Vim 8 pre-announcement

[Bram Moolenaar]

Hello Vim users,

Work on Vim 8.0 is coming close to an end. I hope version 8.0 can be
released in about two weeks.

This is a last chance to modify new features in a way that is not
backwards compatible. Once 8.0 is out we can't make changes that would
break plugins.

An overview of new features can be found in:
https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/version8.txt
A version with links (but a day older):
http://vimhelp.appspot.com/version8.txt.html

Please review the new features, try them out and report what should be
changed on the vim-dev maillist. Of course you should also report bugs
you find.

Happy Vimming!


PS. If you are interested in meeting Vim users: Vimfest is happening in
Berlin Sept. 16-18. http://vimfest.org


--
How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity:
9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

/// Bram Moolenaar -- Br...@Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
/// sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ \\\
\\\ an exciting new programming language -- http://www.Zimbu.org ///
\\\ help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org ///

[Tony Mechelynck]

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 6:43 PM, Bram Moolenaar <Br...@moolenaar.net> wrote:
>
> Hello Vim users,
>
> Work on Vim 8.0 is coming close to an end. I hope version 8.0 can be
> released in about two weeks.
>
> This is a last chance to modify new features in a way that is not
> backwards compatible. Once 8.0 is out we can't make changes that would
> break plugins.
>
> An overview of new features can be found in:
> https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/version8.txt

IIUC, ":help version8.txt" in the latest (today's) runtime files gives
the same as the above, with the usual Vim hotlinks: double-click a
help tag, or put the cursor on it and hit Ctrl-]

The current version8.txt is dated 2016 Aug 16 at the end of its first line.

> A version with links (but a day older):
> http://vimhelp.appspot.com/version8.txt.html
>
> Please review the new features, try them out and report what should be
> changed on the vim-dev maillist. Of course you should also report bugs
> you find.
>
> Happy Vimming!
>
>
> PS. If you are interested in meeting Vim users: Vimfest is happening in
> Berlin Sept. 16-18. http://vimfest.org
>
>
> --
> How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity:
> 9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
>
> /// Bram Moolenaar -- Br...@Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
> /// sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ \\\
> \\\ an exciting new programming language -- http://www.Zimbu.org ///
> \\\ help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org ///
>

Best regards,
Tony.

[Bram Moolenaar]

Skywind3000 wrote:

> > Hello Vim users,
> >
> > Work on Vim 8.0 is coming close to an end. I hope version 8.0 can be
> > released in about two weeks.
> >
> > This is a last chance to modify new features in a way that is not
> > backwards compatible. Once 8.0 is out we can't make changes that would
> > break plugins.
>

> Can we have a binary mode in channels ? Which could be used to implement
> a virtual terminal inside vim in VimScript.
>
> According to the ":help channel", There is a "raw" mode in channels, but it
> will treat the whole message as a string, not a binary data.

Raw mode is nearly binary. The only limitation I'm aware of is that it
can't handle NUL bytes. And since there is no way to deal with binary
data anyway in Vim script, it's probably the only thing possible.

An alternative is NL mode, then you get lines at a time where NUL bytes
have been changed to NL bytes. But it will be stuck waiting for the
next NL.

--
This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem, which was this: most
of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time.
Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these
were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of
paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green
pieces of paper that were unhappy.
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

[Bram Moolenaar]

Roland Puntaier wrote:

> I was wondering whether you could also include into Vim 8 the following patch
> (the original reason for pull request https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/543,
> which you can reject, since the langmap part doesn't seem to have a chance in, anyway)
> The behavior this patch tries to achieve is given by the test case in
> the patch.

This is the wrong solution, it is not backwards compatible and will
cause problems.

The todo list mentions the right solution:

- in vgetorpeek() apply langmap to the typeahead buffer and put the result in
a copy-buffer, only when langmap is appropriate for the current mode. Then
check for mapping and let gotchars() work on the copy-buffer.
- Remove LANGMAP_ADJUST() in other parts of the code. Make sure the mode is
covered by the above change.
So that replaying the register doesn't use keymap/langmap and still does the
same thing.

I know this is much more difficult to implement, but we should not
include a bad hack for that reason.

--
If you put 7 of the most talented OSS developers in a room for a week
and asked them to fix a bug in a spreadsheet program, in 1 week
you'd have 2 new mail readers and a text-based web browser.