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diff --git a/runtime/doc/os_win32.txt b/runtime/doc/os_win32.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..29d7096bf --- /dev/null +++ b/runtime/doc/os_win32.txt @@ -0,0 +1,319 @@ +*os_win32.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2004 May 01 + + + VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by George Reilly + + + *win32* *Win32* *MS-Windows* +This file documents the idiosyncrasies of the Win32 version of Vim. + +The Win32 version of Vim works on both Windows NT and Windows 95. There are +both console and GUI versions. There is GUI version for use in the Win32s +subsystem in Windows 3.1[1]. You can also use the 32-bit DOS version of Vim +instead. See |os_msdos.txt|. + +1. Known problems |win32-problems| +2. Startup |win32-startup| +3. Restore screen contents |win32-restore| +4. Using the mouse |win32-mouse| +5. Running under Windows 3.1 |win32-win3.1| +6. Win32 mini FAQ |win32-faq| + +Additionally, there are a number of common Win32 and DOS items: +File locations |dos-locations| +Using backslashes |dos-backslash| +Standard mappings |dos-standard-mappings| +Screen output and colors |dos-colors| +File formats |dos-file-formats| +:cd command |dos-:cd| +Interrupting |dos-CTRL-Break| +Temp files |dos-temp-files| +Shell option default |dos-shell| + +Win32 GUI |gui-w32| + +Credits: +The Win32 version was written by George V. Reilly <george@reilly.org>. +The original Windows NT port was done by Roger Knobbe <RogerK@wonderware.com>. +The GUI version was made by George V. Reilly and Robert Webb. + +For compiling see "src/INSTALL.pc". *win32-compiling* + +============================================================================== +1. Known problems *windows95* *win32-problems* + +There are a few known problems with running in a console on Windows 95. As +far as we know, this is the same in Windows 98 and Windows ME. + +Comments from somebody working at Microsoft: "Win95 console support has always +been and will always be flaky". +1. Dead key support doesn't work. +2. Resizing the window with ":set columns=nn lines=nn" works, but executing + external commands MAY CAUSE THE SYSTEM TO HANG OR CRASH. +3. Screen updating is slow, unless you change 'columns' or 'lines' to a + non-DOS value. But then the second problem applies! + +If this bothers you, use the 32 bit MS-DOS version or the Win32 GUI version. + +When doing file name completion, Vim also finds matches for the short file +name. But Vim will still find and use the corresponding long file name. For +example, if you have the long file name "this_is_a_test" with the short file +name "this_i~1", the command ":e *1" will start editing "this_is_a_test". + +============================================================================== +2. Startup *win32-startup* + +Current directory *win32-curdir* + +If Vim is started with a single file name argument, and it has a full path +(starts with "x:\"), Vim assumes it was started from the file explorer and +will set the current directory to where that file is. To avoid this when +typing a command to start Vim, use a forward slash instead of a backslash. +Example: > + + vim c:\text\files\foo.txt + +Will change to the "C:\text\files" directory. > + + vim c:/text\files\foo.txt + +Will use the current directory. + + +Term option *win32-term* + +The only kind of terminal type that the Win32 version of Vim understands is +"win32", which is built-in. If you set 'term' to anything else, you will +probably get very strange behavior from Vim. Therefore Vim does not obtain +the default value of 'term' from the environment variable "TERM". + +============================================================================== +3. Restore screen contents *win32-restore* + +When 'restorescreen' is set (which is the default), Vim will restore the +original contents of the console when exiting or when executing external +commands. If you don't want this, use ":set nors". |'restorescreen'| + +============================================================================== +4. Using the mouse *win32-mouse* + +The Win32 version of Vim supports using the mouse. If you have a two-button +mouse, the middle button can be emulated by pressing both left and right +buttons simultaneously - but note that in the Win32 GUI, if you have the right +mouse button pop-up menu enabled (see 'mouse'), you should err on the side of +pressing the left button first. |mouse-using| + +When the mouse doesn't work, try disabling the "Quick Edit Mode" feature of +the console. + +============================================================================== +5. Running under Windows 3.1 *win32-win3.1* + + *win32s* *windows-3.1* +There is a special version of Gvim that runs under Windows 3.1 and 3.11. You +need the gvim.exe that was compiled with Visual C++ 4.1. + +To run the Win32 version under Windows 3.1, you need to install Win32s. You +might have it already from another Win32 application which you have installed. +If Vim doesn't seem to be running properly, get the latest version: 1.30c. +You can find it at: + + http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/pw1118.exe + +(Microsoft moved it again, we don't know where it is now :-( ). + +The reason for having two versions of gvim.exe is that the Win32s version was +compiled with VC++ 4.1. This is the last version of VC++ that supports Win32s +programs. VC++ 5.0 is better, so that one was used for the Win32 version. +Apart from that, there is no difference between the programs. If you are in a +mixed environment, you can use the gvim.exe for Win32s on both. + +The Win32s version works the same way as the Win32 version under 95/NT. When +running under Win32s the following differences apply: +- You cannot use long file names, because Windows 3.1 doesn't support them! +- When executing an external command, it doesn't return an exit code. After + doing ":make" you have to do ":cn" yourself. + +============================================================================== +6. Win32 mini FAQ *win32-faq* + +Q. Why does the Win32 version of Vim update the screen so slowly on Windows 95? +A. The support for Win32 console mode applications is very buggy in Win95. + For some unknown reason, the screen updates very slowly when Vim is run at + one of the standard resolutions (80x25, 80x43, or 80x50) and the 16-bit DOS + version updates the screen much more quickly than the Win32 version. + However, if the screen is set to some other resolution, such as by ":set + columns=100" or ":set lines=40", screen updating becomes about as fast as + it is with the 16-bit version. + + WARNING: Changing 'columns' may make Windows 95 crash while updating the + window (complaints --> Microsoft). Since this mostly works, this has not + been disabled, but be careful with changing 'columns'. + + Changing the screen resolution makes updates faster, but it brings + additional problems. External commands (e.g., ":!dir") can cause Vim to + freeze when the screen is set to a non-standard resolution, particularly + when 'columns' is not equal to 80. It is not possible for Vim to reliably + set the screen resolution back to the value it had upon startup before + running external commands, so if you change the number of 'lines' or + 'columns', be very, very careful. In fact, Vim will not allow you to + execute external commands when 'columns' is not equal to 80, because it is + so likely to freeze up afterwards. + + None of the above applies on Windows NT. Screen updates are fast, no + matter how many 'lines' or 'columns' the window has, and external commands + do not cause Vim to freeze. + +Q. So if the Win32 version updates the screen so slowly on Windows 95 and the + 16-bit DOS version updates the screen quickly, why would I want to run the + Win32 version? +A. Firstly, the Win32 version isn't that slow, especially when the screen is + set to some non-standard number of 'lines' or 'columns'. Secondly, the + 16-bit DOS version has some severe limitations: It can't do big changes and + it doesn't know about long file names. The Win32 version doesn't have these + limitations and it's faster overall (the same is true for the 32-bit DJGPP + DOS version of Vim). The Win32 version is smarter about handling the + screen, the mouse, and the keyboard than the DJGPP version is. + +Q. And what about the 16-bit DOS version versus the Win32 version on NT? +A. There are no good reasons to run the 16-bit DOS version on NT. The Win32 + version updates the screen just as fast as the 16-bit version does when + running on NT. All of the above disadvantages apply. Finally, DOS + applications can take a long time to start up and will run more slowly. On + non-Intel NT platforms, the DOS version is almost unusably slow, because it + runs on top of an 80x86 emulator. + +Q. How do I change the font? +A. In the GUI version, you can use the 'guifont' option. + In the console version, you need to set the font of the console itself. + You cannot do this from within Vim. + +Q. When I change the size of the console window with ':set lines=xx' or + similar, the font changes! (Win95) +A. You have the console font set to 'Auto' in Vim's (or your MS-DOS prompt's) + properties. This makes W95 guess (badly!) what font is best. Set an explicit + font instead. + +Q. Why can't I paste into Vim when running Windows 95? +A. In the properties dialog box for the MS-DOS window, go to "MS-DOS + Prompt/Misc/Fast pasting" and make sure that it is NOT checked. You should + also do ":set paste" in Vim to avoid unexpected effects. |'paste'| + +Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows 95, in the console version? + (A dead key is an accent key, such as acute, grave, or umlaut, that doesn't + produce a character by itself, but when followed by another key, produces + an accented character, such as a-acute, e-grave, u-umlaut, n-tilde, and so + on. Very useful for most European languages. English-language keyboard + layouts don't use dead keys, as far as we know.) +A. You don't. The console mode input routines simply do not work correctly in + Windows 95, and I have not been able to work around them. In the words + of a senior developer at Microsoft: + Win95 console support has always been and will always be flaky. + + The flakiness is unavoidable because we are stuck between the world of + MS-DOS keyboard TSRs like KEYB (which wants to cook the data; + important for international) and the world of Win32. + + So keys that don't "exist" in MS-DOS land (like dead keys) have a + very tenuous existence in Win32 console land. Keys that act + differently between MS-DOS land and Win32 console land (like + capslock) will act flaky. + + Don't even _mention_ the problems with multiple language keyboard + layouts... + + You may be able to fashion some sort of workaround with the digraphs + mechanism. |digraphs| + + The best solution is to use the Win32 GUI version gvim.exe. Alternatively, + you can try one of the DOS versions of Vim where dead keys reportedly do + work. + +Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows NT? +A. Dead keys work on NT 3.51. Just type them as you would in any other + application. + On NT 4.0, you need to make sure that the default locale (set in the + Keyboard part of the Control Panel) is the same as the currently active + locale. Otherwise the NT code will get confused and crash! This is a NT + 4.0 problem, not really a Vim problem. + +Q. I'm using Vim to edit a symbolically linked file on a Unix NFS file server. + When I write the file, Vim does not "write through" the symlink. Instead, + it deletes the symbolic link and creates a new file in its place. Why? +A. On Unix, Vim is prepared for links (symbolic or hard). A backup copy of + the original file is made and then the original file is overwritten. This + assures that all properties of the file remain the same. On non-Unix + systems, the original file is renamed and a new file is written. Only the + protection bits are set like the original file. However, this doesn't work + properly when working on an NFS-mounted file system where links and other + things exist. The only way to fix this in the current version is not + making a backup file, by ":set nobackup nowritebackup" |'writebackup'| + +Q. How do I get to see the output of ":make" while it's running? +A. Basically what you need is to put a tee program that will copy its input + (the output from make) to both stdout and to the errorfile. You can find a + copy of tee (and a number of other GNU tools tools) at + http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net or http://unxutils.sourceforge.net + Alternatively, try the more recent Cygnus version of the GNU tools at + http://www.cygwin.com Other Unix-style tools for Win32 are listed at + http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/Win32/ + When you do get a copy of tee, you'll need to add > + :set shellpipe=\|\ tee +< to your _vimrc. + +Q. I'm storing files on a remote machine that works with VisionFS, and files + disappear! +A. VisionFS can't handle certain dot (.) three letter extension file names. + SCO declares this behavior required for backwards compatibility with 16bit + DOS/Windows environments. The two commands below demonstrate the behavior: +> + echo Hello > file.bat~ + dir > file.bat +< + The result is that the "dir" command updates the "file.bat~" file, instead + of creating a new "file.bat" file. This same behavior is exhibited in Vim + when editing an existing file named "foo.bat" because the default behavior + of Vim is to create a temporary file with a '~' character appended to the + name. When the file is written, it winds up being deleted. + + Solution: Add this command to your _vimrc file: > + :set backupext=.temporary + +Q. How do I change the blink rate of the cursor? +A. You can't! This is a limitation of the NT console. NT 5.0 is reported to + be able to set the blink rate for all console windows at the same time. + + *:!start* +Q. How can I run an external command or program asynchronously? +A. When using :! to run an external command, you can run it with "start": > + :!start winfile.exe<CR> +< Using "start" stops Vim switching to another screen, opening a new console, + or waiting for the program to complete; it indicates that you are running a + program that does not effect the files you are editing. Programs begun + with :!start do not get passed Vim's open file handles, which means they do + not have to be closed before Vim. + To avoid this special treatment, use ":! start". + +Q. I'm using Win32s, and when I try to run an external command like "make", + Vim doesn't wait for it to finish! Help! +A. The problem is that a 32-bit application (Vim) can't get notification from + Windows that a 16-bit application (your DOS session) has finished. Vim + includes a work-around for this, but you must set up your DOS commands to + run in a window, not full-screen. Unfortunately the default when you + install Windows is full-screen. To change this: + 1) Start PIF editor (in the Main program group) + 2) Open the file "_DEFAULT.PIF" in your Windows directory. + 3) Changes the display option from "Full Screen" to "Windowed". + 4) Save and exit. + + To test, start Vim and type > + :!dir C:\<CR>". +< You should see a DOS box window appear briefly with the directory listing. + +Q. I use Vim under Win32s and NT. In NT, I can define the console to default to + 50 lines, so that I get a 80x50 shell when I ':sh'. Can I do the same in + W3.1x, or am I stuck with 80x25? +A. Edit SYSTEM.INI and add 'ScreenLines=50' to the [NonWindowsApp] section. DOS + prompts and external DOS commands will now run in a 50-line window. + + vim:tw=78:fo=tcq2:ts=8:ft=help:norl: |