neovim/runtime/doc/vim_diff.txt

*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. Defaults			|nvim-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/nvim/shada/main.shada` instead of `.viminfo` for persistent
  session information.

==============================================================================
2. Defaults					            *nvim-defaults*

- Syntax highlighting is enabled by default
- ":filetype plugin indent on" is enabled by default

- '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 "bin,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.
4. Stringifyed infinite and NaN values now use |str2float()| and can be evaled
   back.
5. (internal) Trying to print or stringify VAR_UNKNOWN in Vim results in 
   nothing, |E908|, in Neovim it is internal error.

|json_decode()| behaviour changed:
1. It may output |msgpack-special-dict|.
2. |msgpack-special-dict| is emitted also in case of duplicate keys, while in 
   Vim it errors out.
3. It accepts only valid JSON.  Trailing commas are not accepted.

|json_encode()| behaviour slightly changed: now |msgpack-special-dict| values 
are accepted, but |v:none| is not.

*v:none* variable is absent.  In Vim it represents “no value” in “js” strings 
like "[,]" parsed as "[v:none]" by |js_decode()|.

*js_encode()* and *js_decode()* functions are also absent.

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.
- |:oldfiles| supports !.
- 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.
- ShaDa file keeps search direction (|v:searchforward|), viminfo does not.

==============================================================================
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|
  |TermOpen|
  |TermClose|

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:
  'antialias'
  'cpoptions' ('g', 'w', 'H', '*', '-', 'j', and all POSIX flags were removed)
  'guioptions' (only the 't' flag was removed)
  'guipty'
  'imactivatefunc'
  'imactivatekey'
  'imstatusfunc'
  'macatsui'
  'restorescreen'
  'shelltype'
  'shortname'
  'swapsync'
  'term'
  'termencoding' (Vim 7.4.852 also removed this for Windows)
  'textauto'
  'textmode'
  'toolbar'
  'toolbariconsize'
  'ttybuiltin'
  'ttymouse'
  'ttyscroll'
  'ttytype'
  'weirdinvert'

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

Other compile-time features:
  EBCDIC
  Emacs tags support
  X11 integration (see |x11-selection|)

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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