*vim_dos.txt* For Vim version 4.5. Last modification: 1996 Sep 29 This file contains the particularities for the MS-DOS version of Vim. THREE VERSIONS FOR MS-DOS There are Three versions of Vim that can be used with MS-DOS machines: 16-bit version Can be used on any MS-DOS system, only uses up to 640 Kbyte of memory. Also runs on OS/2, Windows 95, and NT. Recommended for use on pre-386 machines. 32-bit version Requires 386 processor and a DPMI driver, uses all available memory. Supports long file names where available. Recommended for MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Win32 version Requires Windows 95 or Windows NT, uses all available memory, supports long file names, etc. Has some problems on Windows 95. Recommended for Windows NT. See |vim_w32.txt| It is recommended to use the 32-bit or Win32 version. Although the 16-bit version is able to edit very big files, it quickly runs out of memory when making big changes. Disabling undo helps: ":set ul=-1". The screen updating of the 16-bit version is the fastest of the three on DOS or Windows 95; on Windows NT, the Win32 version is just as fast. For the 32-bit version, you may need a DPMI driver when running in MS-DOS. If you are running Windows or installed a clever memory manager, it will probably run already. If you get the message "No DPMI", you need to install a DPMI driver. Such a driver is included with the executable. The latest version of "CWSDPMI.ZIP" can be obtained from: "ftp.neosoft.com:pub/users/s/sandmann". If the 32-bit DOS version is run on Windows 95 or Windows NT, it can use long filenames, as can the Win32 version. KNOWN PROBLEMS - When using smartdrive (MS-DOS 6.x) 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 unprotect 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 16 bits MS-DOS version can only have about 10 files open (in a window or hidden) at one time. With more files you will get error messages when trying to read or write a file, and for filter commands. - The 32 bit version can work with long filenames. When doing filename completion, matches for the short filename will also be found. But this will result in the corresponding long filename. For example, if you have the long file name "this_is_a_test" with the short filename "this_i~1", the command ":e *1" will start editing "this_is_a_test". - When using the 32 bit version and you run into problems with DPMI support, check if there is a program in your config.sys that eats resources. One program known to cause this problem is "netx", which says "NetWare v. 3.26 Workstation shell". Replace it with version 3.32 to fix the problem. LOCATION OF DOCUMENTATION and VIMRC FILE You should set the environment variable "VIM" to the directory where the Vim documentation files are. If "VIM" is used but not defined, "HOME" is tried too. If the HOME environment variable is not set, the value "C:/" is used as a default. The default help filename is "$VIM\vim_help.txt". If the environment variable $VIM is not defined or the file is not found, the DOS search path is used to search for the file "vim_help.txt". If you do not want to put "vim_help.txt" in your search path, use the command ":set helpfile=pathname" to tell Vim where the help file is. |'helpfile'| Vim will look for initializations in eight places. The first that is found is used and the others are ignored. The order is: - The environment variable VIMINIT - The file "$VIM/_vimrc" - The file "$HOME/_vimrc" - The file "$VIM/.vimrc" - The file "$HOME/.vimrc" - The environment variable EXINIT - The file "$VIM/_exrc" - The file "$HOME/_exrc" USING BACKSLASHES Using backslashes in file names can be a problem. Vi halves the number of backslashes for some commands. Vim is a bit more tolerant and backslashes are not removed from a file name, so ":e c:\foo\bar" works as expected. But when a backslash is used before a special character (space, comma, backslash, etc.), it is removed. Use slashes to avoid problems: ":e c:/foo/bar" works fine. Vim will replace the slashes with backslashes internally, to avoid problems with some MS-DOS programs. SCREEN OUTPUT AND COLORS 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 vim_ref.txt, section 20.3 |:mode|. You can set the color used in five modes with nine termcap options. Which of the five modes is used for which action depends on the |'highlight'| option. ":set t_mr=^V^[\|xxm" start of invert mode ":set t_md=^V^[\|xxm" start of bold mode ":set t_me=^V^[\|xxm" back to normal text ":set t_so=^V^[\|xxm" start of standout mode ":set t_se=^V^[\|xxm" back to normal text ":set t_us=^V^[\|xxm" start of underline mode ":set t_ue=^V^[\|xxm" back to normal text ":set t_ZH=^V^[\|xxm" start of italics mode ":set t_ZR=^V^[\|xxm" back to normal text ^V is CTRL-V ^[ is xx must be replaced with a decimal code, which is 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 8 128 * lightblue 9 144 * lightgreen 10 160 * lighcyan 11 176 * lightred 12 192 * lightmagenta 13 208 * yellow 14 224 * white 15 240 * * Depending on the display mode, the color codes above 128 may not be available, and code 128 will make the text blink. When you use 0, the color is reset to the one used when you started Vim. This is the default for t_me. The defaults for the various highlight modes are: t_mr 112 reverse mode: black text (0) on lightgray (112) t_md 63 bold mode: white text (15) on cyan (48) t_me 0 normal mode (revert to default) t_so 31 standout mode: white (15) text on blue (16) t_se 0 standout mode end (revert to default) t_czh 225 italic mode: blue text (1) on yellow (224) t_czr 0 italic mode end (revert to default) t_us 67 underline mode: cyan text (3) on red (64) t_ue 0 underline mode end (revert to default) These colors were chosen because they also look good when using an inverted display, but you can change them to your liking. Example: :set t_mr=^V^[\|97m " start of invert mode: blue (1) on brown (96) :set t_md=^V^[\|67m " start of bold mode: cyan (3) on red (64) :set t_me=^V^[\|112m " back to normal mode: black (0) on light gray (112) :set t_so=^V^[\|37m " start of standout mode: magenta (5) on green (32) :set t_se=^V^[\|112m " back to normal mode: black (0) on light gray (112) SPECIAL TERMCAP CODES and NOT USING VIM ON THE PC CONSOLE The termcap codes that are translated into bios calls are: t_cl |J clear screen t_ce |K clear to end of line t_al |L insert line t_dl |M delete line t_cm |{row};{col}H position cursor t_cs |{row};{row}r set scrolling region t_.. |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 vim_ref.txt |terminal_options|). 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_al and t_dl with ":set t_al= 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. TEXTMODE or NON-MS-DOS FILES If the "tx" (textmode) option is set (which is the default), Vim will accept a single or a pair for end-of-line. When writing a file, Vim will use . Thus, if you edit a file and write it, is replaced with . If the "tx" option is not set, a single will be used for end-of-line. A will be shown as ^M. You can use Vim to replace with by reading in any mode and writing in text mode (":se tx"). You can use Vim to replace with by reading in text mode and writing in non-text mode (":se notx"). '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. |'textmode'| |'textauto'| 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 and binary files may contain single characters which would be replaced with . You can reset 'textmode' and 'textauto' automatically by starting Vim with the "-b" (binary) option. :CD COMMAND 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. |:cd| INTERRUPTING Use CTRL-break instead of CTRL-C to interrupt searches. The CTRL-C is not detected until a key is read. SHIFTED ARROW KEYS 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. TEMP FILES Temporary files (for filtering) are put in the first directory in the next list that exists and where a file can be created: $TMP $TEMP C:\TMP C:\TEMP current directory SHELL OPTION DEFAULT The default for the sh (shell) option is "command". If COMSPEC is defined it is used instead. External commands are started with "command /c ". Typing CTRL-Z starts a new command shell. Return to Vim with "exit". FILENAME EXTENSIONS MS-DOS allows for only one filename extension. Therefore, when appending an extension, the '.' in the original filename is replaced with a '_', the name is truncated to 8 characters, and the new extension (e.g., ".swp") is appended. Two examples: "test.c" becomes "test_c.bak", "thisisat.est" becomes "thisisat.bak". To reduce these problems, the default for 'backupext' is "~" instead of ".bak". The backup file for "thisisat.est" then becomes "thisisat.es~". The 'shortname' option is not available, because it would always be set. COMPILING The MS-DOS binary was compiled with Borland-C++ version 4.0, 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, try adding 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 then execute the addcr.bat file. Sometimes this fails. In that case, 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. MEMORY USAGE and LIMITATIONS 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 in the 16-bit version. If Vim gives an "Out of memory" warning, you should stop editing. The 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 the 32-bit version, extended memory is used to avoid these problems. In the 16-bit version the line length is limited to about 32000 characters. When reading a file the lines are automatically split. But editing a line in such a way that it becomes too long may give unexpected results. USING VIM TO EDIT A SYMBOLICALLY LINKED FILE ON A UNIX NFS FILE SERVER When writing the file, Vim does not "write through" the symlink. Instead, it deletes the symbolic link and creates a new file in its place. 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'| HOW TO COPY/PASTE TEXT FROM/TO VIM IN A DOS BOX (posted to comp.editors by John Velman ) 1) to get VIM to run in a window, instead of full screen, press alt+enter. This toggles back and forth between full screen and a dos window. NOTE: In Windows 95 you must have the property "Fast Pasting" unchecked! 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. 2) To paste something *into* vim, put vim in insert mode. 3) put the text you want to paste on the windows clipboard. 4) Click the control box in the upper left of the vim window. (This looks like a big minus sign). If you don't want to use the mouse, you can get this with alt+spacebar. 5) on the resulting dropdown menu choose 'Edit' 6) on the child dropdown menu choose 'Paste' To copy something from the vim window to the clipboard, 1) select the control box to get the control drop down menu. 2) select 'Edit.' 3) select 'Mark' 4) using either the the keys or the mouse, select the part of the vim window that you want to copy. To use the keys, use the arrow keys, and hold down shift to extend the selection. 5) when you've completed your selection, press 'enter.' The selection is now in the windows clipboard. By the way, this can be any rectangular selection, for example columns 4-25 in rows 7-10. It can include anything in the VIM window: the output of a :!dir, for example.