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Vim (Vi IMproved) for Mac OS Classic

Downloading

There are two archives for Vim 6.2. If you are new to Vim, you will need both archives; if you already installed Vim and just want to upgrade to the latest binary, you will need the binary archive only. It contains all the runtime files that have been modified. The Vim 6.1 archives will be removed in the near future once 6.2 proved stable.

  • Vim 6.2.121 binary Vim 6.2.121 binaries for PPC, 68k and 68000. This 68000 version is a small version to reduce the memory footprint. You will need the runtime files below as well.
  • Vim 6.2 binary Vim 6.2.14 binaries for PPC, 68k and 68000. This 68000 version is a small version to reduce the memory footprint. You will need the runtime files below as well.
  • Vim 6.2 runtime The runtime archive contains the runtime files required for Vim. If you already have Vim 6.2 installed you don't need this archive.
  • Vim 6.2.351 binary The binary archive has support for 68000 Macs. The VIM 68k small version was compiled with a 68000 target and the small configure option with added support for menus and evaluation. Since I have no way to test the 68k versions, I would like to get some feedback. All versions in this archive contain support for the hardcopy command and the print menu to generate a PostScript file.
  • Vim 6.1.263 binary The binary archive has support for 68000 Macs. The VIM 68k small version was compiled with a 68000 target and the small configure option with added support for menus and evaluation. Since I have no way to test the 68k versions, I would like to get some feedback. All versions in this archive contain support for the hardcopy command and the print menu to generate a PostScript file.
  • Vim 6.1.206 binary The binary archive has experimetal support for 68000 Macs. The VIM 68k small version was compiled with a 68000 target and the small configure option with added support for menus and evaluation. Since I have no way to test the 68k versions, I would like to get some feedback. The PPC version in this archive contains support for the hardcopy command. Type ":hardcopy >filename" to generate a PostScript file.
  • Vim 6.1.173 binary The binary archive has experimetal support for 68000 Macs. The VIM 68k small version was compiled with a 68000 target and the small configure option with added support for menus and evaluation. Since I have no way to test the 68k versions, I would like to get some feedback.
  • Vim 6.1.173 runtime The runtime archive contains the runtime files required for Vim. If you already have Vim 6.1 installed you don't need this archive.

For other versions of Vim, see below.

If you have to download the vim archive from a non-Mac computer, you can take the .sea file and expand it with StuffIt Expander 5.5 or above.

Credits

  • Bram Moolenaar is the primary author of Vim.
  • Dany St-Amant did almost all of the work for the Macintosh port, including the port to OS X.
  • This site, including the binaries here, is maintained by Axel Kielhorn.

Support

  • For general information on Vim, see VimOnline.
  • To join the Vim users' mailing list or the vim-mac mailing list, see the instructions here.
  • You can see the documentation on-line at VimOnline, or type
    :help
    inside Vim.
  • If there is a problem with this site or the binaries here, e-mail me.

Known Bugs:

The following bugs have been reported. Please note that bugs that are not reported won't be fixed.

Desktop size

MacVim uses a fixed desktop size instead of asking MacOS. When you have a large desktop, you won't be able to drag the MacVim window to the right or bottom half. Neither can you set the size of the Window in the vimrc file to something larger than this assumed desktop size. This has been fixed in 5.6

Window larger than screen

When you set the size of the MacVim window to a large value (e.g. 300 columns) MacVim may crash with an unmapped memory exception. This was a bug in the Vim core that got fixed in 5.6.11

Volumenames starting with a space

If the name of the volume with the Vim runtime files starts with a space, Vim is unable to find the VIMRUNTIME files. There may be more problems with filenames that contain spaces.

Dislock

The current release of MacVim is not compatible with Dislock, MacVim will crash when swapfiles are enabled. You can still use MacVim but have to disable the swapfiles first. Use "unset swapfile" in your vimrc file.

Environment Variables

MacVim may crash when you are using an environment variable. Normally there is no need to do that, since there is no Unix-like environment on the Mac. But sadly the macvimrc file contained a wrong example.

exrc

The "exrc" option does not work. Even when set no exrc or vimrc file in the document directory is read.

Tags

The tags file has to be in Mac format to be readable by Vim. The same bug affects .vimrc files that contain multi line commands.

"/" in filenames

The "/" is directory separator on Unix. When porting Vim to the Mac, Dany had to decide wether to allow Unix-style pathseparators (as in /usr/local/lib/mime.types for usr:local:lib:mime.types) or to treat "/" as a regular character which may be used in a filename. He decided to support Unix path separators (Which is IMO a good idea). Thus you cannot use a "/" in a filename.

Out of memory

When using syntax highlighting any many different filetypes, or when using operations that requiere a large undo buffer, you can easyly run out of memory.

Explorer plugin

A patch in early 6.1 beta broke support for the file explorer plugin.

Viminfo file

There is a bug in the way the viminfo file is handled which may lead to illegal characters in that file. Simply remove the viminfo file until the bug is fixed.

Printing

You can't print with Vim on Mac Classic.
Verion 6.1.206 and later contains support to enable the hardcopy command. With "hardcopy >filename.ps" you can generate a PostScript File that you can drag onto a Postcript desctop printer icon or open with MacGhostView or MacGSView. If you use the "Print" command from the menu, you will get a PostScript file in the current directory named something like tmp0000001.

Other Versions

The future of Mac Vim Classic

I'm planning to switch to Mac OSX soon, but since there are still some applications available for Classic only, I will keep my Mac dual booting Mac OS 8.6. As long as I'm using Classic I will support Mac Vim Classic.

Thanks to Patrick Curtain and swdev.com for hosting this site.