by @Macarlo
Team OS/2 registered
Screenshots by Embellish

Great news! Vim version 5.6 for OS/2 Warp has been released and you can download it (vim5_6.zip, 1.686KB) from Hobbes! If you are also Linux user like me you certainly loves Vim. It is one of the most sophisticated, efficient, powerful and reliable text editors for command line that I know! The Vim's Help is one of the most extensive that i saw in my life. I'm Emacs user but, sincerely, I recommend Vim for not normal users (well, I'm not normal twice, because I'm OS/2 user and because I use Vim on OS/2). Note that Vim is not exactly for begginers. But don't cry, my boy: a nice tutorial transforms you in a Vim expert in only one hour!!! If you are seeking for a PM editor, forget my words! Vim is for command line fanatics like me. Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are encouraged to make a donation to orphans in Uganda. Please read the file "doc/uganda.txt" inside the zip for details. 

Photo above shows inside FileStar/2 Vim's help displayed by F1

What is Vim

Vim is an almost compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi. Many new featureshave been added: multi level undo, syntax highlighting, command line history,on-line help, filename completion, block operations, etc. There is also a Graphical User Interface (GUI) available. See doc/vi_diff.txt.

This editor is very useful for editing programs and other plain ASCII files.

All commands are given with normal keyboard characters, so those who can type with ten fingers can work very fast. Additionally, function keys can be defined by the user, and the mouse can be used.

Vim currently runs under Amiga DOS, MS-DOS, MS-Windows 95/98/NT, Atari MiNT, Macintosh, BeOS, VMS, RISC OS, OS/2 and almost all flavours of UNIX.

Porting to other systems should not be very difficult.

Distribution

There are separate distributions for Unix, PC, Amiga and some other systems.

To run Vim you must get either one of the binary archives or a source archive.

Which one you need depends on the system you want to run it on and whether you want or must compile it yourself. Check "ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim" for an overview of currently available distributions.

Documentation

The best is to use ":help" in Vim. If you don't have an executable (yet), read doc/help.txt. It contains pointers to the other documentation files. "tutor/README" is a one hour training course for beginners.

Copying

If you include Vim on a CD-ROM, the author would like to receive a copy.

There are no restrictions on distributing an unmodified copy of Vim. Parts of Vim may also be distributed, but this text must always be included. You are allowed to include executables that you made from the unmodified Vim sources, your own usage examples and Vim scripts.

If you distribute a modified version of Vim, you are encouraged to send the maintainer a copy, including the source code. Or make it available to the maintainer through ftp; let him know where it can be found. If the number of changes is small (e.g., a modified Makefile) e-mailing the diffs will do.

When the maintainer asks for it (in any way) you must make your changes, including source code, available to him.

The maintainer reserves the right to include any changes in the official version of Vim. This is negotiable. You are not allowed to distribute a modified version of Vim when you are not willing to make the source code available to the maintainer.

The current maintainer is Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>. If this changes, it will be announced in appropriate places (most likely www.vim.org and comp.editors). When it is completely impossible to contact the maintainer, the obligation to send him modified source code is dropped.

It is not allowed to remove these restrictions from the distribution of the Vim sources or parts of it. These restrictions may also be used for previous Vim releases instead of the text that was included with it.

Compiling

If you obtained a binary distribution you don't need to compile Vim. If you obtained a source distribution, all the stuff for compiling Vim is in the "src" directory. See src/INSTALL for instructions.

 How to install VIM on OS/2

NOTE: You will need two archives:

vim55rt.zip contains the runtime files (same as for the PC version)

vim55os2.zip contains the OS/2 executables

1. Go to the directory where you want to put the Vim files. Examples:

cd C:\

cd D:\editors

2. Unpack the zip archives. This will create a new directory "vim/vim55", in which all the distributed Vim files are placed. Since the directory name includes the version number, it is unlikely that you overwrite existing files.

Examples:

pkunzip -d vim55os2.zip

unzip vim55os2.zip

After you unpacked the files, you can still move the whole directory tree to another location.

3. Add the directory where vim.exe is to your path. The simplest is to add a line to your autoexec.bat. Examples:

set path=%path%;C:\vim\vim55

set path=%path%;D:\editors\vim\vim55

That's it!

Extra remarks:

- To avoid confusion between distributed files of different versions and your own modified vim scripts, it is recommended to use this directory layout:

("C:\vim" is used here as the root, replace with the path you use)

Your own files:

C:\vim\_vimrc Your personal vimrc.

C:\vim\_viminfo Dynamic info for 'viminfo'.

C:\vim\... Other files you made.

Distributed files:

C:\vim\vim55\vim.exe The Vim version 5.5 executable.

C:\vim\vim55\doc\*.txt The version 5.5 documentation files.

C:\vim\vim55\bugreport.vim A Vim version 5.5 script.

C:\vim\vim55\... Other version 5.5 distributed files.

In this case the $VIM environment variable would be set like this:

set VIM=C:\vim

- You can put your Vim executable anywhere else. If the executable is not with the other distributed Vim files, you should set $VIM. The simplest is to add a line to your autoexec.bat. Examples:

set VIM=c:\vim

set VIM=d:\editors\vim

For further information, type this inside Vim:

:help os2

Mailing Lists

There are four mailing lists for Vim:

<vim@vim.org>

For discussions about using existing versions of Vim: Useful mappings, questions, answers, where to get a specific version, etc.

<vim-dev@vim.org>

For discussions about changing Vim: New features, porting, beta-test versions, etc.

<vim-announce@vim.org>

Announcements about new versions of Vim; also beta-test versions and ports to different systems.

<vim-multibyte@vim.org>

For discussions about using and improving the multi-byte aspects of Vim: XIM, Hangul, fontset, etc.

See http://www.vim.org/mail.html

If you have problems, have a look at the Vim FAQ:

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

CONTACT AUTHOR

Bram Moolenaar
E-mail: Bram@vim.org
http://www.vim.org/mail.html
Clematisstraat 30
5925 BE Venlo
Fax: +31 20 8823205
Tel: +31 77 3872340
The Netherlands

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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