On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:26 AM, pansz wrote: >> Maybe on certain Linux distributions >> which keep their Vim a year or more out of date this idea makes sense, >> but I still think even "serious" users can work for years without ever >> touching the C code. > > To do compile yourself is one thing, to touch the C code is quite another. > > Most Linux distributions are too "free" on packaging vim and user got a > completely unknown version of vim and it may change very often. You even > don't know what feature will still exist and what unwanted feature will be > added in the next update! > > So this actually is the problem of distribution package maintainer, and this > is the reason I would recommend against using the distribution-specific > version of vim. > > By using your own version of vim you can: > 1. know this is your vim and wanted feature is always there.
Most vim users don't need this. Every distro that I know of has a package for a "huge" vim version with every applicable feature included (archlinux may be the exception here - I don't think that they have a package that provides a "vim" binary with gui features, only a "gvim" binary). Your wanted feature will be there as long as you install a package that includes it, which is much easier and less time consuming than compiling from source. > 2. update to the latest patch. Most software users in general don't need this. The only reason to update to the latest patch is either to be able to make use of a new feature or to pick up a new bugfix. As someone who is an advanced vim user and scripter, it's rare for either of those to apply to me. Picking up a new feature for my vim build at home isn't too useful to me, since I still need my scripts to work for other people, and at $JOB. Picking up a new bugfix isn't too useful, either, even for a bug that I found and submitted the patch for - I still need to come up with a backwards compatible work-around instead most of the time. > 3. embedded symbol information in it and have the correct stacktrace when > crash. Most large distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) have a package you can install to get the symbols. And most people don't have stackdumps enabled. And even the ones who do rarely want to report the crash or look into why it happened. > So, seriously, if you're using Linux please compile vim yourself. This does > not require any knowledge in C at all. But it also offers little advantage for the typical user, and requires extra work that is almost always unnecessary for the average user. ~Matt -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
