GUI stops, it is connected to the terminal again. Also use the pty for external processes, it looks like a vt100 terminal to them. Vim uses extra commands to communicate GUI things. - Motif steals <F10> from us, to pop up menus with the keyboard. How do we get it back if we want it? - Paste in Insert mode should not do autowrap etc. Or maybe this should be changeable with an option? - Put a nice picture in the icon (but how do we do that?). - Should add option for where to put the "Help" menu: like Motif at the far right, or with the other menus (but still at the right). - Add menu item to "Keep Insert mode". More generally: Include a nice way to change options. 7 When using a pseudo-tty Vim should behave like some terminal (vt52 looks simple enough). Terminal codes to/from shell should be translated. 8 ":mkgvimrc" command, that includes menus. - Would it be useful to be able to quit the GUI and go back to the terminal where it was started from? 7 Add ":confirm" and ":browse" for Athena and ":confirm" for Motif. Requester in Motif is called MessageBox. Tsirkin has file selector for Athena. Autocommands: 9 ":au {event} *" should also be executed for "No File" buffers. 8 Autocommand for when modified files have been found, when getting input focus again (e.g., FileChangedFocus). Check when: getting focus, jumping to another buffer, ... What to do: if buffer not changed, reload it (with a warning), if buffer changed give a warning, when overwriting ask if you really want this. 8 Add autocommands, user functions and user commands to ":mkvimrc". 8 Autocommands should not change registers. And anything else? 7 Add file type in front of file pattern: <d> for directory, <l> for link, <x> for executable, etc. <&xxx> for Risc OS. With commas to separate alternatives. The autocommand is only executed when both the file type AND the file pattern match. (Leonard) 5 Add option that specifies extensions which are to be discarded from the file name. E.g. 'ausuffix', with ".gz,.orig". Such that file.c.gz will trigger the "*.c" autocommands. (Belabas) 7 Add something to break the autocommands for the current event, and for what follows. Useful for a "BufWritePre" that wants to avoid writing the file. 8 Detect textmode after executing the autocommands, otherwise the .gz autocommands don't work for MS-DOS. Needs to be able to remove the ^Ms at the end of each line. Alternative: don't use a filter command, write the file, gunzip, set nobin, delete the lines, read the file. - Add events to autocommands:? Error - When an error happens NormalEnter - Entering Normal mode InsertEnter - Entering Insert mode ReplaceEnter - Entering Replace mode CmdEnter - Entering Cmdline mode VisualEnter - Entering Visual mode losefocus - Losing window focus (needs to be queued?) getfocus - Getting window focus (needs to be queued?) SearchPost - After doing a search command (e.g. to do "M") BufModified - When a buffer becomes modified, or unmodified (for putting a [+] in the window title). BufReadAction - replaces reading a file BufWriteAction - replaces writing a file - Add autocommand to be executed every so many seconds? For writing the file now and then ('autosave'). *'autosave'* *'as'* *'noautosave'* *'noas'* 'autosave' 'aw' number (default 0) Automatically write the current buffer to file N seconds after the last change has been made and when |'modified'| is still set. Default: 0 = do not autosave the buffer. Insert mode expansion: - Add CTRL-X command in insert mode like CTRL-X CTRL-N, that completes WORDS instead of words. - Make it possible to search include files in several places. Use the 'path' option? Can this be done with the dictionary completion (use wildcards in the file name)? - Make CTRL-X CTRL-K do a binary search in the dictionary (if it's sorted). - Speed up CTRL-X CTRL-K dictionary searching (don't use a regexp?). - Set a mark at the postition where the match was found (file mark, could be in another file). - Add CTRL-A command in CTRL-X mode: show all matches. - Make CTRL-X CTRL-L use the 'complete' option? - Add command in CTRL-X mode to add following words to the completed string (e.g. to complete "Pointer->element" with CTRL-X CTRL-P CTRL-W CTRL-W) - CTRL-X CTRL-F: Use 'path' to find completions. - Add option 'isexpand', containing characters when doing expansion (so that "." and "\" can be included, without changing 'iskeyword'). (Goldfarb) Command line completion: - Add command line completion for ":ilist" and friends, show matching identifiers (Webb). 6 Add command line completion with CTRL-X, just like Insert mode completion. Useful for ":s/word/xx/". - Add command to go back to the text as it was before completion started. Also to be used for <Up> in the command line. - Add 'wildlongest' option: Key to use to find longest common match for command line completion (default CTRL-L), like 'wildchar'. (Cregut) Also: when there are several matches, show them line a CTRL-D. 7 With command line completion after '%' and '#', expand current/alternate file name, so it can be edited. 7 Make `command` expansion work for non-Unix systems. Command line history: 7 Add ":history" command for command lines and search patterns. - Add "KeyWasTyped" flag: It's reset before each command and set when a character from the keyboard is consumed. Value is used to decide to put a command line in history or not. Put line in history if it didn't completely resulted from one mapping. Command-line editing: 7 Add commands (keys) to delete from the cursor to the begin or the end of the command line. - Korn-shell or tcsh like command line editing (like editing a single line with vi). Use :cmap! for mappings. Can be implemented like a buffer containing command lines. Use CTRL-O instead of <Esc>, to remain vi-compatible? See remarks from Steve (oldmail/kirkendall/in.012). - Add 'cedit' option like Nvi: editing commandline in a window? NO! It's too confusing (e.g. when using ^W^W to go to another window, when doing ":" and starting another commandline edit windows, etc.). YES! Some people like it anyway (forbid ^W^W). Use Elvis's method too (commandline is like a one-line window into a buffer that contains the commandline history). - Add flags to 'whichwrap' for command line editing (cursor right at end of lines wraps to start of line). Insert mode: - In Insert mode (and command line editing?): Allow undo of the last typed character. This is useful for CTRL-U, CTRL-W, delete and backspace, and also for characters that wrap to the next line. - Use CTRL-G in Insert mode for an extra range of commands, like "g" in Normal mode. 8 Make it possible to toggle 'paste' in Insert mode. - Make 'paste' work without resetting other options, but override their value. Avoids problems when changing files and modelines or autocommands are used. - When typing CTRL-V and a digit higher than 2, only expect two digits. - Insert binary numbers with CTRL-V b. 'cindent', 'smartindent': 9 "case xx: {", or in general: any { with text before it, a matching } should not line up with the {, but with the indent at that position. 8 Two labels below each other, second one is not handled correctly: { label1: label2: } 8 Handle a comment halfway the line: "if (/* foo */ bar)". Adjust isterminated(). Or: always search backwards through the line, and skip from a "(" to the matching ")". Also when the line does not start with "if" or "while). Try this out on function calls split over several lines: int fooRet = foo(pBar1, false /*fKillTheBar*/, true /*fPreserveTheBar*/, 3 /*nTimes*/, false /*fDieOnFailure*/); f() { for ( i = 0; i < m; /* c */ i++ ) { a = b; } } 8 This is indented wrong: if (1) {i += 4;} where_am_i; return 0; 6 Make indenting more flexible, like syntax highlighting. - "[p" and "]p" should use 'cindent' code if it's on (only for the first line). - Add option to 'cindent' to set indent for comments outside of {}? - Make a command to line up a comment after a code line with a previous comment after a code line. Can 'cindent' do this automatically? 7 Add 'j' flag to 'formatoptions': Remove comment leader when joining lines. - Add setting for K&R paren style? Should be used for this: case xx: { some_cmd; } - formatting of struct/array inits: The lines used to initialise the struct or array above should not be considered 'continuation' lines just because the previous one does not end with ';'. If you go back line by line I think it should be possible to tell the difference. If you find a line that ends in ';', then it's OK to have continuation lines. If you find a "{", and the character before it (not counting space & comments) is either ',' or '=', then there should not be continuation lines. If the character before the "{" is another "{", then you have to check before that one too. - "case a: case b:" (two case statements in one line) aligns with the second case, but should use one 'sw' for indent. (Webb) - When 'cindent'ing a '}', showmatch is done before fixing the indent. It looks better when the indent is fixed before the showmatch. (Webb) - Add option to make indenting work in comments too (for commented-out code), unless the line starts with "*". - Don't use 'cindent' when doing formatting with "gq"? - When formatting a comment after some text, insert the '*' for the new line (indent is correct if 'cindent' is set, but '*' doesn't get inserted). - Make smartindenting configurable. Add 'sioptions', e.g. '#' setting the indent to 0 should be switched on/off. - For smartindent: When typing 'else' line it up with matching 'if'. - 'smartindent': allow patterns in 'cinwords', for e.g. TeX files, where lines start with "\item". - { func(/*comment*/); func2(); /* this line is not indented correctly */ } - Support this style of comments (with an option): (Brown) /* here is a comment that is just autoindented, and nothing else */ Text objects: 8 Add test script for text object commands "aw", "iW", etc. 8 Add "gp" and "gP" commands: insert text and make sure there is a single space before it, unless at the start of the line, and after it, unless at the end of the line or befor a ".". 7 Add "g{" and "g}" to move to the first/last character of a paragraph (instead of the line just before/after a paragraph as with "{" and "}"). 6 Ignore comment leaders for objects. Make "das" work in reply-email. 5 Make it possible to use syntax group matches as a text object. For example, define a "ccItem" group, then do "da<ccItem>" to delete one. Or, maybe just define "dai", delete-an-item, to delete the syntax item the cursor is on. Select mode: 7 Alt-leftmouse starts block mode selection in MS Word. 7 Add Cmdline-select mode. Like Select mode, but used on the command line. - Change gui_send_mouse_event() to pass on mouse events when 'mouse' contains 'C' or 'A'. - Catch mouse events in ex_getln.c. Also shift-cursor, etc., like in normal_cmd(). - remember start and end of selection in cmdline_info. - Typing text replaces the selection. Visual mode: 7 Don't move the cursor when scrolling? Needed when the selection should stay the same. Scroll to the cursor at any movement command. With an option! 7 In Visual block mode, need to be able to define a corner on a position that doesn't have text? Also: when using the mouse, be able to select part of a TAB. Even more: Add a mode where the cursor can be on a screen position where there is no text. When typing, add spaces to fill the gap. 7 With blockwise Visual mode and "c" command, insert same text in every line. With "r" replace all chars in visual area witht the next char. With "C" replace each line with entered text (go to next line with <CR>). With "i" insert the same text in front of the block in each line, with "a" append after every line. 7 For Visual mode: Command to do a search for the string in the marked area. Only when less than two lines. Use "g/" and "g?". 7 Filtering a block should only apply to the block, not to the whole lines. When the number of lines is increased, add lines. When decreased, padd with spaces or delete? Use ":`<,`>" on the command line. 7 CTRL-V :s should substitute only in the block. 7 CTRL-V > should move the block, not whole lines. 7 CTRL-I and CTRL-O should work in Visual mode, but only jump to marks in the current buffer. 7 CTRL-A and CTRL-X should increase/decrease all numbers in the Visual area. 7 "gCTRL-G" should count the number of characters in the Visual area. 7 Support clipboard from xterm. 6 "I" should insert the same text in front of the selected text, in each line. 6 "A" should append the same text after the selected text, in each line. 6 "p" should replace the Visual area with the contents of a register (swap register contents with Visual text). 6 ":'<,'>source" should read the selected lines and ":source" them. 6 When in blockwise visual selection (CTRL-V), allow cursor to be placed right of the line. Could also allow cursor to be placed anywhere on a TAB or other special character. 6 Add commands to move selected text, without deselecting. 6 Add visual command to swap selected text with unnamed register. 6 Add visual command to do rot13 encoding. Incsearch: - Add a limit to the number of lines that are searched for 'incsearch'? - When incsearch used and hitting return, no need to search again in many cases, saves a lot of time in big files. (Slootman wants to work on this?) When not using special characters, can continue search from the last match (or not at all, when there was no match). See oldmail/webb/in.872. - With incsearch, use CTRL-N/CTRL-P to go to next/previous match, some other key to copy matched word to search pattern (Alexander Schmid). Quickfix: 9 'fileformat' problem with "%f" that includes a "C:/". Common problem when using ":grep". Remove scanf() and do it manually? 8 Quickfix mode: column number should be interpreted with an 8-character tabstop. 8 Allow a range for the ":clist" command. 8 When doing ":cn" which jumps in another file, which is already displayed in another window, jump to that window (instead of loading the file into the current window, so you end up with two windows editing the same file). 7 Add ":cnfile" command: go to first error in next file. 6 Show quickfix lines (same as ":cl!") in a window. Use a command to jump to the error (perhaps CTRL-], like with tags). Does this open a new window, or use an existing window? 6 Add parsing of multi-line error messages, where one of the lines contains a "^" at the column number (Campbell). Maybe with a Perl script? 6 Add parsing of change-directory lines in 'errorformat', for gmake: make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/tools/tools-2.16/example' 5 Add joining of lines to 'errorformat' at "\n". More advanced repeating commands: - Add "." command for visual mode: redo last visual command (e.g. ":fmt"). - Add "." command after operator: repeat last command of same operator. E.g. "c." will repeat last change, also when "x" used since then (Webb). "y." will repeat last yank. Also: keep history of Normal mode commands, add command to list the history and/or pick an older command. Mappings and Abbreviations: 9 Add ":amap", like ":amenu". 8 ":unab" gives "no such mapping" emsg. That's confusing. 8 Allow mapping of CTRL-C in Visual mode (for Windows). 7 Allow mapping "Q" and "Q}" at the same time. Need to put a flag with "Q", that it needs an extra character before it can match. See Vile 'maplonger' option. 7 When someone tries to unmap with a trailing space, and it fails, try unmapping without the trailing space. Helps for ":unmap xx | unmap yy". 7 Local mappings for a buffer. Useful for autocmds. Count for map command is buffer number. ":0map bar foo" = enter mapping for current buffer. Same for abbreviations. 7 Make it possible to map 'wildchar', but only when it's a special character (like CTRL-E). Currently it's only recognized when typed. Useful for mapping a key to do something and then completion. - Add mappings that take arguments. Could work like the ":s" command. For example, for a mouse escape sequence: :mapexp <Esc>{\([0-9]*\),\([0-9]*\); H\1j\2l - Make it possible to have an empty rhs for a mapping in a vimrc file. - Add the possibility to enter mappings which are used whenever normal text could be enetered. E.g., for "f" command. But not in Normal mode. Sort of opposite of 'langmap'. Use ":tmap" command? - Make it possible to include a <Nul> in the lhs and rhs of a mapping. - Add command to repeat a whole mapping ("." only repeats the last change in a mapping). Also: Repeat a whole insert command, including any mappings that it included. Sort-of automatic recording? - Make it possible to undo all the commands from a mapping, including a trailing unfinished command, e.g. for ":map K iX^[r". - Add an option to ":map" that makes it display the special keys in <> notation (e.g. <CR> instead of ^M). Or just always do this? - Include an option (or flag to 'cpoptions') that makes errors in mappings not flush the rest of the mapping (like nvi does). - Use context sensitiveness of completion to switch abbreviations and mappings off for :unab and :unmap. 6 When using mappings in Insert mode, insert characters for incomplete mappings first, then remove them again when a mapping matches. Avoids that characters that are the start of some mapping are not shown until you hit another character. 5 completion of existing mappings for ":unmap", ":unab", etc. - Add optional <Number> argument for mappings: :map <Number>q ^W^W<Number>G :map <Number>q<Number>t ^W^W<Number1-1>G<Number2>l :map q<Char> :s/<Char>/\u\0/g Or implicit: :map q <Register>d<Number>$ - Add mappings for replace mode: ":rmap". How do we then enter mappings for non-replace insert mode? - Add separate mappings for Visual-character/block/line mode? 6 Alias for Normal mode commands, works like :substitute? Would allow mappings with arguments. - Add 'mapstop' command, to stop recursive mappings. - List mappings that have a raw escape sequence both with the name of the key for that escape sequence (if there is one) and the sequence itself. - List mappings: Once with special keys listed as <>, once with meta chars as <M-a>, once with the byte values (octal?). Sort of "spell mapping" command? - When entering mappings: Add the possibility to enter meta keys like they are displayed, within <>: <M-a>, <~@> or <|a>. - Allow multiple arguments to :unmap. - Error message for ambiguous mapping: Include the arguments. - Command to show keys that are not used and available for mapping ":freekeys". - Allow any character except white space in abbreviations lhs (Riehm). Searching: 8 "/:/e+1" gets stuck on a match at the end of the line. Do we care? - Add <group-name> flag for search string, to restrict the search to a specific highlight group. Use "/./<Group>" to find the start of a group. - Add flags to search command: i ignore case I use case p use Perl regexp syntax (or POSIX?) v use Vi regexp syntax Perl uses these too: e evaluate the right side as an expression (Perl only) m multiple line expression o compile only once (Perl only) s single line expression x extended regexp When used after ":g" command, backslash needed to avoid confusion with the following command. Add 'searchflags' for default flags (replaces 'gdefault'). - Add command to display the current search pattern, substitute pattern and last used pattern. (Margo) Maybe make it accessible through a register ("/ for search string)? Also make "/ register writable (Maxi) How to take care of the flags (offset, magic)? 7 Should notice that "\(a\|ab\|abc\|abcd\)" doesn't work, automatically change it to "\(abcd\|abc\|ab\|a\)"? (Campbell) 7 Add POSIX regexp, like Nvi, with 'extended' option? It's like very-magic. 7 Use T-search algorithm, to speed up searching for strings without special characters. See C't article, August 1997. - Add 'fuzzycase' option, so that case doesn't matter, and '-' and '_' are equivalent (for Unix filenames). - Add 'v' flag to search command: enter Visual mode, with the matching text as Visual area. (variation on idea from Bertin) - Searching: "/this//that/" should find "that" after "this". - Add flag to search command to forget it for "n", e.g. "/foo/f". Also for ":s/pat//f". Also add flag to 'r'emember (for mappings). - Add global search commands: Instead of wrapping at the end of the buffer, they continue in another buffer. Use flag after search pattern: a for the next file in the argument list f for file in the buffer list w for file edited in a window. e.g. "/pat/f". Then "n" and "N" work through files too. "f" flag also for ":s/pat/foo/f"??? Then when 'autowrite' and 'hidden' are both not set, ask before saving files: "Save modified buffer "/path/file"? (Yes/Hide/No Save-all/hide-All/Quit) ". - Special characters in patterns: \A beginning of string (for multi-line matching) \Z end of string (idem) Inside []: \012 octal character \<BS> special character 7 When searching with 'n' give message when getting back where the search first started. Remember start of search in '/ mark. 7 Add option that scrolls screen to put cursor in middle of screen after search always/when off-screen/never. And after a ":tag" command. Maybe specify how many lines below the screen causes a redraw with the cursor in the middle (default would be half a screen, zero means always). 6 Add \! to search patterns: matches string that does not match previous atom. 6 Use \& for "and", like \| for "or". 6 Support multiple search buffers, so macros can be made without side effects. 7 From xvim: Allow a newline in search patterns (also for :s, can delete newline). Add BOW, EOW, NEWL, NLORANY, NLBUTANY, magic 'n' and 'r', etc. [not in xvim:] Add option to switch on matches crossing ONE line boundary. 7 Add register for '?' and '/' commands? (yank_buf()). 7 In regexp.c: "\^" after "\|" or "\(" is start of line, and "\$" before "\|" and "\)" is end of line. - Change request: "/^$\|the" finds both empty lines and "the", but "/the\|^$" doesn't. Make '^' after "\|" also a special character? - In regexp, allow use of special characters with "\xnn" notation? 7 Add ":iselect", a combination of ":ilist" and ":tselect". (Aaron) Also ":dselect". Undo: 8 Make undo more memory-efficient: Compare text before and after change, only remember the lines that really changed. When calling u_save with a single line, don't save it if line was already saved for undo. - For u_save() include the column number. This can be used to set '[ and ']. And in the future the undo can be made more efficient (Webb). - In out-of-memory situations: Free allocated space in undo, and reduce the number of undo levels (with confirmation). - Instead of [+], give the number of changes since the last write: [+123]. When undoing to before the last write, change this to a negative number: [-99]. - With undo with simple line delete/insert: optimize screen updating. - When executing macro's: Save each line for undo only once. - Store undo info in a file that survives until the next edit. Then it's possible to undo to before the current editing session. Combined with viminfo? - When doing a global substitute, causing almost all lines to be changed, undo info becomes very big. Put undo info in swap file?? Buffer list: 7 Add another number for a buffer, which is visible for the user. When creating a new buffer, use the lowest number not in use. (or the highest number in use plus one?) 7 Add "Buffers" menu, list of (hidden) buffers. - When starting to edit a file that is already in the buffer list, use the file name argument for the new short file name. (Webb) - Add an option to make ":bnext" and ":bprev" wrap around the end of the buffer list. Also for ":next" and ":prev"? - Add some way to show the current buffer number (in ruler?). 7 Add argument to ":ls" which is a pattern for buffers to list. E.g. ":ls *.c". (Thompson) 7 Add expansion of buffer names, so that "*.c" is expanded to all buffer names. Needed for ":bdel *.c", ":bunload *.c", etc. 8 Some commands don't use line numbers, but buffer numbers. '$' should then mean the number of the last buffer. E.g.: "4,$bdel". Swap (.swp) files: 8 When the edited file is a symbolic link, use the "to" name for the swap file. Avoids editing the same file twice (e.g. when using quickfix). 7 When editing a file on removable media, should put swap file somewhere else. Use something like 'r' flag in 'viminfo'. 'diravoid'? Also: Be able to specify minimum disk space, skip directory when not enough room. 7 Add a configure check for which directory should be used: /tmp, /var/tmp or /var/preserve. 7 Add a way to crypt the swap file. Need to ask the user for a key, to be able to recover from the encrypted file. crypt each block of the swap file separately. Use an internal crypt function, to keep it fast. - Each swap file should include a flag that shows if the swapfile contains any changes. Report this when giving the ATTENTION message. - Add an option to create a swap file only when making the first change to the buffer. (Liang) Or only when the buffer is not read-only. - Add option to set "umask" for backup files and swap files (Antwerpen). 'backupumask' and 'swapumask'? Or 'umaskback' and 'umaskswap'? - When editing a readonly file, don't use a swap file but read parts from the original file. - When the edited file is a symlink, try to put the .swp file in the same dir as the actual file. Adjust FullName(). Also try to make the name of the backup file the same as the actual file. Viminfo: 9 Should also write flags and character offset for search pattern: "/pat/e". 7 Can probably remove the code that checks for a writable viminfo file, because we now do the chown() for root, and others can't overwrite someone else's viminfo file. 6 Store a snapshot of the currently opened windows. So that when quitting Vim, and then starting again (without a file name argument), you see the same files in the windows. - Make marks present in .viminfo usable as file marks: Display a list of "last visited files" and select one to jump to. - Add jumplist to viminfo file, so that CTRL-O can be used. Modelines: 8 Before trying to execute a modeline, check that it looks like one (valid option names). If it's very wrong, silently ignore it. - When an option value is coming from a modeline, do not carry it over to another edited file? Would need to remember the value from before the modeline setting. - Allow ":doauto BufRead x.cpp" in modelines, to execute autocommands for .cpp files. - Support the "abbreviate" command in modelines (Kearns). Careful for characters after <Esc>, that is a security leak. - Disallow setting the 'shell', 'makeprg', 'formatprg' or 'keywordprg' options in a modeline??? Also 'secure' and 'exrc' should be forbidden. - Make it possible to set options from modelines only temporarily for that file (needs a stack for saving old options). - Add option setting to ask user if he wants to have the modelines executed or not. Same for .exrc in local dir. External commands: 8 When using "!~cmd", run the external command silently, don't give the hit-return prompt. Already done for Risc OS, see do_shell(). Don't redraw the screen, make a note in the docs that CTRL-L should be used if the command has any output. 4 Set separate shell for ":sh", piping "range!filter", reading text "r !ls" and writing text "w !wc". (Deutsche) Allow arguments for fast start (e.g. -f). 4l Allow direct execution, without using a shell. 4w Run an external command in the background. But how about I/O in the GUI? Careful: don't turn Vim into a shell! - Add 'echo' option: When off don't echo shell commands. Folding: - three basic modes: 1. automatic: set folding level, all lines above this level will be folded - For C-code: fold more or less {} blocks. - For C-code: fold comments or non-comments. - Fold depending on the indent (or use a regexp). - Use syntax highlighting stuff to detect a folding level. 2. half-automatic: recognize objects in the text, allow the user to fold/unfold these objects. - Allow the user to specify the marker, or regexp, or use syntax highlighting. 3. manual: the user specifies which lines to fold or unfold. ":[range]fold". Can use Visual mode to fold any range of lines: "vaB:fold". Use ":[range]fold {text}" to give a name to the fold. - Unfold with "l" command on folded line? Or at least ":[line]unfold". - Deleting a "folded" line deletes all the folded lines. Putting it somewhere else puts all the folded lines. Useful for moving functions around. - Save folding state in viminfo file. - Display folded lines with "... %d lines folded". - Implementation: Make a copy of the buffer, which only contains the displayed lines? - Add 'hidecomment' option: don't display comments in /* */ and after //. Multiple Windows: - Allow vertical splitting of screen (once?). - Bind windows together, scrolling is done in both windows synchronous (horizontally and/or vertically and for seach commands). Use 'winbind' option, with flags 'v'ertical, 'h'orizontal and 's'earch? Marks: 8 When deleting lines, don't delete uppercase marks in them. Move the mark to the nearest line. - Use d"m to delete rectangular area from cursor to mark m (like Vile's \m command). - When replacing with a line break, like in ":s/pat/^M/", move marks after the line break column to the next line. (Acevedo) - When filtering lines, try to keep the marks in the filtered lines. Need to move some marks if the number of lines decreases. - When changing text, e.g. when formatting with "gq", try to keep the marks in the same position. - Add mark at the last change. Per buffer. Could use "'.". 7 Highlight each mark in some way (With "Mark" highlight group). 8 The '" mark is set to the first line, even when doing ":next" a few times. Only set the '" mark when the cursor was really moved in a file. - Add option to always use '" when starting to edit a new buffer. Could use autocommand for this, but it gives an error message when the mark is not set. - Include marks for start/end of current word, sentence, paragraph, section. Useful in mappings. - Add possibility to ":jumps" to show the text in the line (for loaded files). Only show the part of the line that fits in the current screen width and contains the mark. Highlight the column with the mark. Show "<not loaded>" for not loaded buffers. Also for ":tags" and ":marks". - When inserting/deleting characters in a line, adjust marks. Digraphs: 8 Make it possible to enter a digraph after "r" (with CTRL-K). - Make it possible to enter "r<C-E>" and "r<C-Y>" (get character from line below/above). - Use digraph table to tell Vim about the collating sequence of special characters? - Add command to remove (all) digraphs. (Brown) 7 Make it possible to switch between DOS and ISO digraphs for Win32 GUI. Multibyte support: - Recognition of multi-byte character is not correct on non-MS-Windows systems. - swapchar() can only put one byte back. - Support full UTF8 format, also three to eight byte characters. Use a skip table (from Larry Wall). Check "yudit" for its Unicode handling. Writing files: - When writing a file, name it "foo.new". Then rename "foo" to "foo.bak" and "foo.new" to "foo". If dir is not writable or on write error copy "foo" to "backupdir/foo.bak" and overwrite "foo". Check for correct group/owner and try to set it if not. NO: this breaks with hard links. INSTEAD: make Amiga and MSDOS work like unix: first make copy of file, then truncate and overwrite original file. Use an option for this, default on for Unix, off for Amiga/MSDOS (Sayre has the algorithm worked out). 7 When appending to a file, should Vim also make a backup and a 'patchmode' file? 6 Add an option to write a new, numbered, backup file each time. Like 'patchmode', e.g., 'backupmode'. 6 Add an option to prepend something to the backup file name. E.g., "#". Or maybe allow a function to modify the backup file name? 8 Only make a backup when overwriting a file for the first time. Avoids loosing the original when writing twice. (Slootman) 7 On non-Unix machines, also overwrite the original file in some situations (file system full, it's a link on an NFS partition). 7 When editing a file, check that it has been change outside of Vim more often, not only when writing over it. E.g., at the time the swap file is flushed. Or every ten seconds or so (use the time of day, check it before waiting for a character to be typed). Help: - First try using the ":help" argument literally, before using it as a pattern. And then match it as part of a tag. - Use GNU Texinfo for the help files somehow? Use Info format files? - Default mapping for help files: <Tab> to position cursor on next |:tag|. - When hitting <Esc> or CTRL-C in Normal mode, give a message to help novice users to get out: "Type :q! to quit Vim". - Implement a "sticky" help window, some help text lines that are always displayed in a window with fixed height. (Guckes) Use "~/.vimhelp" file, user can edit it to insert his favorite commands, new account can contain a default contents. - When entering the help window, don't resize to 'helpheight' if the user has reduced the size before (Webb). Keep the window height that the user set the window to in a "preferred window height" entry for each window. - ":help :s^I" should expand to ":help :substitute". - Make the help key (<F1>) context sensitive? - Learn mode: show short help while typing commands. Substitute: - :s///p prints the line after a substitution. - With :s///c replace \&, ~, etc. when showing the replacement pattern. 8 With :s///c allow scrolling horizontally when 'nowrap' is effective. Also allow a count before the scrolling keys. - Add number option to ":s//2": replace second occurance of string? Or: :s///N substitutes N times. - Add answers to ":substitute" with 'c' flag, used in a ":global", e.g.: ":g/pat1/s/pat2/pat3/cg": 'A' do all remaining replacements, 'Q' don't do any replacements. Various improvements: 8 Add "g^E" and "g^Y", to scroll a screen-full line up and down. 6 Add ":timer" command, to set a command to be executed at a certain interval, or once after some time has elapsed. (Aaron) 9 When using ":confirm q" for last window, also need to check all buffers for changes. Use "exiting"? 8 Add ":confirm" handling in open_exfile(), for when file already exists. 8 Use confirm stuff to ask the user, when a file has changed outside of Vim, if he wants to reload it. Triggered when focus gained. 7 Add 'listtabstring' option: String to display in place of a Tab, when 'list' option is on. (Smith) Last char is repeated as often as needed. 7 Add "gJ": join lines without inserting a space. 8 Add warning when starting to edit a new file, another application creates the file before doing ":w" in Vim. Like the "file changed" warning. 7 Use growarray for replace stack. 7 Have a look at viH (Hellenic or Greek version of Vim). But a solution outside of Vim might be satisfactory (Haritsis). 6 Allow a local doc directory? And syntax, tools, macros...? Use 'vimpath' option: list of directories which are used instead of $VIM. 3 Make "2d%" work like "d%d%" instead of "d2%"? 8 Make "more" prompt accept command characters, like "hit-return" prompt? Or extend it with more commands, like "less": 'b' for back, 'j' for one line down, etc. - For the "--more--" prompt, support the 'b'ack command (at least for ":clist"). 7 "g CTRL-O" jumps back to last used buffer. Skip CTRL-O jumps in the same buffer. Make jumplist remember the last ten accessed buffers? 7 Add an option, which is a regexp, that disables warning messages which match that regexp (Tsirkin). 7 Add a history of recently accessed buffer. Maybe make "2 CTRL-^" jump to the 2nd previously visited buffer, "3 CTRL-^" to the third, etc. Or use "3 g CTRL-^" for this? 5 Add an option to set the width of the 'number' column. Eight positions is often more than needed. - Add code to disable the CAPS key when going from Insert to Normal mode. 5 Add command to go to a window that is editing a buffer with a specified name. Like ":buf", but jumps to another window, if there is one. The same command with "!" could be used to always go to that buffer, and jump to a window editing it only if there is one. Alternative: add an option to always jump to a window editing a buffer when opening a buffer and it's available (e.g. for ":cn"). - Make it possible to ignore errors for a moment ('errorignore'?). Another option to switch off giving error messages ('errorquiet'?). Also an option not to give any messages ('quiet')? Or ":quiet on", ":quiet off". Careful: For a severe error (out of memory), and when the user starts typing, error messages must be switched back on. Add pre-command to ignore errors for one command: ":ignore"? - Add the possibility to have scratch buffers. They don't have a swap file. The name is not related to a file. Use a 'scratch' option? - Add ":begin" command, keep getting lines until an ":end". Useful for defining multi-line mappings (Webb). - Set date/protection/etc. of the patchfile the same as the original file. - Use growarray for termcodes[] in term.c - Use getrlimit() (if possible) to set 'maxmemtot' and 'maxmem'. - Add <window-99>, like <cword> but use filename of 99'th window. - Should make it possible for ml_get() to keep more than one line locked. Use ml_get_locked()? Needed to be able to make a regexp that understands line breaks. - Make a set of operations on list of names: expand wildcards, replace home dir, append a string, delete a string, etc. - Remove mktemp() and use tmpname() only? Ctags does this. - Implement command like "[[" ("]]") for Java: go to the previous (next) '{' ('}') that's not in column 0. - When replacing environment variables, and there is one that is not set, turn it into an empty string? Only when expanding options? (Hiebert) - Option to set command to be executed instead of producing a beep (e.g. to call "play newbeep.au"). - Add string option to show in status line (like the [Help] item). Per buffer. Like 'titlestring'. - Add option to show the current function name in the status line. More or less what you find with "[[k", like how 'cindent' recognizes a function. (Bhatt). - "[r" and "]r": like "p" and "P", but replace instead of insert (esp. for blockwise registers). - Add 'timecheck' option, on by default. Makes it possible to switch off the timestamp warning and question. (Dodt). - Add ":first", ":bfirst", etc. to complement ":last", ":blast, etc. - Make 'smartcase' work even though 'ic' isn't set (Webb). 7 When formatting text, allow to break the line at a number of characters. Use an option for this: 'breakchars'? Useful for formatting Fortran code. - Add flag to 'formatoptions' to be able to format book-style paragraphs (first line of paragraph has larger indent, no empty lines between paragraphs). Complements the '2' flag. Use '>' flag when larger indent starts a new paragraph, use '<' flag when smaller indent starts a new paragraph. Both start a new paragraph on any indent change. - Be able to redefine where a sentence stops. Use a regexp pattern? - Be able to redefine where a paragraph starts. For "[[" where the '{' is not in column 1. - Add ":switch bufname" command, like ":buf", but jump to window with that buffer, or open new window if there isn't one. - Add option to make messages scroll up from the bottom, increasing 'cmdheight' and remove the wait-for-return message. Needs a setting for the maximum number of lines for which this will work. And a setting for when the messages will be removed (any key press/timeout of N seconds/CTRL-L) (Webb). ALTERNATIVE: Keep a history of the last N messages. Don't ask to hit return for that many messages. Add command to scroll up/down in message history (Aerts). Also need to keep the most important messages: Error messages are not overwritten by warning or informative messages. - ":cd": echo the new current directory. - Add ":cdp": go back to the previous directory. Need to remember the previous directory (or a stack of dir names?). Then we also need ":cdn". - Make "gq<CR>" work on the last line in the file. Maybe for every operator? 8 findmatchlimit() should be able to skip comments. Solves problem of matching the '{' in /* if (foo) { */ (Fiveash) - Add redirecting of Ex commands to a buffer: ":redir @ bufname". - Setting of options, specifically for a buffer or window, with ":set window.option" or ":set buffer.option=val". Or use ":buffer.set". Also: "buffer.map <F1> quit". - Add :delcr command: *:delcr* :[range]delcr[!] Check [range] lines (default: whole buffer) for lines ending in <CR>. If all lines end in <CR>, or [!] is used, remove the <CR> at the end of lines in [range]. A CTRL-Z at the end of the file is removed. If [range] is omitted, or it is the whole file, and all lines end in <CR> 'textmode' is set. {not in Vi} - Should integrate addstar() and file_pat_to_reg_pat(). - Add 'sidescrolloff' option, like 'scrolloff', to make the cursor always appear in the middle of the window horizontally (Benjamin Griffin). - When working over a serial line with 7 bit characters, remove meta characters from 'isprint'. - When 'wrap' is off, add commands to scroll screen left/right by half the screen width: "zH" and "zL"? NO: use "zH" and "zL" to work like "zt" and "zb", because that's what would be logical compared to the "H" and "L" commands. (Guckes) Use "z0" and "z$" to scroll half a page? - Use fchdir() in init_homedir(), like in FullName(). - In win_update(), when the GUI is active, always use the scrolling area. Avoid that the last status line is deleted and needs to be redrawn. - Vi compatibility (optional): make "ia<CR><ESC>10." do the same strange thing. (only repeat insert for the first line). - That "cTx" fails when the cursor is just after 'x' is Vi compatible, but may not be what you expect. Add a flag in 'cpoptions' for this? More general: Add an option to allow "c" to work with a null motion. - Call maketitle() whenever curbuf->b_changed is set or reset, and include "Vim +" in the title for changed buffers. How about the icon? - Give better error messages by using errno (strerror()). - Give "Usage:" error message when command used with wrong arguments (like Nvi). - Make 'restorescreen' option also work for xterm (and others), replaces the SAVE_XTERM_SCREEN define. - Give warning message when using ":set t_xx=asdf" for a termcap code that Vim doesn't know about. Add flag in 'shortmess'? 6 Add ":che <file>", list all the include paths which lead to this file. - For a commandline that has several commands (:s, :d, etc.) summarize the changes all together instead of for each command (e.g. for the rot13 macro). - Add command like "[I" that also shows the tree of included files. - Add words to 'cinwords' to reduce the indent, e.g., "end" or "fi". - ":set sm^L" results in ":set s", because short names of options are also expanded. Is there a better way to do this? - Add ":@!" command, to ":@" like what ":source!" is to ":source". - Should be possible to write to a device, e.g. ":w! /dev/null". - Add 't_normal': Used whenever t_me, t_se, t_ue or t_Zr is empty. 6 Make strings in 'comments' option a RE, to be able to match more complicated things. (Phillipps) - Make the 'comments' option with "/* * */" lines only repeat the "*" line when there is a "/*" before it? Or include this in 'cindent'? - ":cab map test ^V| je", ":cunab map" doesn't work. This is vi compatible! - CTRL-W CTRL-E and CTRL-W CTRL-Y should move the current window up or down if it is not the first or last window. - Include-file-search commands should look in the loaded buffer of a file (if there is one) instead of the file itself. - "g CTRL-A" and "g CTRL-X": Increment/decrement alphabetical char (a -> b -> c)? With flag in 'nrformats'? 7l Change 'nrformats' to include the leader for each format. Example: nrformats=hex:$,binary:b,octal:0 Add setting of 'nrformats' to syntax files. 8 Add possibility for file name on the command line to be searched for in the 'path', when there is a special character before the file name ('<' ?). Or use ":gf fname" command (like ":e")? ":[count]gf fname". - 'path' can become very long, don't use NameBuff for expansion. - Allow the use of wildcards in 'path'. - When unhiding a hidden buffer, put the same line at top of the window as the one before hiding it. Or: keep the same relative cursor position (so many percent down the windows). - Add a command like ":cn" that jumps to the next error, but uses an open window for the buffer with the error if possible, and opens a new window otherwise. Use ":cj"? - Make it possible for the 'showbreak' to be displayed at the end of the line. Use a comma to separate the part at the end and the start of the line? Highlight the linebreak characters, add flag in 'highlight'. - Some string options should be expanded if they have wildcards, e.g. 'dictionary' when it is "*.h". - Use a specific type for number and boolean options, making it possible to change it for specific machines (e.g. when a long is 64 bit). - Add option for <Insert> in replace mode going to normal mode. (Nugent) - Add a next/previous possibility to "[^I" and friends. 7 Should ":cd" for MS-DOS go to $HOME, when it's defined? - Add possibility to change the HOME directory. Use the directory from the passwd file? (Antwerpen) - When doing "[^I" or "[^D" add position to tag stack. - Add command to put current position to tag stack: ":tpush". 8 Add commands to push and pop all or individual options. ":setpush tw", ":setpop tw", ":setpush all". Maybe pushing/popping all options is sufficient. ":setflush" resets the option stack? How to handle an aborted mapping? Remember position in tag stack when mapping starts, restore it when an error aborts the mapping? - Add command to put all filenames from the tag files in the argument list. When given an argument, only use the files where that argument matches (like `grep -l ident`) and jump to the first match. - When appending to a register, also report the total resulting number of lines. Or just say "99 more lines yanked", add the "more". - Add ":grep" command. Works like ":make" but uses "grep -n" instead of "make", 'grepprg' instead of 'makeprg', 'grepformat' instead of 'errorformat'. Even better: Use a builtin grep command? Makes it possible to add the column number. - Add command to form an args list from all the buffers. - Keep a list of most recently used files for each window, use "[o" to go back (older file) and "]n" to go forward (newer file) (like ^O and ^I for jumps) (Webb). Use ":files" and ":ls" to list the files in history order. - Implement mouse support for the Amiga. - xterm: Implement support for visual feedback of mouse dragging. - Using right mouse button to extend a blockwise selection should attach to the nearest corner of the rectangle (four possible corners). - Precede mouse click by a number to simulate double clicks?!? - Change ":fixdel" into option 'fixdel', t_del will be adjusted each time t_bs is set? (Webb) - "gc": goto character, move absolute character positions forward, also counting newlines. "gC" goes backwards, "g^C" goes to absolute position (Weigert). - When doing CTRL-^, redraw buffer with the same topline (Demirel). Store cursor row and window height to redraw cursor at same percentage of window (Webb). - Besides remembering the last used line number of a file, also remember the column. Use it with CTRL-^ et. al. - When a window resizes, the line with the cursor should stay at the same percentage from the start of the window as it was before. - Check for non-digits when setting a number option (careful when entering hex codes like 0xff). - Add option to make "." redo the "@r" command, instead of the last command executed by it. Also to make "." redo the whole mapping. Basically: redo the last TYPED command. - Support URL links for ^X^F in insert mode, like for "gf". - Add 'wwwpath', used like 'path' for when "gf" used on an URL? - Add ":path" command modifier. Should work for every command that takes a file name argument, to search for the file name in 'path'. Use find_file_in_path(). - Highlight control characters on the screen: Shows the difference between CTRL-X and "^" followed by "X" (Colon). - Integrate parsing of cmdline command and parsing for expansion. - When inserting a register in insert mode with CTRL-R, don't insert comment leader when line wraps? - 'flipcase' variable: upper/lower case pairs. (alternative: translate command, e.g. ":tr \248-\254 \216-\222") (From Elvis, don't like it). Insert comma's between pairs and allow a range, e.g. :set flipcase=a-zA-Z,.. - Create a program that can translate a .swp file from any machine into a form usable by Vim on the current machine. - Add ":noro" command: Reset 'ro' flag for all buffers, except ones that have a readonly file. ":noro!" will reset all 'ro' flags. - Add a variant of CTRL-V that stops interpretation of more than one character. For entering mappings on the command line where a key contains several special characters, e.g. a trailing newline. - The ":@r" commands should take a range and execute the register for each line in the range. - Add regex for 'paragraphs' and 'sections': 'parare' and 'sectre'. Combine the two into a regex for searching. (Ned Konz) - Make '2' option in 'formatoptions' also work inside comments. - Add 's' flag to 'formatoptions': Do not break when inside a string. (Dodt) - Add flag to 'formatoptions' to recognize the change of indent as the start of a new paragraph (for paragraphs without separating empty line, but extra indent for the new paragraph) (Leitner). - Add commands ":C" and ":X". ":C" does encryption? - Option for filter when reading/writing a file for compression or crypting (-x command line option, -z option: gzip/gunzip). - When window size changed (with the mouse) and made too small, set it back to the minimal size. - Add "]>" and "[<", shift comment at end of line (command; /* comment */). - Should not call cursorcmd() for each vgetc() in getcmdline(). - Add the ex address '}', next empty line (like the "}" command). - When switching to another file and screen scrolls because of the long message and return must be typed, don't scroll the screen back before redrawing. - ":split file1 file2" adds two more windows (Webb). - Add the possibility to use more than one argument list: ":arglist 2". - When mouse click after 'r' command, get character that was pointed to. - Don't give message "Incomplete last line" when editing binary file. - Add ":a", ":i" for preloading of named buffers. - In Replace mode, tab replaces as many characters as it takes on the screen, text remains at the same position. Requires replace-stack to work with strings instead of characters? Implement 'replacealign' in a different way from Webb. - Allow autowrite when doing ":e file" (with an option 'eaw'). - Allow a "+command" argument before each file name in the Vim command line: "vim +123 file1 +234 file2 +345 file3". ??? - When entering text, keep other windows on same buffer updated (when a line entered)? - Check out how screen does output optimizing. Apparantly this is possible as an output filter. - Change ".swp" to ".vim", because it give a hint who created the file? - Use termcap 'ts' and 'fs' entries for setting the window title. Check 'hs' and use minimum of 'ws' (if present) and Columns to truncate the title. - In dosub() regexec is called twice for the same line. Try to avoid this. - Window updating from memline.c: insert/delete/replace line. - Optimize ml_append() for speed, esp. for reading a file. - V..c should keep indent when 'ai' is set, just like <count>cc. - Updatescript() can be done faster with a string instead of a char. - Screen updating is inefficient with CTRL-F and CTRL-B when there are long lines. - Uppercase characters in ex commands can be made lowercase? - Add "P" command to insert contents of unnamed register, move selected text to position of previous deleted (to swap foo and bar in " + foo") - Add option to show character value under the cursor in octal, decimal, hex and screen code all the time (like 'ruler' plus "ga"). - Add word count to "g CTRL-G". - Add option to show characters in text not as "|A" but as decimal ("^129"), hex ("\x81") or octal ("\201") or meta (M-x). Nvi has the 'octal' option to switch from hex to octal. - How does vi detect whether a filter has messed up the screen? Check source. After ":w !command" a wait_return? - Improve screen updating code for doput() (use s_ins()). - With 'p' command on last line: scroll screen up (also for terminals without insert line command). - Option to set time for emsg() sleep. Interrupt sleep when key is typed? sleep before second message? - Delete message after new command has been entered and have waited for key. - History stack for . command? Use "g." command. - Use insert/delete char when terminal supports it. - Optimize screen redraw for slow terminals. - Optimize "dw" for long row of spaces (say, 30000). - Add "-d null" for editing from a script file without displaying. - MSDOS: search for _exrc in the directory where the binary is, instead of using $VIM\_exrc. - In insert mode: Remember the characters that were removed with backspace and re-insert them one at a time with <key1>, all together with <key2>. - Amiga: Add possibility to set a keymap. The code in amiga.c does not work yet. - Implement 'redraw' option. - Add possibility to put the value of an option into the text: "'lines'p CTRL-R'lines' - Add possibility to put an environment variable into the text: "$DATE$p - Add special code to 'sections' option to define something else but '{' or '}' as the start of a section (e.g. one shiftwidth to the right). - Nopaste option: Mappings with non-printable characters are OK. - Add 'indent' option: Always use this amount of indent when starting a new line and when formatting text. - Use pipes for filtering on Unix. 7 Allow using Vim in a pipe: "ls | vim -u xxx.vim - | yyy". Only needs implementing ":w" to stdout in the buffer that was read from stdin. - Allow for +command and -option on any position in argv[]. - Add commands like ]] and [[ that do not include the line jumped to. - When :unab without matching "from" part and several matching "to" parts, delete the entry that was used last, instead of the first in the list. - Recognize "$*" in 'makeprg'; replace it by the arguments to :make. - Add text justification option. - Add put function that replaces the text under it. - After "inv"ing an option show the value: ":set invpaste" gives "paste is off". - Check handling of CTRL-V and '\' for ":" commands that do not have TRLBAR. - When a file cannot be opened but does exist, give error message. - Amiga: When 'r' protection bit is not set, file can still be opened but gives read errors. Check protection before opening. - When writing check for file exists but no permission, "Permission denied". - If file does not exists, check if directory exists. - MSDOS: although t_cv and t_ci are not set, do invert char under cursor. - Settings edit mode: make file with ":set opt=xx", edit it, parse it as ex commands. - ":set -w all": list one option per line. - When writing to a not writable file (with ":w!") ask for permission to overwrite it (if file can be made writable) and restore file to readonly afterwards. - Amiga: test for 'w' flag when reading a file. - :table command (Webb) - Add command to go to last non-blank in line (like 0 vs. ^, $ vs. ???) - Add new operator: clear, make area white (replace with spaces): "gb". - Make it possible for a user to define a new operator. Implementation with internal scripting language or Perl? - Add command to ":read" a file at a certain column (blockwise read?). - For "%" command: set hierarchy for which things include other things that should be ignored (like "*/" inside /* */). Also: use "%" to jump from start to end of syntax region and back. - Add 'resizecmd' option: vi command to be executed when window is resized. - Add sort of replace mode where case is taken from the old text (Goldfarb). - Allow multiple arguments for ":edit", add them to the argument list. - Allow multiple arguments for ":read", read all the files. - Support for tabs in specific columns: ":set tabcol=8,20,34,56" (Demirel). - Add 'searchdir' option: Directories to search for file name being edited (Demirel). - Modifier for the put command: Change to linewise, charwise, blockwise, etc. - Add commands for saving and restoring options ":set save" "set restore", for use in macro's and the like. - Add option to set the number of lines when not to scroll, instead of the fixed number used now (for terminals that scroll slow with a large number of lines but not with a single line). - Keep output from listings in a window, so you can have a look at it while working in another window. Put cmdline in a separate window? - Add possibility to put output of ex commands in a buffer or file, e.g. for ":set all". ":r :set all"? - 'edit' option: When off changing the buffer is not possible (Really read-only mode). - When the 'equalalways' option is set, creating a new window should not result in windows to become bigger. Deleting a window should not result in a window to become smaller (Webb). - When resizing the whole Vim window, the windows inside should be resized proportionally (Webb). - Include options directly in option table, no indirect pointers. Use mkopttab to make option table? - When doing ":w dir", where "dir" is a directory name, write the current file into that directory, with the current file name (without the path)? - Add command to go to Nth character in the file, "123g|"? - Support for 'dictionary's that are sorted, makes access a lot faster (Haritsis). - Add "^Vrx" on the command line, replace with contents of register x. Used instead of CTRL-R to make repeating possible. (Marinichev) - Add "^Vb" on the command line, replace with word before or under the cursor? - Make contents of status line configurable, with a printf-like format string. - Option to make a .swp file only when a change is made (Templeton). - Support mapping for replace mode and "r" command (Vi doesn't do this)? - Set boolean options on/off with ":set paste=off", ":set paste=on". - In an Ex range, use { for start of paragraph, } for end of paragraph, [, ], etc.? 5 Add 'ignorefilecase' option: Ignore case when expanding file names. ":e ma<Tab>" would also find "Makefile" on Unix. From Elvis: - Use "instman.sh" to install manpages? - Add ":alias" command. - fontchanges recognized "\\fB" etc. - Search patterns: \= match empty string, leave cursor here. \@ match word under cursor. but do: \@ leave the cursor "at" this position \w match the word under the cursor? \W match the WORD under the cursor? 8 ":window" command: :win + next window (up) :win ++ idem, wrapping :win - previous window (down) :win -- idem, wrapping :win nr to window number "nr" :win name to window editing buffer "name" 7 ":cc" compiles a single file (default: current one). 'ccprg' option is program to use with ":cc". Use ":compile" instead of ":cc"? From Nvi: - 'cdpath' option. - 'searchincr' option, alias for 'incsearch'? - 'leftright' option, alias for 'nowrap'? - Have a look at "vi/doc/vi.chart", for Nvi specialities. 8 Add 'keytime', time in 1/10 sec for mapping timeout? - Add 'filec' option as an alternative for 'wildchar'. 8 Lock a file when starting to edit it with flock() of fcntl(). 6 Support Nvi command names as an alias: :bg :hide :fg fname :buf fname (with 'hidden' set?) :dis b :ls :Edit fname :split fname :Fg fname :sbuf fname (with 'hidden' set?) :Next :snext (can't do this, already use :Next) :Previous :sprevious :Tag :stag From xvim: - Use '\' before commands to make them linewise. - Add :collapse, remove multiple blank lines (Demirel, Webb)? From xvi: - CTRL-_ : swap 8th bit of character. - Add egrep-like regex type, like xvi (Ned Konz) or Perl (Emmanuel Mogenet) From vile: - Show unprintable characters in hex. (or in octal) - When horizontal scrolling, use '<' and '>' for lines continuing outside of window. - Support putting .swp files in /tmp: Command in rc.local to move .swp files from /tmp to some directory before deleting files. Far future extentions: - Change layout of blocks in swap file: Text at the start, with '\n' in between lines (just load the file without changes, except for Mac). Indexes for lines are from the end of the block backwards. It's the current layout mirrored. - Make it possible to edit a register, in a window, like a buffer. - Add stuff to syntax highlighting to change the text (upper-case keywords, set indent, define other highlighting, etc.). - Mode to keep C-code formatted all the time (sort of on-line indent). - Several top-level windows in one Vim session. Be able to use a different font in each top-level window. - Allow editing beyond end of line, just like there are all spaces. Switch this on with an option or special insert mode command. Also allow editing above start and below end of buffer. - Smart cut/paste: recognize words and adjust spaces before/after them. - Change the output to the message line. Don't redraw the screen until the next vi command. Remember message line for redraw. Integrate the command line in updateScreen(). - Mode to keep text formatted while inserting/deleting. Use soft/hard returns with an option to switch this off. - Add column numbers to ":" commands ":line1,line2[col1,col2]cmd". Block can be selected with CTRL-V. Allow '$' (end of line) for col2. - Add open mode, use it when terminal has no cursor positioning. - Special "drawing mode": a line is drawn where the cursor is moved to. Backspace deletes along the line (from jvim). - Perform commands on multiple windows (:W%s/foo/bar/g), multiple arguments (:A) or multiple buffers (:B). Implement ":Bset", set option in all buffers. Also ":Wset", set in all windows, ":Aset, set in all arguments and ":Tset", set in all files mentioned in the tags file. Add buffer/arg range, like in ":2,5B%s/..." (do we really need this???) Add search string: "B/*.c/%s/.."? Or ":F/*.c/%s/.."? - Support for underlining (underscore-BS-char), bold (char-BS-char) and other standout modes switched on/off with , 'overstrike' option (Reiter). - Add vertical mode (Paul Jury, Demirel): "5vdw" deletes a word in five lines, "3vitextESC" will insert "text" in three lines, etc.. 4w Recognize l, #, p as 'flags' to EX commands: :g/RE/#l shall print lines with line numbers and in list format. :g/RE/dp shall print lines that are deleted. POSIX: Commands where flags shall apply to all lines written: list, number, open, print, substitute, visual, &, z. For other commands, flags shall apply to the current line after the command completes. Examples: :7,10j #l Join the lines 7-10 and print the result in list vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=4: vim:comments=fb\:9,fb\:8,fb\:7,fb\:6,fb\:5,fb\:4,fb\:3,fb\:2,fb\:1,fb\:-,fb\:9q,fb\:8q,fb\:7q,fb\:6q,fb\:5q,fb\:4q,fb\:3q,fb\:2q,fb\:1q,fb\:9s,fb\:8s,fb\:7s,fb\:6s,fb\:5s,fb\:4s,fb\:3s,fb\:2s,fb\:1s,fb\:9l,fb\:8l,fb\:7l,fb\:6l,fb\:5l,fb\:4l,fb\:3l,fb\:2l,fb\:1l,fb\:9w,fb\:8w,fb\:7w,fb\:6w,fb\:5w,fb\:4w,fb\:3w,fb\:2w,fb\:1w,fb\:9b,fb\:8b,fb\:7b,fb\:6b,fb\:5b,fb\:4b,fb\:3b,fb\:2b,fb\:1b,fb\:9m,fb\:8m,fb\:7m,fb\:6m,fb\:5m,fb\:4m,fb\:3m,fb\:2m,fb\:1m,fb\:9?,fb\:8?,fb\:7?,fb\:6?,fb\:5?,fb\:4?,fb\:3?,fb\:2?,fb\:1?