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1991-07-25
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Welcome to pcvile
-----------------
This version of vile differs from the distributed source code of
vile version 3 in a few ways which I shall make clear here:
(I've included this in the help file too)
1) The cursor keys, page up/down and insert/delete keys have been
compiled into the program (I tried binding but due to a bug this
didn't seem to work too well) so this should keep the "I don't
like using hjkl" brigade happy!
2) Vile distinguishes between a write of a region ':1,20w' and a
write of a whole file ':w' and so each of these have been given
different letters. The region write is ':1,20W' and the file
write remains ':w'. ':wq' remains the same.
3) I have implemented the emacs ^X-O command to flip between windows
as I tend to use this quite a bit rather then ^N and ^P which is
the vile standard.
4) You can force this version of vile into one of three screen modes:
25, 43 and 50 line. I have had problems with the 43 line mode
on AST premium 286 workstations (the only EGA I can lay my hands on)
so I apologise if it doesn't work, the 25 and 50 line modes work
fine though. The default is 50 lines (for various reasons!) so if
you have a mono or cga monitor you'll have to change your vile.rc
file.
There are two ways to set the screen mode:
a) with a command line option: -2 -4 -5 are 25, 43 and 50 line resp.
b) by adding "setg screen {25|43|50}" into your vile.rc file.
Note you should NOT do this from within the editor.
Also, if you shell out in 50 line mode, make sure you are in 50 line
mode before you exit the dos shell, otherwise you end up with a 50
line edit window with only the top 25 displayed!
Personally I find 50 line mode very usable, but I know people who
have difficulty reading it so just put setg screen 25 in the vile.rc
file to save your eyesight.
5) The vile.rc file can be located in the same directory as your binary
executable, I've changed vile to search the PATH for this file.
6) Shelling out to dos can be done by using ^Z, however this doesn't
seem to want to work if vile has run out of memory.
There are still plenty of bugs, I know. The main one I want to get done
first being memory, ie running out. The vi compatibility isn't
100% but I like it, and I hope some others might too.
I am taking responsibility for any pcvile bugs (please check the enclosed
known bug list first though) and I'll then split them into pc
specific, which I will deal with, and vile general bugs, which I will pass
on to Paul Fox so that they can be fixed for version 4.
Pete Ruczynski July 19, 1991
pjr@pyra.co.uk
Below you'll find Pauls original README document, enjoy.
VILE -- VI Like Emacs: a vi workalike put together from Micro-Emacs by Paul Fox
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This editor grew out of a frustration that although lots of
eager programmers have tackled rewrites of Emacs, with new and
better features (not to mention free source), I've not seen
anything similar done with the Second True Editor. (The
First, of course, being /bin/ed)
So I took a copy of MicroEmacs 3.9 (which I've since
discovered was out of date, unfortunately) and bashed and
badgered it into a vi "feel-alike". It retains the multiple
buffer/multiple window features of uemacs, but the
"finger-feel", if you will, is very much that of vi. It is
definitely not a clone, in that some substantial stuff is
missing, and the screen doesn't look quite the same. But what
matters most is that one's "muscle memory" does the right thing
to the text in front of you, and that is what vile tries to do
for vi users. THIS IS NOT A "CLONE"!
This is the first really public version of vile. It is
version three. Users of previous versions will hopefully find
the additions of ":" command line ranges and the ! filter
operator helpful.
The collective developers of Micro-Emacs should be
complimented that the changes were as easy as they were. The
code was pretty clean and well designed before I started on
it. I'm not sure that the same can be said anymore...
The benefits over standard vi include:
- multiple files open at once
- multiple windows on the screen
- a larger set of operator commands
- the possibility of porting to your favorite micro.
(mind you, I haven't even tried this on a small
UNIX machine, let alone DOS etc...)
- more uniform undo/yank register treatment
- using tags doesn't lose your last search pattern
- "next error" cursor positioning after compilation
Of course, it _may_ lack some of vi's reliability. :-)
( Although I can't imagine the emacs folks wanting to buy much
of this stuff back (insert mode, anyone? :-), they might
want to look at:
- full global undo
- tags support
- better (maybe?) UNIX terminal handling
- better UNIX shell escapes
- terminal scroll support
- multiple yank registers (formerly called kill buffers)
- multiple marks (actually kind of messy)
- improved aesthetics of window splitting and deleting
- "next error" cursor positioning
- list mode )
Take a look at vile.hlp for more information about features
and differences.
In general, I suspect that the quality of the code is roughly
on a par with MicroEmacs. I've been using vile regularly under
both SunOS and 386 UNIX for about a year, with no major problems
(that havn't been fixed). Another dedicated user has been
running it on various flavors of 386 UNIX (Bell, Open DeskTop,
Xenix) and Ultrix, also with no problems.
I have not tried this on a small system, or even _any_
non-UNIX system. I'm sure work will be required to make
it work on DOS again, for instance -- especially for spawning
sub-shells, etc.
I ifdef'ed out the language features (user-defined procs,
etc.) a long time ago -- I don't know if they still work,
though I didn't actively try to break them.
If anyone is interested in doing major work on this thing, let me
know -- I have some ideas on how to make a full ex mode work, for
instance, and on how to add the ":map" command. Also, take a look
at the buglist...
Hope you enjoy --
Paul G. Fox June 3, 1991
pgf@cayman.com
p.s. The code distributed with vile in the "shortnames" subdirectory
is covered by GNU Public License. The vile code itself in the
upper level directory is _not_ covered by the GNU public license.
p.p.s By the way, I'm _not_ the same Paul Fox who wrote Crisp, the Brief
work-alike.