MacFormat 1995 March/macformat-022.iso/Shareware City/Applications/vim/everything else/doc/msdos.doc

Text File | 1994-11-22 | 7.2 KB | 159 lines | [TEXT/VIM!]

This file contains the particularities for the MSDOS version of Vim.

Known problem: When using smartdrive with write-behind caching, it is
possible that Vim will try to create a swap file on a read-only file system
(e.g. write protected floppy). You will then be given the message
    "A serious disk error has occurred .., Retry (r)? "
There is nothing you can do but unprotecting the floppy or switch off the
computer. Even CTRL-ALT-DEL will not get you out of this. This is really a
problem of smartdrive, not Vim. Smartdrive works fine otherwise. If this
bothers you don't use the write-behind caching.

The default output method for the screen is to use bios calls. This will work
right away on most systems. You do not need ansi.sys. You can use ":mode" to
set the current screen mode. See reference.doc, section 20.3.

You can set the color used in vim with five termcap options:

    ":set t_ti=^V^[\|xxm"        start of invert mode
    ":set t_tb=^V^[\|xxm"        start of bold mode
    ":set t_tp=^V^[\|xxm"        back to normal text

    ":set t_so=^V^[\|xxm"        start of standout mode
    ":set t_se=^V^[\|xxm"        back to normal text

Which of the three modes is used for which action depends on the 'highlight'
('hl') option. See reference.doc.

^V is CTRL-V
^[ is ESC
xx must be replaced by a decimal code: The foreground color number and
   background color number added together:

COLOR        FOREGROUND    BACKGROUND
black            0            0
blue            1           16
green            2           32
cyan            3           48
red            4           64
magenta            5           80
brown            6           96
lighgray        7          112
darkgray        8
lightblue        9
lightgreen       10
lighcyan       11
lightred       12
lighmagenta       13
yellow           14
white           15
blink               128

When you use 0, the color is reset to the one used when you started Vim. This
is the default for t_tp. The default for t_ti is black on grey, 0 + 112 = 112.
The default for t_tb is white on cyan, 15 + 48 = 63. The default for t_so is
white on blue, 15 + 16 = 31. These colors where choosen, because the also look
good when using an inverted display. But you can change them as you like.

The termcap codes that are translated into bios calls are:
    ESC |J        clear screen
    ESC |K        clear to end of line
    ESC |L        insert line
    ESC |M        delete line
    ESC |row;colH    position cursor
    ESC |attrm    set character attribute

If you set these with the ":set" command, don't forget to put a backslash
before the '|', otherwise it will be recognized as the end of the command.

If you want to use another output method (e.g. when using a terminal on a COM
port), set the terminal name to "pcansi". You can change the termcap options
when needed (see chapter 20 of reference.doc). Note that the normal IBM
ansi.sys does not support all the codes of the builtin pcansi terminal. If
you use ansi.sys you will need to delete the termcap entries t_il and t_dl
with
    ":set t_il= t_dl=".
Otherwise the screen will not be updated correctly. It is better to use
nansi.sys, nnansi.sys or the like instead of ansi.sys.

If you want to use Vim on a terminal connected to a COM: port, reset the
'bioskey' option. Otherwise the commands will be read from the PC keyboard.
CTRL-C and CTRL-P may not work correctly with 'bioskey' reset.

If the "tx" (textmode) option is set (which is the default), Vim will accept a
single <LF> or a <CR><LF> pair for end-of-line. When writing a file Vim will
use <CR><LF>. Thus if you edit a file and write it, <LF> is replaced with
<CR><LF>. If the "tx" option is not set the single <LF> will be used for
end-of-line. A <CR> will be shown as ^M. You can use Vim to replace <LF> by
<CR><LF> by reading in any mode and writing in text mode. You can use Vim to
replace <CR><LF> by <LF> by reading in text mode and writing in non-text
mode. 'textmode' is set automatically when 'textauto' is on (which is the
default), so you don't really have to worry about what you are doing.

If you want to edit a script file or a binary file you should reset the
'textmode' and 'textauto' options before loading the file. Script files
contain single <LF> characters which would be replaced by <CR><LF>. You can
do this by starting Vim with the "-b" (binary) option.

The default help filename is "$VIM\vim.hlp". If the environment variable $VIM
is not defined or the file is not found, the DOS search path is used to
search for the file "vim.hlp". If you do not want to put "vim.hlp" in your
search path, use the command ":set helpfile=pathname" to tell Vim where the
help file is.

The ":cd" command recognizes the drive specifier and changes the current
drive. Use ":cd c:" to make drive C the active drive. Use ":cd d:\dos" to go
to the directory "dos" in the root of drive D.

The files "_vimrc" and "_exrc" are used instead of ".vimrc" and ".exrc".
The files "$VIM\_vimrc" and "$VIM\_exrc" are used instead of "s:.vimrc" and
"s:.exrc". To use the file "c:\_vimrc" use the command "set vim=c:".

Use CTRL-break instead of CTRL-C to interrupt searches. The CTRL-C is not
detected until a key is read.

Use CTRL-arrow-left and CTRL-arrow-right instead of SHIFT-arrow-left and
SHIFT-arrow-right. The arrow-up and arrow-down cannot be used with SHIFT or
CTRL.

Temporary files (for filtering) are put in the current directory.

The default for the sh (shell) option is "command". If COMSPEC is defined it
is used instead. External commands are started with "command /c
<command_name>". Typing CTRL-Z starts a new command shell. Return to Vim with
"exit".

MS-DOS allows for only one filename extention. Therefore, in the original
filename the '.' is replaced by a '_', the name is truncated to 8 characters
and the new extention ".vim" or ".bak" is appended. Two examples: "test.c"
becomes "test_c.bak", "ditiseen.tst" becomes "ditiseen.bak". The 'shortname'
option is not available.

The MS-DOS binary was compiled with Borland-C++ version 3.1, using
makefile.bcc. Other compilers should also work. Use makefile.dos for Turbo-C
2.0. Use makefile.bcc for other Borland compilers, also Turbo-C++ 3.0 (with
small changes). If you get all kinds of strange error messages when compiling,
you have to add <CR> characters at the end of each line. This can be done with
the addcr program: "make addcr". This will compile addcr.c to addcr.exe and
execute the addcr.bat file. Sometimes this fails. Then execute the addcr.bat
file from the DOS prompt.

The "spawno" library by Ralf Brown was used in order to free memory when Vim
starts a shell or other external command. Only about 200 bytes are taken from
conventional memory. When recompiling get the spawno library from Simtel,
directory "msdos/c". It is called something like "spwno413.zip". Or remove the
library from the makefile.

A swap file is used to store most of the text. You should be able to edit very
large files. However, memory is used for undo and other things. If you delete
a lot of text you can still run out of memory.

If Vim gives an "Out of memory" warning you should stop editing. Result of
further editing actions is unpredictable. Setting 'undolevels' to 0 saves some
memory. Running the maze macros on a big maze is guaranteed to run out of
memory, because each change is remembered for undo. In this case set
'undolevels' to a negative number. This will switch off undo completely. In a
future release extended memory will be used to avoid these problems.

The *.info files are for the Amiga. You don't need them with MSDOS.