#	@(#)README	8.112 (Berkeley) 2/22/95

This is the README for nex/nvi, a freely redistributable replacement for
the ex/vi text editors originally distributed as part of the Fourth
Berkeley Software Distribution (4BSD), by the University of California,
Berkeley.

The source code for nex/nvi can be retrieved by using anonymous ftp to
ftp.cs.berkeley.edu.  The files ucb/4bsd/nvi.tar.Z and ucb/4bsd/nvi.tar.gz
are the compressed and gzip'd archives, respectively, of version 1.34 of
nex/nvi.  This version is believed to be stable and relatively problem
free.  The file ucb/4bsd/nvi.ALPHA.tar.gz is a gzip'd archive of the
current alpha release of nex/nvi, version 1.49.  This version reflects
the current development tree, and is more likely to have unanticipated
problems.

Don't try and build nvi from the top-level Makefile, it's only correct
for the 4.4BSD distribution.  The directory "PORT" has subdirectories for
specific OS/machine combinations (each including a V7-style Makefile) for
building nex/nvi on different platforms.  See the file PORT/README for
specific information.

The nex/nvi reference manual is in USD.doc/vi.ref/, and the manual page
is in USD.doc/vi.man/.  The files ending in the letters ".ps" are already
formatted Postscript versions, the files ending in the letters ".txt" are
already formatted flat text versions.

If you have any questions about nex/nvi, or problems making it work,
please contact me by electronic mail at one of the following addresses:

	uunet!bostic
	bostic@cs.berkeley.edu

Keith Bostic

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
o Credit where it's due:

	This software was originally derived from software contributed
	to the University of California, Berkeley by Steve Kirkendall,
	the author of the vi clone elvis.  Without his work, this work
	would have been far more difficult.

	IEEE POSIX 1003.2 style regular expression support is courtesy
	of Henry Spencer, for which I am *very* grateful.

	The curses library was originally done by Ken Arnold.  Scrolling
	and general reworking for 4.4BSD was done by Elan Amir.

o From the original vi acknowledgements, by William Joy and Mark Horton:

	Bruce Englar encouraged the early development of this display
	editor.  Peter Kessler helped bring sanity to version 2's
	command layout.  Bill Joy wrote versions 1 and 2.0 through 2.7,
	and created the framework that users see in the present editor.
	Mark Horton added macros and other features and made the editor
	work on a large number of terminals and Unix systems.

o And...
	The financial support of UUNET Communications Services is gratefully
	acknowledged.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
o Status:

This software is in beta test, and it's pretty stable.  Almost all of the
historic functionality in ex/vi is there, the only major missing pieces
are open mode and the lisp option.  (Also, the options hardtabs, optimize,
redraw, and slowopen are recognized, but ignored.)

Nvi is largely 8-bit clean.  This isn't difficult to fix, and was left in
during initial development to keep things simple.  Wide character support
will be integrated at the same time that it is made fully 8-bit clean.

There aren't a lot of new features in nex/nvi, but there are a few things
you might like.  The "Additional Features" section of the reference page
(USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.txt, USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref.ps) has more information.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
o Debugging:

Code fixes are appreciated, of course, but if you can't provide them,
please email me as much information as you can as to how to reproduce
the bug, and I'll try to fix it locally.  Stack traces of core dumps
are only rarely helpful -- an example file with a set of keystrokes that
causes the problem is almost invariably necessary.

Please include the following in the bug report;

	o The version of nvi you're running (use :version to get it).
	o The row/column dimensions of the screen (80 x 32).
	o Unless you're confident that they're not part of the problem,
	  your startup files (.exrc, .nexrc) and the environment variable
	  (EXININT, NEXINIT) values.  (Cutting and pasting the output
	  of ":set all" is usually sufficient.)

If you're running a memory checker (e.g. Purify) on nvi, you will first
want to  recompile everything with "-DPURIFY" set in the CFLAGS.  This
initializes allocated pages in the DB code, and free's allocated memory
at the end of the nvi execution.
