Vim Color Editor HOW-TO (Vi Improved with syntax color highlighting) : Install Vim on Microsoft Windows 95/NT

2. Install Vim on Microsoft Windows 95/NT

For Windows 95/NT, download the Vim zip file. For Windows 95/NT you must download TWO zip files -

Runtime support file vim*rt.zip
Vim command file vim*56.zip. Where Vim version is 5.6.

Get these two zip files ( see Before you Install ) Unpack the zip files using the Winzip http://www.winzip.com. Both the zip files (vim*rt.zip and vim*56.zip) must be unpacked in the same directory like say c:\vim.

For Windows 95/98, set the environment variable VIM in autoexec.bat by adding this line -

set VIM=c:\vim\vim56

For Windows NT, add the environment variable VIM to the Control Panel | System | Environment | System Properties dialog:

VIM=c:\vim\vim56

The VIM variable should point to whereever you installed the vim56 directory. You can also set your PATH to include the gvim.exe's path.

You may need to logoff and relogin to set your environment. At an MS-DOS prompt type -

        set vim

And you should see - VIM=c:\vim\vim56

Create a short-cut on to your desktop by click-and-drag from c:\vim\vim56\gvim.exe. Copy the gvimrc_example file to the $VIM\_gvimrc. In my case it is c:\vim\vim56\_gvimrc.

        copy c:\vim\vim56\gvimrc_example  $VIM\_gvimrc

2.1 Install bash shell

In order make MS Windows 2000/NT/95/98 even more user-friendly, install the bash shell (Bourne Again Shell). Install http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/setup.exe (Cygwin-setup program) and select bash and other common utilities. The CygWin main site is at http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin. With CygWin the Windows 2000 computer will look like Linux/Unix box!! And combined with gvim editor, the Windows 2000 gives programmers more power.

2.2 Edit bash_profile

After installing the Cygwin, insert some useful aliases in /.bash_profile file. Open a cygwin window and at bash prompt -

bash$ cd $HOME
bash$ gvim .bash_profile
set -o vi
alias ls='ls --color '
alias cp='cp -i '
alias mv='mv -i '
alias rm='rm -i '
alias vi='gvim '
alias vip='gvim ~/.bash_profile & '
alias sop='. ~/.bash_profile '
alias mys='mysql -uroot -p '
PATH=$PATH:"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/mysql/bin"

With color ls, when you do ls you will see all the directory names and files in different colors (it looks great!!). With set -o vi, you can use the command line history editing just as in linux.

2.3 Setup Window colors

The default background color of MS DOS prompt window is black and white text. You must change the color, fontsize and window size to make it more pleasing. On MS Windows 2000, click on button Start->Run and type "cmd" and hit return. On MS Windows 95/98/NT click on Start->Programs->MSDOS Prompt which will bring up MSDOS window. Right click on the top left corner of the MSDOS prompt window and select properties. Select color background and enter R=255, G=255, B=190 (red, green, blue) for lightyellow background and text foreground color to black (R=0, G=0, B=0). This sets background to light yellow and text foreground to black and this combination is most pleasing to human eyes. If you have problems with colors in cygwin bash window when doing 'man ls', set the text color to "marune".

For Windows95 see Color for MS-DOS prompt window.

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