*vim_diff.txt*    For Nvim.						{Nvim}


			    NVIM REFERENCE MANUAL


Differences between Nvim and Vim			       *vim-differences*

Throughout the help files, differences between Nvim and Vim are indicated via
the "{Nvim}" tag.  This document is a complete and centralized list of all
these differences.

1. Configuration		|nvim-configuration|
2. Option defaults		|nvim-option-defaults|
3. Changed features		|nvim-features-changed|
4. New features			|nvim-features-new|
5. Missing legacy features	|nvim-features-missing|
6. Removed features		|nvim-features-removed|


==============================================================================
1. Configuration					    *nvim-configuration*

- Use `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim` instead of `.vimrc` for storing 
  configuration.
- Use `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim` instead of `.vim` to store configuration files.
- Use `$XDG_DATA_HOME/shada/main.shada` instead of `.viminfo` for persistent 
  session information.

==============================================================================
2. Option defaults					  *nvim-option-defaults*

- 'autoindent' is set by default
- 'autoread' is set by default
- 'backspace' defaults to "indent,eol,start"
- 'complete' doesn't include "i"
- 'display' defaults to "lastline"
- 'encoding' defaults to "utf-8"
- 'formatoptions' defaults to "tcqj"
- 'history' defaults to 10000 (the maximum)
- 'hlsearch' is set by default
- 'incsearch' is set by default
- 'langnoremap' is set by default
- 'laststatus' defaults to 2 (statusline is always shown)
- 'listchars' defaults to "tab:> ,trail:-,nbsp:+"
- 'mouse' defaults to "a"
- 'nocompatible' is always set
- 'nrformats' defaults to "hex"
- 'sessionoptions' doesn't include "options"
- 'smarttab' is set by default
- 'tabpagemax' defaults to 50
- 'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"
- 'ttyfast' is always set
- 'viminfo' includes "!"
- 'wildmenu' is set by default

==============================================================================
3. Changed features					 *nvim-features-changed*

Nvim always builds with all features, in contrast to Vim which may have
certain features removed/added at compile-time.  This is like if Vim's "HUGE"
build was the only Vim release type (except Nvim is smaller than Vim's "HUGE"
build).

If a Python interpreter is available on your `$PATH`, |:python| and |:python3|
are always available and may be used simultaneously in separate plugins.  The
`neovim` pip package must be installed to use Python plugins in Nvim (see
|nvim-python|).

|mkdir()| behaviour changed:
1. Assuming /tmp/foo does not exist and /tmp can be written to 
   mkdir('/tmp/foo/bar', 'p', 0700) will create both /tmp/foo and /tmp/foo/bar 
   with 0700 permissions. Vim mkdir will create /tmp/foo with 0755.
2. If you try to create an existing directory with `'p'` (e.g. mkdir('/', 
   'p')) mkdir() will silently exit. In Vim this was an error.
3. mkdir() error messages now include strerror() text when mkdir fails.

'encoding' cannot be changed after startup.

|string()| and |:echo| behaviour changed:
1. No maximum recursion depth limit is applied to nested container 
   structures.
2. |string()| fails immediately on nested containers, not when recursion limit 
   was exceeded.
2. When |:echo| encounters duplicate containers like >

       let l = []
       echo [l, l]
<
   it does not use "[...]" (was: "[[], [...]]", now: "[[], []]"). "..." is 
   only used for recursive containers.
3. |:echo| printing nested containers adds "@level" after "..." designating 
   the level at which recursive container was printed: |:echo-self-refer|.  
   Same thing applies to |string()| (though it uses construct like 
   "{E724@level}"), but this is not reliable because |string()| continues to 
   error out.

Viminfo text files were replaced with binary (messagepack) ShaDa files. 
Additional differences:

- |shada-c| has no effect.
- |shada-s| now limits size of every item and not just registers.
- When reading ShaDa files items are merged according to the timestamp. 
  |shada-merging|
- 'viminfo' option got renamed to 'shada'. Old option is kept as an alias for 
  compatibility reasons.
- |:wviminfo| was renamed to |:wshada|, |:rviminfo| to |:rshada|.  Old 
  commands are still kept.
- When writing (|:wshada| without bang or at exit) it merges much more data, 
  and does this according to the timestamp.  Vim merges only marks. 
  |shada-merging|
- ShaDa file format was designed with forward and backward compatibility in 
  mind. |shada-compatibility|
- Some errors make ShaDa code keep temporary file in-place for user to decide 
  what to do with it.  Vim deletes temporary file in these cases. 
  |shada-error-handling|
- Vim keeps no timestamps at all, neither in viminfo file nor in the instance 
  itself.

==============================================================================
4. New Features						     *nvim-features-new*

See |nvim-intro| for a list of Nvim's largest new features.

|bracketed-paste-mode| is built-in and enabled by default.

Meta (alt) chords are recognized (even in the terminal).
  <M-1>, <M-2>, ...
  <M-BS>, <M-Del>, <M-Ins>, ...
  <M-/>, <M-\>, ...
  <M-Space>, <M-Enter>, <M-=>, <M-->, <M-?>, <M-$>, ...

  Note: Meta chords are case-sensitive (<M-a> is distinguished from <M-A>).

Some `CTRL-SHIFT-...` key chords are distinguished from `CTRL-...` variants (even in
the terminal). Specifically, the following are known to work:
  <C-Tab>, <C-S-Tab>
  <C-BS>, <C-S-BS>
  <C-Enter>, <C-S-Enter>

Events:
  |TabNew|
  |TabNewEntered|
  |TabClosed|

Highlight groups:
  |hl-EndOfBuffer|
  |hl-TermCursor|
  |hl-TermCursorNC|

==============================================================================
5. Missing legacy features				 *nvim-features-missing*
				     *if_ruby* *if_lua* *if_perl* *if_mzscheme* *if_tcl*

These legacy Vim features may be implemented in the future, but they are not
planned for the current milestone.

- vim.bindeval() (new feature in Vim 7.4 Python interface)
- |if_ruby|
- |if_lua|
- |if_perl|
- |if_mzscheme|
- |if_tcl|

==============================================================================
6. Removed features					 *nvim-features-removed*

These features are in Vim, but have been intentionally removed from Nvim.

Vi-compatible mode:
  ":set nocompatible" is ignored
  ":set compatible" is an error

Ed-compatible mode:
  ":set noedcompatible" is ignored
  ":set edcompatible" is an error

'ttyfast':
  ":set ttyfast" is ignored
  ":set nottyfast" is an error

Encryption support:
  'cryptmethod'
  'key'

MS-DOS support:
  'bioskey'
  'conskey'

Highlight groups:
  |hl-VisualNOS|

Other options:
  'cpoptions' ('g', 'w', 'H', '*', '-', 'j', and all POSIX flags were removed)
  'guioptions' (only the 't' flag was removed)
  'guipty'
  'macatsui'
  'shelltype'
  'shortname'
  'termencoding'
  'textauto'
  'textmode'
  'toolbar'
  'toolbariconsize'
  'ttybuiltin'
  'ttymouse'
  'weirdinvert'

Other commands:
  :Print
  :fixdel
  :mode (no longer accepts an argument)
  :shell
  :tearoff

Other compile-time features:
  EBCDIC
  Emacs tags support

Nvim does not have a built-in GUI and hence the following aliases have been
removed: gvim, gex, gview, rgvim, rgview

"Easy mode" (eview, evim, nvim -y)
"(g)vimdiff" (alias for "(g)nvim -d" |diff-mode|)
"Vi mode" (nvim -v)

The ability to start nvim via the following aliases has been removed in favor
of just using their command line arguments:

  ex        nvim -e
  exim      nvim -E
  view      nvim -R
  rvim      nvim -Z
  rview     nvim -RZ

==============================================================================
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