8cfe52e6fb
Manual pages requested for output may undergo formatting
arranged by some roff-descendant program. Lines longer
than MANWIDTH or COLUMNS or real-estate width of a device
(with support for horizontal scrolling considered) can be
divided at either blank characters and/or at groups of word
characters (syllables) according to supported hyphenation
rules (although page authors are free to disable hyphenation
or prevent particular words from being hyphenated).
Groff‘s manual describes it as follows:
5.1.2 Hyphenation
Since the odds are not great for finding a set of words, for
every output line, which fit nicely on a line without
inserting excessive amounts of space between words, gtroff
hyphenates words so that it can justify lines without
inserting too much space between words. It uses an internal
hyphenation algorithm (a simplified version of the algorithm
used within TeX) to indicate which words can be hyphenated
and how to do so. When a word is hyphenated, the first part
of the word is added to the current filled line being output
(with an attached hyphen), and the other portion is added to
the next line to be filled.
It would be expedient for autoload/dist/man.vim (along with
syntax/man.vim‘s highlighting and ftplugin/man.vim‘s Ctrl-],
\K mappings) to allow for hyphenation of cross-references
to manual pages.
For example,
# Launch Vim [v9.0; patched: 1-1378, 1499] as follows:
MANWIDTH=80 vim --not-a-term +MANPAGER '+Man man' '+/conv(1)' '+norm B'
# Press Ctrl-] with cursor on _m_: "... use man‐
# conv(1) directly."_______________________[^]
#
# (Man v2.11.2)
# Launch Vim as follows:
MANWIDTH=80 vim --not-a-term +MANPAGER '+Man git' '+/config(1)' '+norm B'
# Press Ctrl-] with cursor on _g_: "... in git-
# config(1) for a more ..."_______________[^]
#
# (Git v2.39.2)
Co-authored-by: Aliaksei Budavei <0x000c70@gmail.com>
For translations of this README see the end.
If you find a bug or want to discuss the best way to add a new feature, please open an issue. If you have a question or want to discuss the best way to do something with Vim, you can use StackExchange or one of the Maillists.
What is Vim?
Vim is a greatly improved version of the good old UNIX editor
Vi. Many new
features have been added: multi-level undo, syntax highlighting, command line
history, on-line help, spell checking, filename completion, block operations,
script language, etc. There is also a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
available. Still, Vi compatibility is maintained, those who have Vi "in the
fingers" will feel at home.
See runtime/doc/vi_diff.txt for differences with
Vi.
This editor is very useful for editing programs and other plain text 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 mapped to commands by the user, and the mouse can be used.
Vim runs under MS-Windows (7, 8, 10, 11), macOS, Haiku, VMS and almost all flavours of UNIX. Porting to other systems should not be very difficult. Older versions of Vim run on MS-DOS, MS-Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista, Amiga DOS, Atari MiNT, BeOS, RISC OS and OS/2. These are no longer maintained.
For Vim9 script see README_VIM9.
Distribution
You can often use your favorite package manager to install Vim. On Mac and Linux a small version of Vim is pre-installed, you still need to install Vim if you want more features.
There are separate distributions for Unix, PC, Amiga and some other systems.
This README.md file comes with the runtime archive. It includes the
documentation, syntax files and other files that are used at runtime. 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 https://www.vim.org/download.php for
an overview of currently available distributions.
Some popular places to get the latest Vim:
- Check out the git repository from GitHub.
- Get the source code as an archive.
- Get a Windows executable from the vim-win32-installer repository.
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.
Installation
See one of these files for system-specific instructions. Either in the READMEdir directory (in the repository) or the top directory (if you unpack an archive):
README_ami.txt Amiga
README_unix.txt Unix
README_dos.txt MS-DOS and MS-Windows
README_mac.txt Macintosh
README_haiku.txt Haiku
README_vms.txt VMS
There are other README_*.txt files, depending on the distribution you used.
Documentation
The Vim tutor is a one hour training course for beginners. Often it can be
started as vimtutor. See :help tutor for more information.
The best is to use :help in Vim. If you don't have an executable yet, read
runtime/doc/help.txt.
It contains pointers to the other documentation files.
The User Manual reads like a book and is recommended to learn to use
Vim. See :help user-manual.
Copying
Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are
encouraged to make a donation to help orphans in Uganda. Please read the file
runtime/doc/uganda.txt
for details (do :help uganda inside Vim).
Summary of the license: There are no restrictions on using or distributing an unmodified copy of Vim. Parts of Vim may also be distributed, but the license text must always be included. For modified versions, a few restrictions apply. The license is GPL compatible, you may compile Vim with GPL libraries and distribute it.
Sponsoring
Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of time and effort. To show your appreciation for the work and motivate Bram and others to continue working on Vim please send a donation.
Since Bram is back to a paid job the money will now be used to help children
in Uganda. See runtime/doc/uganda.txt. But
at the same time donations increase Bram's motivation to keep working on Vim!
For the most recent information about sponsoring look on the Vim web site: https://www.vim.org/sponsor/
Contributing
If you would like to help make Vim better, see the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
Information
If you are on macOS, you can use Macvim.
The latest news about Vim can be found on the Vim home page: https://www.vim.org/
If you have problems, have a look at the Vim documentation or tips: https://www.vim.org/docs.php https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Vim_Tips_Wiki
If you still have problems or any other questions, use one of the mailing lists to discuss them with Vim users and developers: https://www.vim.org/maillist.php
If nothing else works, report bugs directly to the vim-dev mailing list: vim-dev@vim.org
Main author
Most of Vim was created by Bram Moolenaar Bram@vim.org Bram-Moolenaar
Send any other comments, patches, flowers and suggestions to the vim-dev mailing list: vim-dev@vim.org
This is README.md for version 9.0 of Vim: Vi IMproved.