Re: Redhat Linux has crippled Vim

On 28/01/12 05:17, howard Schwartz wrote:
> Thanks for the advice but this did not seem true for me. I did install
> an X-11 version of vim === a binary rpm package. I got gvim and a
> creature called evim which I recall is a vim designed to run like a MS
> windows editor, with no modes.
>
> gvim did not run on console, and evim I did not try since it would hve
> the familiar microsoft menues on top.
>
> Are you claiming that these distributions themselves should come with a
> copy of console vim? Mine did not. Are you claiming that gvim should run
> in console mode? Mine did not. I can revisit this and see if there is
> some switch I do not know to make gvim run as if it were not expecting a
> graphical window.
>
> thanks the the advice. please keep it coming,
>
> howard
>
>
>

I am claiming that, on Linux but not on Windows, if you install gvim,
then set up a symlink named "vim" pointing to it and located early in
your $PATH, invoking this "vim" symlink at a shell prompt will make the
gvim binary run in console mode.

Beware that the order of the arguments of the "ln" command is
unintuitive: target first, then link name. For instance in bash, after
installing gvim, you would do

pushd ~/bin
ln -sv `which gvim` vim
popd
ls -l `which vim`

and it should answer something like

~/bin ~
vim -> /usr/bin/gvim
~
lrwxrwxrwx 1 schwartz users 13 /home/schwartz/bin/vim -> /usr/bin/gvim

(with possible variations depending among others on your login name and
on where RedHat / Fedora installs the gvim binary).

Then invoking "vim" or "gvim" without the quotes at a shell prompt
should run the same executable in both cases, but as a cursesUI program
in console in the first case and as a GUI (forked out of the console) in
the second case (except that when invoked with either --help/-h or
--version even gvim would display something in the console and exit
immediately).

Best regards,
Tony.
--
This is an airconditioned room, do not open Windows.

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