So basically backward compatibility and memory efficiency are what hold vim back in 1970. You made a lot of good points and reasons for it to be so, but I'm always sad when good ideas are refused just because of old scenarios.
I don't think anybody has refused the idea, and I don't think anybody wants to keep Vim in the 1970s. We all want this. In fact, people who don't want this probably wouldn't get involved in the discussion--unless we looked like we were going to introduce some horribly backwardly incompatible change that would affect them nastily. So I would encourage you not to view this discussion as opposition to the idea. Quite the reverse. This discussion is actually an important part of making this idea happen. We need to discuss these things so we can do it the best way possible, without *needlessly* breaking backward compatibility, without *needlessly* or *significantly* lowering efficiency, and without *unnecessarily* wasting people's time.
That said, I think there is a compromise.
Unless you saw something that I didn't see, I don't think there is any resistance that necessitates a compromise. I think it goes without saying that we'll need some kind of compatibility mode, whether it's by means of a +feature, an 'option', or just some carefully thought-out behaviours. Some of these issues have already been raised and solutions brainstormed (including your recent suggestions, as well as in earlier mails by me and others).
Of course there's still all the issues discussed above to solve, but at least I think with this proposal things we'll get less resistance ;)
As I said, I don't think there is any resistance to the idea. We're just discussing how to do it. As someone suggested earlier, it would be best to discuss and draft some documentation for this stuff before doing the hard implementation work. Having something solid will help, and a checklist of issues/concerns along with their solutions. So, to move it to the next stage, is anyone in a position to volunteer to write up a more specific design (which probably needs to be written with reference both to this email discussion and the Vim source code)? Also, is anyone in a position to volunteer to help with implementation once we have a design? Ben. -- You received this message from the "vim_dev" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
