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Annotation of src/usr.bin/vi/README, Revision 1.5

1.5     ! michaels    1: #      @(#)README      8.146 (Berkeley) 8/18/96
1.1       deraadt     2:
1.5     ! michaels    3: This is the README for nex/nvi, a freely redistributable implementation
        !             4: of the ex/vi text editors originally distributed as part of the Fourth
1.2       deraadt     5: Berkeley Software Distribution (4BSD), by the University of California,
                      6: Berkeley.
                      7:
                      8: The source code for nex/nvi can be retrieved by using anonymous ftp to
1.5     ! michaels    9: ftp.cs.berkeley.edu.  The file ucb/4bsd/nvi.tar.gz is the gzip'd archive,
        !            10: of version 1.71 of nex/nvi.  This version is believed to be stable and
        !            11: problem free.  The file ucb/4bsd/nvi-###.ALPHA.tar.gz is a gzip'd archive
        !            12: of the current alpha-test release of nex/nvi.  This version reflects the
        !            13: current development tree, and will be more likely to have problems.
        !            14:
        !            15: See the file:
        !            16:        build/README    for information on building nvi.
        !            17:        LAYOUT          for a description of where everything is.
        !            18:        LICENSE         for the copyright and redistribution terms.
        !            19:
        !            20: If you have any questions about nex/nvi, problems with it, or concerns
        !            21: about the conditions for redistribution, please contact me:
        !            22:
        !            23:        Keith Bostic            +1-508-287-4781
        !            24:        394 E. Riding Dr.       bostic@bostic.com
        !            25:        Carlisle, MA 01741
        !            26:        USA
1.1       deraadt    27:
                     28: Keith Bostic
                     29:
                     30: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
1.2       deraadt    31: o This software is several years old and is the product of many folks' work.
1.1       deraadt    32:
1.2       deraadt    33:        This software was originally derived from software contributed to
                     34:        the University of California, Berkeley by Steve Kirkendall, the
                     35:        author of the vi clone elvis.  Without his work, this work would
                     36:        have been far more difficult.
                     37:
                     38:        IEEE POSIX 1003.2 style regular expression support is courtesy of
                     39:        Henry Spencer, for which I am *very* grateful.
1.1       deraadt    40:
1.2       deraadt    41:        Elan Amir did the original 4BSD curses work that made it possible
                     42:        to support a full-screen editor using curses.
1.1       deraadt    43:
1.2       deraadt    44:        George Neville-Neil added the Tcl interpreter, and the initial
                     45:        interpreter design was his.
1.1       deraadt    46:
1.2       deraadt    47:        Sven Verdoolaege added the Perl5 interpreter.
1.1       deraadt    48:
1.5     ! michaels   49:        Rob Mayoff provided the original Cscope support.
        !            50:
        !            51: o Many, many people suggested enhancements, and provided bug reports and
        !            52:   testing, far too many to individually thank.
1.1       deraadt    53:
                     54: o From the original vi acknowledgements, by William Joy and Mark Horton:
                     55:
                     56:        Bruce Englar encouraged the early development of this display
                     57:        editor.  Peter Kessler helped bring sanity to version 2's
                     58:        command layout.  Bill Joy wrote versions 1 and 2.0 through 2.7,
                     59:        and created the framework that users see in the present editor.
                     60:        Mark Horton added macros and other features and made the editor
                     61:        work on a large number of terminals and Unix systems.
                     62:
                     63: o And...
                     64:        The financial support of UUNET Communications Services is gratefully
                     65:        acknowledged.
                     66:
                     67: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                     68: o Status:
                     69:
1.2       deraadt    70: This software is in beta test, and it's pretty stable.  Almost all of the
                     71: historic functionality in ex/vi is there, the only major missing pieces
1.5     ! michaels   72: are open mode and the lisp edit option.
1.2       deraadt    73:
                     74: Nvi is largely 8-bit clean.  This isn't difficult to fix, and was left in
                     75: during initial development to keep things simple.  Wide character support
                     76: will be integrated at the same time that it is made fully 8-bit clean.
1.1       deraadt    77:
                     78: There aren't a lot of new features in nex/nvi, but there are a few things
1.3       mickey     79: you might like.  The "Additional Features" section of the reference work
                     80: (docs/USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.txt, docs/USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.ps) has more
                     81: information.
1.1       deraadt    82:
                     83: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                     84: o Debugging:
                     85:
1.2       deraadt    86: Code fixes are greatly appreciated, of course, but if you can't provide
                     87: them, please email me as much information as you can as to how I might
                     88: reproduce the bug, and I'll try to fix it locally.  Stack traces of core
                     89: dumps are only rarely helpful -- an example file with a set of keystrokes
                     90: that causes the problem is almost invariably necessary.  I know it's
                     91: annoying, but simply playing with the bug until you can reproduce it at
1.5     ! michaels   92: will, with minimal keystrokes, is immensely helpful to me.
1.1       deraadt    93:
                     94: Please include the following in the bug report;
                     95:
                     96:        o The version of nvi you're running (use :version to get it).
                     97:        o The row/column dimensions of the screen (80 x 32).
                     98:        o Unless you're confident that they're not part of the problem,
                     99:          your startup files (.exrc, .nexrc) and the environment variable
1.2       deraadt   100:          (EXINIT, NEXINIT) values.  (Cutting and pasting the output
1.1       deraadt   101:          of ":set all" is usually sufficient.)
                    102:
1.2       deraadt   103: If you want to do your own debugging, recompile the program with DEBUG
                    104: defined.  (Configuring with --enable-debug will do this for you.)  This
                    105: turns on the additional command-line option -D, that takes either s or w
                    106: as an argument.  The option -Ds causes nvi to ignore the EXINIT and
                    107: .exrc files on startup, and -Dw causes nvi to print out the process id
                    108: and wait for you to enter a <carriage-return> to continue.
                    109:
                    110: If you're running a memory checker (e.g. Purify) on nvi, you will first
                    111: want to  recompile everything with "-DPURIFY" set in the CFLAGS.  This
                    112: initializes allocated pages in the DB code, and free's allocated memory
                    113: at the end of the nvi execution.