Help: vim on Vista
somerville
Downloaded vim7.1.
On trying to use, get "'vim' is not recognized as an internal or
external command, operable program or batch file."
Where do I go for help?
Paul Somerville
PS Have been using vim64 on my PC with XP.
George V. Reilly
Vim runs fine on Vista. However, whenever I've installed Vim on Vista,
I already have the VIM and HOME environment variables set to c:\vim
and c:\gvr, respectively, and I already have vim.bat, etc, in a
private directory on my PATH.
I haven't tried installing Vim without those familiar crutches. I
wouldn't be surprised if you were falling afoul of the increased
security. If I remember correctly, the Vim installer tries to write
vim.bat and its friends into %WINDIR% (C:\Windows, usually), if it
doesn't find any instances of them on your path.
Try running
where vim.*
at a cmd prompt. I presume that it will tell you that it can't find the files.
Are you running the Win32 Vim on Vista or the Win64? Not that it
should matter, either way.
--
/George V. Reilly
http://www.georgevreilly.com/blog
Tony Mechelynck
Check your environment variables. On Vista I'm not sure where they are; on XP
they used to be under Control Panel -> System -> Advanced.
The PATH environment variable, which is a semicolon-separated list of
directories, should, for best ease of use, include the directory containing
your vim.exe and gvim.exe binaries (maybe C:\Program Files\vim\vim71 or some
such). Note that the Vim directory varies from version to version: for version
6.4 is used to be C:\Program Files\vim\vim64 (or some such).
After changing environment variables you should restart the shell (cmd.exe)
for the new values to take effect.
Also, on Windows-like systems, a single executable cannot do double-duty as
Console Vim and GUI vim: the console version (if installed) is vim.exe, the
GUI (if installed) is gvim.exe. If you installed only one binary, it's
probably the GUI so you should try invoking gvim rather than vim.
Best regards,
Tony.
--
Never eat more than you can lift.
-- Miss Piggy
John Beckett
> Vim runs fine on Vista.
I haven't seen Vista, but I would expect what you say to be true, although I
suppose some glitches with the UAC security business could occur.
Over at the Vim Tips wiki we are currently wondering what to do with new
tips that have been added in recent months (should we keep/merge/delete
them?).
I would appreciate some help with this strange one:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_On_Vista
Any opinions on the future of this tip are welcome. Particularly anyone who
has Vim on Vista: Did a default install work? Did you have to do anything
strange?
BTW if we do keep the tip I will add a note that a better place to download
Vim for Windows would be
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=43866&package_id=3972
1
John
George V. Reilly
I just tried installing Vim on a cleaned-up Vista and had no problems.
The Edit with Vim shell extension (gvimext.dll) works.
Note: If you want "vim" to work from a command line, you do need to
install the .bat files.
It's not clear why the tip recommends getting a different version of
libintl.dll or picking up iconv.dll.
somerville
Thanks for your help. XP and Vista seem to be very similar. I went from Control Panel to System to Advanced to Environmental. I added
;C:\Program Files|Vim to the Path system variable, and both restated the shell and rebooted the laptop with no change with the use of vim (or gvim).
As I recall, I didn't have any problem when I downloaded vim to my Windows 98 (I later bought an upgrade to XP). Of course I already had the vi editor on my system.
As far as I can tell Program Files contains vim and vim has to sub directories vim71 and vimfiles plus a file _vimrc. In XP it was the same except it was vim 64 instead of vim 71. I noted that in XP the "Path" looked very similar, but nowhere in it was there a reference to anything like vim!
I do not know anything about the HOME Environmental Variable, or anything about private directories. Do you have any further suggestions?
Paul Somerville
somerville
information on how to install the ".bat files"?
Ben Schmidt
> Just received your 9:31 PM e-mail. Can you tell me how to get
> information on how to install the ".bat files"?
Try double-clicking "install.exe" in your Vim program folder. It's a commandline
thingo that installs the .bat files and so on, and gives a bit more info about
what it does than the graphical installer.
Ben.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
John Beckett
> I just tried installing Vim on a cleaned-up Vista and had no problems.
> The Edit with Vim shell extension (gvimext.dll) works.
>
> Note: If you want "vim" to work from a command line, you do
> need to install the .bat files.
>
> It's not clear why the tip recommends getting a different
> version of libintl.dll or picking up iconv.dll.
Thanks. I too am perplexed by the tip. I have just added a comment to allow
the author an opportunity to consider the discussion on the proposed new
tips page (and I mentioned your results):
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_Tips_Wiki:Proposed_new_tips#Vim_On_Vista
John
Tony Mechelynck
> George
> Thanks for your help. XP and Vista seem to be very similar. I went
> from Control Panel to System to Advanced to Environmental. I added
> ;C:\Program Files|Vim to the Path system variable, and both
-----------------------^ this ought to be a second backslash, and the
directory name ought to end in \vim71 -- so if you put in a wrong dirname, no
wonder it didn't work. Change it again (at the start of the PATH might be a
better choice than at the end), and check that the dirname you put in actually
contains vim.exe and/or gvim.exe. I expect the value to add at the start of
the PATH would be C:\Program Files\Vim\vim71; but please check that that's
where your Vim executables are actually located.
> restated the shell and rebooted the laptop with no change with the use
> of vim (or gvim).
IIUC, restarting the shell ought to be sufficient without the need to reboot.
But of course the value must be correct for it to work.
>
> As I recall, I didn't have any problem when I downloaded vim to my
> Windows 98 (I later bought an upgrade to XP). Of course I already had
> the vi editor on my system.
>
> As far as I can tell Program Files contains vim and vim has to sub
> directories vim71 and vimfiles plus a file _vimrc. In XP it was the
C:\Program Files\Vim would then be your $VIM directory, with possible
"site-wide customizations" under $VIM/vimfiles and possibly a _vimrc in
$VIM/vimrc, to be used if no $HOME/_vimrc or $HOME/.vimrc is found. C:\Program
Files\Vim\vim71 would be your $VIMRUNTIME folder, with vim scripts and help
files "from the Vim distribution", most of them in subfolders, and, on
Windows, the Vim executables.
> same except it was vim 64 instead of vim 71. I noted that in XP the
> "Path" looked very similar, but nowhere in it was there a reference to
> anything like vim!
Did you ever start Vim from the command-line? If you did, there must have been
"something" about Vim in "some" directory in the PATH -- maybe a few .bat
files in %WINDIR% as talked about elsewhere in this thread; When I was on XP,
I didn't use those .bat files -- but the .exe was in my PATH. If you started
Vim by clicking a desktop icon, the icon's "application to launch" may quite
possibly have invoked Vim with a full path.
>
> I do not know anything about the HOME Environmental Variable, or
> anything about private directories. Do you have any further suggestions?
Does Vim set it to anything recognisable? What does it say (within Vim, and
when editing on that U: device) if you type
:echo $HOME
?
Best regards,
Tony.
--
Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.