xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/vi/README (revision f02eea66)
1#	@(#)README	8.149 (Berkeley) 7/14/97
2
3This is version 1.79 (7/14/97) of nex/nvi, a reimplementation of the ex/vi
4text editors originally distributed as part of the Fourth Berkeley
5Software Distribution (4BSD), by the University of California, Berkeley.
6
7The directory layout is as follows:
8
9    FAQ ........... Frequently asked questions.
10    LICENSE ....... Copyright, use and redistribution information.
11    README ........ This file.
12    catalog ....... Message catalogs; see catalog/README.
13    changelog ..... Log of changes from version to version.
14    cl ............ Vi interface to the curses(3) library.
15    clib .......... C library replacement source code.
16    common ........ Code shared by ex and vi.
17    curses ........ A stripped-down, replacement curses(3) library.
18    db ............ A stripped-down, replacement db(3) library.
19    dist .......... Various files used to build the vi distribution.
20    docs .......... Ex/vi documentation, both current and historic.
21    docs/README ... Documentation overview.
22    docs/edit ..... Edit: A tutorial.
23    docs/exref .... Ex Reference Manual -- Version 3.7.
24    docs/vi.man ... UNIX manual page for nex/nvi.
25    docs/vi.ref ... Nex/nvi reference manual.
26    docs/vitut .... An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi.
27    ex ............ Ex source code.
28    include ....... Replacement include files.
29    ip ............ Library interface to vi: vi side.
30    ipc ........... Library interface to vi: application side.
31    motif ......... Vi motif application.
32    motif_l ....... Motif library interface to vi.
33    perl_api ...... Perl scripting language support.
34    perl_scripts .. Perl scripts.
35    regex ......... POSIX 1003.2 regular expression library.
36    tcl_api ....... Tcl scripting language support.
37    tcl_scripts ... Tcl scripts.
38    vi ............ Vi source code.
39
40Bug fixes and updated versions of this software will periodically be made
41available.  For more information see:
42
43	http://www.bostic.com/vi
44
45To ask questions about vi, report vi problems, request notification of
46future releases and/or bug fixes, or to contact the authors for any reason,
47please send email to:
48
49	bostic@bostic.com
50
51=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
52o This software is several years old and is the product of many folks' work.
53
54	This software was originally derived from software contributed to
55	the University of California, Berkeley by Steve Kirkendall, the
56	author of the vi clone elvis.  Without his work, this work would
57	have been far more difficult.
58
59	IEEE POSIX 1003.2 style regular expression support is courtesy of
60	Henry Spencer, for which I am *very* grateful.
61
62	Elan Amir did the original 4BSD curses work that made it possible
63	to support a full-screen editor using curses.
64
65	George Neville-Neil added the Tcl interpreter, and the initial
66	interpreter design was his.
67
68	Sven Verdoolaege added the Perl interpreter.
69
70	Rob Mayoff provided the original Cscope support.
71
72o Many, many people suggested enhancements, and provided bug reports and
73  testing, far too many to individually thank.
74
75o From the original vi acknowledgements, by William Joy and Mark Horton:
76
77	Bruce Englar encouraged the early development of this display
78	editor.  Peter Kessler helped bring sanity to version 2's
79	command layout.  Bill Joy wrote versions 1 and 2.0 through 2.7,
80	and created the framework that users see in the present editor.
81	Mark Horton added macros and other features and made the editor
82	work on a large number of terminals and Unix systems.
83
84o And...
85	The financial support of UUNET Communications Services is gratefully
86	acknowledged.
87
88=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
89o Status:
90
91This software is in beta test, and it's pretty stable.  Almost all of the
92historic functionality in ex/vi is there, the only major missing pieces
93are open mode and the lisp edit option.
94
95Nvi is largely 8-bit clean.  This isn't difficult to fix, and was left in
96during initial development to keep things simple.  Wide character support
97will be integrated at the same time that it is made fully 8-bit clean.
98
99There aren't a lot of new features in nex/nvi, but there are a few things
100you might like.  The "Additional Features" section of the reference work
101(docs/USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.txt, docs/USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.ps) has more
102information.
103
104=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
105o Debugging:
106
107Code fixes are greatly appreciated, of course, but if you can't provide
108them, please email me as much information as you can as to how I might
109reproduce the bug, and I'll try to fix it locally.  Stack traces of core
110dumps are only rarely helpful -- an example file with a set of keystrokes
111that causes the problem is almost invariably necessary.  I know it's
112annoying, but simply playing with the bug until you can reproduce it at
113will, with minimal keystrokes, is immensely helpful to me.
114
115Please include the following in the bug report;
116
117	o The version of nvi you're running (use :version to get it).
118	o The row/column dimensions of the screen (80 x 32).
119	o Unless you're confident that they're not part of the problem,
120	  your startup files (.exrc, .nexrc) and the environment variable
121	  (EXINIT, NEXINIT) values.  (Cutting and pasting the output
122	  of ":set all" is usually sufficient.)
123
124If you want to do your own debugging, recompile the program with DEBUG
125defined.  (Configuring with --enable-debug will do this for you.)  This
126turns on the additional command-line option -D, that takes either s or w
127as an argument.  The option -Ds causes nvi to ignore the EXINIT and
128.exrc files on startup, and -Dw causes nvi to print out the process id
129and wait for you to enter a <carriage-return> to continue.
130
131If you're running a memory checker (e.g. Purify) on nvi, you will first
132want to  recompile everything with "-DPURIFY" set in the CFLAGS.  This
133initializes allocated pages in the DB code, and free's allocated memory
134at the end of the nvi execution.
135