Vim 7.4a ready for beta testing

[Bram Moolenaar]

Hello Vim users,


Announcing: Vim (Vi IMproved) version 7.4a BETA


This is the first BETA release of Vim 7.4.

Please check that the distribution is OK. I haven't done one for a long
time. Report anything that isn't right. That includes a crash but also
a typo in the documentation or a missing file.


The biggest additions since 7.3:
- A new, faster regular expression engine.
- More than a thousand fixes and small improvements.

Once you have installed Vim 7.4a BETA you can find details about the
changes since Vim 7.3 with:
:help version-7.4


Gratitude
---------

If you like Vim, please consider helping poor children in the south of
Uganda: http://iccf-holland.org


Where to get it
---------------

The best way to obtain the latest Vim 7.4 is using Mercurial.
Summary:
hg clone https://vim.googlecode.com/hg/ vim
cd vim
hg update
More information here: http://www.vim.org/mercurial.php
The tag for this beta version is v7-4a.

For MS-Windows most of you will want the self-installing executable:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74a.exe

Information about which files to download for what system (don't use the
links, they are still for Vim 7.3):
http://www.vim.org/download.php

A list of mirror sites can be found here:
http://www.vim.org/mirrors.php


The files available for download:

UNIX:
sources + runtime files, bzip2 compressed:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/unix/vim-7.4a.tar.bz2

VARIOUS:
help files converted to HTML:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/doc/vim74ahtml.zip

MS-WINDOWS one-size-fits-all:
Self-installing, includes all runtime files, loads libraries dynamically:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74a.exe

MS-WINDOWS separate files:
Runtime files:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/vim74art.zip
GUI binary for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/7:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74a.zip
GUI binary with OLE support:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74aole.zip
Console version for Windows NT/2000/XP/7:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/vim74aw32.zip
Sources for PC (with CR-LF):
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/vim74asrc.zip

For debugging:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74a.pdb
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/gvim74aole.pdb
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/pc/vim74aw32.pdb


Omitted in this version are:
- The 16-bit DOS, OS/2 and Amiga versions, these are obsolete.
- The 32-bit console version for MS-DOS/Windows 95/98
- The 16 bit MS-Windows version


Mailing lists
-------------

For user questions you can turn to the Vim mailing list. There are a
lot of tips, scripts and solutions. You can ask your Vim questions, but
only if you subscribe. See http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim

If you want to help Vim development, discuss new features or get the
latest patches, subscribe to the vim-dev mailing list. See
http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-dev

Subject specific lists:
Multi-byte issues: http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-multibyte
Macintosh issues: http://www.vim.org/maillist.php#vim-mac

Before you ask a question you should search the archives, someone may
already have given the answer.


Reporting bugs
--------------

Send them to <vim...@vim.org>. Please describe the problem precisely.
All the time spent on answering mail is subtracted from the time that is
spent on improving Vim! Always give a reproducible example and try to
find out which settings or other things influence the appearance of the
bug. Try starting without your own vimrc file: "vim -u NONE". Try
different machines if possible. See ":help bugs" in Vim. Send a patch
if you can!


Happy Vimming!


--
Q: What kind of stuff do you do?
A: I collect hobbies.

/// 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 ///