Vim 6.4 Released

file cabinet writes to tell us that for the first time in more than a year Vim has released a new version. Version 6.4 stable was released yesterday and while there are no new features added they are touting dozens of bug fixes.

Comments

Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[(1 -sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

"Because we use vi , son; they use emacs."

In good sadness, though, I'm looking forward to the spell-checking in Vim 7.

Re:Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[Anonymous Coward]

yep, it's quite unfortunate that we still have discrimination due to the editor that one uses.

People are being taken from their homes and put in concentration camps, just because they use vim. Never heard of this you say? it's happening all over europe. The evil facist GNU are rounding them up in an attempt to rid the world of vim blood to wipe out the next generation.

I say screw them, stick up for your beliefs, and spread the words: 'vive la vim'

Re:Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[falzer]

VIM is *not* user friendly, and until it is VIM will stay with <= 1% marketshare.

Take editing text. Vim zealots are now saying "oh editing text is so easy, just use the hjkl keys to move around and use ":%s/apple/apricot/gi" to do a search and replace. Yes, because typing in "5kck}" is so much more intuitive than simply moving the cursor, selecting two lines of text with the mouse, then hitting the } key.

VIM zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of VIM interface issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Notepad issues. Example comments:

User: "How do I fucking edit this goddamn text file!? Why does Linux only come with vi installed?"
Zealot: "Oh that's easy! Just go vim <the file you want to edit>. No no, wait, don't type anything yet. It won't work the sa-- ok hit escape, ok, hit u a few times, ok you're back to where you started. Now vi works a little differently than most text editors: there is command mode and edit mode. Vim starts in command mode where you issue commands (such as hjkl) to move the cursor around, d followed by a movement command to delete lines of text, or i (for example) to insert text. Pretty much almost every letter of the alphabet (upper and lower case) is a command. When you go into a text editing mode by issuing the appropriate command, you type your text like normal then hit escape to back out. You type :q to quit, or ZZ / :wq to save and quit. Sometimes you need to put in a ! after a : command to force it. Quite elegant, don't you think?"

User: "How do I edit text files using notepad?"
Zealot: "Oh God, you have to use the graphical luser interface to open a text file. Then use the arrow keys (or optionally mouse) to position the cursor where you want to type. Now you've gotta actually enter in the text using the keyboard! Careful though, it might break, it just blithely assumes that what you're typing is text and not commands!"

So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to VIM geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards notepad.

Re:Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[ChrisGilliard]

Hey, at least vi is better than ed. If you haven't tried it, type 'ed at your terminal and you'll see what I mean.

Re:Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[Fred_A]

That's what your nose is for.

Re:Why are we hiding from the police, daddy?

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

Sir, I must take exception to your post. Notepad is in no way, shape, or form a regular powerdrill! It's more like one of those toy hand cranked drills that excels at drilling through cardboard.

Bugggg fix only. nice

[poind3xt3r]

Dozens of bugs have been fixed, runtime files were added and updated. There are no new features They are focusing more on fixing problems rather than add new features and in essence adding new bugs. Its rare to see updates which are meant for donzens of fixes. A smart approach.

Might have taken a while....

[ELiTe185]

More than a year? At least that's quicker than Microsoft....

Bug fixes

[patrickclay]

I hope they fixed the bug that made you type all those weird key combinations to write to a file and save.

Re:Yes, but is it better than emacs??

[Hamster Of Death]

Some people grow attached to their pointy sticks and stone hammer tools when building a sub par house.

I for one...

[_Hellfire_]

...welcome our new 18 fingered overlords!

(yes I'm a daily vim user)

Keep up the fantastic work guys - vim is one of those apps which is actually a pleasure to use.

That's nothing!

[earthbound kid]

The last version of Emacs came complete with Vim v. 10.03c! ;)

Did someone mention the Fantastic Four?

[Rhinobird]

Because, I thought that I distinctly heard the words "Flame On".

Like priming an enclosed area with flammable fumes. Someone is going to mention Emacs and this place is going to explode.

VIM?

[thomble]

...puh-lease. I write everything in machine code.

Re:Yes, but is it better than emacs??

[ocelotbob]

I use FreeBSD and never, ever look at that monstrosity known as emacs. Emacs is proof positive that RMS is a certifiably insane.

Need release faster

[2Bits]

Look, as good as vim could be, at this rate, you are not going to catch up with emacs, which is already at version 21.x or something. Which just proved that emacs is much better. If you don't believe, here is some proofs:

1- Emacs has a much higher version number, which proves to be a more mature software, which proves to be better (more mature is better)

2- Even an icon such as RMS whom has been proved to be more intelligent than the average USians, uses Emacs. This shows that smart people always make the right choice, and in reverse, proves that Emacs is better than Vim.

3- Everyone in Cryptonomicon, which is the bibile of all geeks, uses Emacs. We even have a module for encryption. It would take a long time for Vim to catch up to that kind of functionalities.

4- Only in Emacs can you do Ctrl-A to move the beginning of a line. In one shot. How could you do that in
Vim? You have to Esc, then press 0, which is lame. Which just shows how advanced Emacs is in terms of maturity and functionality.

5- As the theorem goes, computer science is a science for minimizing keystrokes. Emacs, in contrast to Vim, can prove this theorem right. Emacs users press less keys than Vim users.

6- Humans have 10 fingers (some may have more, but I don't know how to grow them), and Emacs allows you to use all your fingers at one. Which shows you that Emacs has a better human user interface. In contrast, Vim users can only type one key at a time, which has no concept of fingers. That is like an interface for dogs, which can only press one key at a time with their paws.

7- Emacs allows users to stretch their fingers more, and finger exercise has been proved, again and again, scientifically, to help increase human intelligence. The more you use Emacs, the more you become intelligent. Unlike Vim users, who become dumber and dumber, and end up with paws.

8- Everyone knows that geeks do no exercise. But we Emacs users have our daily dose of finger exercise. As a result, Emacs users have better shape. Take a look at the comparison: RMS (Emacs user) vs ESR (Vi user). RMS definitely looks better, with a nicer beard too. ESR can only have a lousy Asterix moustache. And look at what these two persons said in public, which just proved points 2, 6, and 7.

9- Look at this deductive proof I'm giving right now. Only an Emacs user can attain this level of intellect.

10- As a result of the last 9 points, this proves that Emacs is better. And from an evolutionary point of view, Emacs is like modern humans, and Vim like chimpanzee.

* putting on flame suite *

Re:Need release faster

[forkazoo]

You omit one important point from your otherwise well reasoned logic...

vi users are mammals, and they flip out and kill people *all the time.* Some guy dropped a spoon and a vi user edited a whole source tree. That's what I call a Real Ultimate Editor!

Wait, maybe I'm thinking of something else. Something to do with pirates...

Re:Not only is it a fantastic editor...

[Tumbleweed]

...it's also a tasty salad dressing! Mmm...now *that's* _Vimtastic_!

Exciting...

[whichpaul]

So does this mean it's now worth changing over from notepad?
:P

Re:Yipee!

[p2sam]

I started using Emacs in 2nd year university, but switched to Vim after realizing that I don't want to learn elisp. :) I also think I'm too old to change now, I'm 25. ;-)

Re:Yipee!

[commodoresloat]

I am a VIM (and vi) fanatic! Which people find strange, because I'm also a Windows Zealot!

I bet you're loads of fun at parties!

Vim can't do exorcisms...

[csirac]

~
:help the damned
~
E149: Sorry, no help for the damned                           0,0-1         All

:-(

Re:hats off to Bram, Bill Joy, and ATT

[raehl]

Is there one ref to it on the web?

Way to ruin it buddy.

Vim source code

[chrysalis]

int main(void)
{
for(;;) {
get_keystroke();
bell();
flash_screen();
}
return 0; /* NOTREACHED */
}