Every user can help us all by testing Vim.

You can maintain a syntax file, maintain a vim binary for your favourite operating system, or you can mirror Vim (ie the webpages or the complete standard distribution),

I am also looking for help for adding a search engine for the Vim Pages, so if you happen to have some knowledge on this then please contact me!

If you are able to code then you could help us implement Perl regular expressions or make a language port to support your (native) language, or simply submit code for any items on the todo list, eg integrating 'tal' into Vim or maybe even implement a :tetris command - just to show that it can be done with very little code. And if you want to go realy crazy then you even change the key bindings of Word (eek) so that Word gets vi-like input and even commands.

But coding itself does not help much if the documentation does not show how to use it. Therefore we also need help with the documentation. Several people have also suggested to translate the VIM FAQ.

You do not have to be computer geek to help us, though. If you'd like to design a tshirt for Vim - be our guest! :-)

And, of course, you'd make the author and a lot of children happy by donating something to the ICCF as to help children in Uganda suffering from the effects of AIDS. Thanks!

Vim Syntax Files - Get them Online [990101]

Whenever there is a problem with some syntax file you should take a look at its latest version. Many of the syntax files are available online and are therefore linked for your convenience via the language page, especially the section about wanted syntax files However, not all syntax files are available on WWW yet. Please help the syntax file maintainers by making them online! Maybe you can offer them some webspace?

Vim Language Ports

There exist ports with support for several languages. Vim-5 already has the install options "+rightleft" for Arabic and Hebrew, and "+farsi" for Farsi (Persian). There are also ports for Hangul (Korean) and Japanese - but these are based on old versions of Vim. We need some help with porting the latest version, of course. If you can help - please contact me!

Also, we could use with some feedback from people using these language ports. Please let me know about problems - I will write them up into a webpage, so the developers can think about solutions.

Vim mirrors [980105,980114,980424]

Do you have a machine connected to the Internet? Would you like to set up a mirror of the Vim Pages or mirror the Vim Distribution? Then have a look at the page on Vim Mirrors.

We are especially looking for mirrors in these places:

• Mexico
• South America

We would be very happy if you could provide download via HTTP - as some people cannot use FTP to download files.

So, if you can set up a mirror - please contact me!

Vim Binaries [971103,971204]

Would you maintain a binary for Vim? Then please let us know! And please read the page with the guidelines for preparing a vim binary archive. Thanks!

DYNIX or dgux anyone?

Keith Starsmeare ([email protected]) is looking for vim binaries for the following systems:

  DYNIX/ptx V4.4.1 i386
  DYNIX/ptx V4.1.5 i386
  dgux R4.10     generic AViiON Pentium
  dgux R4.11MU03 generic AViiON PentiumPro

Please contact him!
Today he told me that he has succeeded in getting vim to work on these systems. :-) [971204]

Help Vim - implementing Perl regular expressions [971126]

Vim-5.0r now has the Perl expression "\s" for "whitespace". But there are a lot of Perl regular expressions missing. So we are looking for someone to implement this. Any takers?

Help Vim - coding and implementing the todo list

The "todo list" has become 100K in size - so we are looking for people who would specialize in getting some of the desired features to work and to stamp out the bugs still crawling around. If you think you can help then please do get in touch with the developers via the vim-dev mailing list.

Help Vim - by testing its commands, utilities and syntax files

All users are welcome to test the versions of Vim-5.

Some ports need special testing - please help!

        System          GUI?    Contact
        AmigaDOS-2.0    GUI!    Michael Nielsen [email protected]
        VMS             dunno   work discontinued.  Any takers?

Please take a look at the "ctags" utility.

Testing of new syntax files:

	COBOL	Chamarty, Sitaram

Stay tuned to the maillist "vim-announce" and/or comp.editors!

Wanted: Syntax Files!

	BASIC				Ron Aaron [email protected]
	SPICE (Hspice, Pscpice, etc)	Joel Auernheimer [email protected]
	VISUAL BASIC			Paul Moore [email protected]

Help Vim - VMS port

On 980518, Bram said: "The patches are included in version 5.2c. If you have a compiler, you can try compiling it. But it's still work in progress, I may have made a few mistakes when including the patches. If someone lets me know where I can find an archive with a VMS binary, I'll upload it to the Vim ftp site."

Vim users who are interested in the VMS version of vim are:

	Bram Moolenaar             [email protected]
	Sven Guckes              [email protected]
	Sandor Kopanyi           [email protected]
	Hans-Christian Eckert    [email protected]
	Kevin P. Inscoe		[email protected]
	Bruce Hunsaker		[email protected]

Anyone else? (Maybe I should setup yet another mailing list for this?)

Henk Elbers [email protected] had ported vim to VMS - but due to a change in jobs cannot continue his work. On 980326 [email protected] contacted me saying that he got vim-5 to run reasonably on VMS, but the arrow keys do not work. Can anyone help him?

Henk once said: "The latest version I've been working on is vim-4.5. The distribution also contains patches to work on DEC Alpha with VMS. The VMS-vim is working reasonable. Editing is perfect, but there are some bugs, e.g. :recover doesn't work at all yet. There is no GUI version either. At the moment I don't have time to look at it, but in the future (may/june 1997) I hope to spend some more time on it. I'll have a look at 5.0 too then. I just downloaded it and it is working on my Linux PC."

Adding "tal" to text formatting [971204]

The "tal" utility (see above) is so small and yet so nice that I thought that maybe someone would take the challenge and work in the code to Vim's internal "text formatting". Any takers?

Help Vim - :tetris

I have had this very small code for a tetris game (1,500 bytes) for some years now, and I keep thinking that it would be nice to have it inside Vim. Of course, this would be a compile option. ;-) Any takers? Let me know: [email protected]

Word like Vi

Create a set of key bindings for Word such that it behaves like Vi. [991104]

Help Vim - Document it! [991208]

Additions and corrections to the helptexts are always welcome. Just send the "diffs" to the author - he is taking care of them personally. But you can always us by contributing to the upcoming Vim Book which shall also be available online.

Help Vim - Write HOWTOs! [000315]

Everyone uses versatile programs in a special way. Help your fellow users by describing your use of Vim.

I have received some requests for a HOWTO on "VisVim", ie using VisualStudio with Vim.

Help Vim - Translate the VIM FAQ [991208]

There have been several requests for translations of the VIM FAQ. If you want to help here then please let me know!

NOTE: I suggest that you wait until I have converted the VIM FAQ to DocBook format. I hope it will be easier to translate the FAQ using this format. Maybe I will get around to do this around Xmas 1999.

Dutch	000911	Floor Plikaar		[email protected]
German	991208	Michael Weber		[email protected]

Help Vim - Design a Vim tshirt [971017]

The Vim developers have thought about making a PostScript file available to print onto a tshirt. It should contain a list of the most often used commands and their syntax. To printed upside down ("umop-ap!sdn") so you can read it while wearing it at your keyboard. :-) This overview should also show a not saying "not registered user" by default - those who made a donation to the KCC will get a tshirt without this note, of course. ;-)

Any takers?

Help Vim users - Watcom compiler makefile anyone? [970912]

Anyone have a makefile for the Watcom C++ 10.5 compiler? Please send it in!

Especially interested: Lues Cerebri [email protected]

Donations -> ICCF

The author is quite active in helping orphans in Uganda. Instead of making Vim a commercial product he is asking you as a user to donate whatever you consider Vim to be worth for your use to those children. For more info please see the file uganda.txt and at the page on the ICCF.

[solved] DOS/Windows - using Vim as replacement for notepad

Does anyone know how to replace notepad with Vim? See the answer on the Vim Answers Page. [971231]

[solved!] DOS - "date" without prompt? [971022,971101]

Does anyone have a "date" program for DOS that does not prompt you to enter a new date? Possibly something GNUish with a configurable output format?

Problem:

The prompt gets in your way when you want to use is within a mapping...

Solution:

Vim-5 has the function "strftime" built-in to do this. See the mappings in Sven's vimrc - https://www.vim8.org/rc! No more external date command! Whee!

URL:         http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/help.html
URL:         https://www.vim8.org/help.html (mirror)
Created:     Thu Jun 11 11:11:11 CEST 1998