Mercurial > vim
annotate runtime/doc/develop.txt @ 8422:5d2c84be23b5 v7.4.1502
commit https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/99ef06296f3c37490511c03786a2c8672e015c56
Author: Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>
Date: Sun Mar 6 20:22:25 2016 +0100
patch 7.4.1502
Problem: Writing last-but-one line of buffer to a channel isn't implemented
yet.
Solution: Implement it. Fix leaving a swap file behind.
author | Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org> |
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date | Sun, 06 Mar 2016 20:30:04 +0100 |
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1 *develop.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2016 Jan 31 |
7 | 2 |
3 | |
4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar | |
5 | |
6 | |
7 Development of Vim. *development* | |
8 | |
9 This text is important for those who want to be involved in further developing | |
10 Vim. | |
11 | |
12 1. Design goals |design-goals| | |
13 2. Coding style |coding-style| | |
14 3. Design decisions |design-decisions| | |
15 4. Assumptions |design-assumptions| | |
16 | |
17 See the file README.txt in the "src" directory for an overview of the source | |
18 code. | |
19 | |
20 Vim is open source software. Everybody is encouraged to contribute to help | |
21 improving Vim. For sending patches a context diff "diff -c" is preferred. | |
4358 | 22 Also see http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_make_and_submit_a_patch. |
7 | 23 |
24 ============================================================================== | |
25 1. Design goals *design-goals* | |
26 | |
27 Most important things come first (roughly). | |
28 | |
29 Note that quite a few items are contradicting. This is intentional. A | |
30 balance must be found between them. | |
31 | |
32 | |
33 VIM IS... VI COMPATIBLE *design-compatible* | |
34 | |
35 First of all, it should be possible to use Vim as a drop-in replacement for | |
36 Vi. When the user wants to, he can use Vim in compatible mode and hardly | |
37 notice any difference with the original Vi. | |
38 | |
39 Exceptions: | |
40 - We don't reproduce obvious Vi bugs in Vim. | |
41 - There are different versions of Vi. I am using Version 3.7 (6/7/85) as a | |
42 reference. But support for other versions is also included when possible. | |
43 The Vi part of POSIX is not considered a definitive source. | |
44 - Vim adds new commands, you cannot rely on some command to fail because it | |
45 didn't exist in Vi. | |
46 - Vim will have a lot of features that Vi doesn't have. Going back from Vim | |
47 to Vi will be a problem, this cannot be avoided. | |
48 - Some things are hardly ever used (open mode, sending an e-mail when | |
49 crashing, etc.). Those will only be included when someone has a good reason | |
50 why it should be included and it's not too much work. | |
51 - For some items it is debatable whether Vi compatibility should be | |
52 maintained. There will be an option flag for these. | |
53 | |
54 | |
55 VIM IS... IMPROVED *design-improved* | |
56 | |
57 The IMproved bits of Vim should make it a better Vi, without becoming a | |
58 completely different editor. Extensions are done with a "Vi spirit". | |
59 - Use the keyboard as much as feasible. The mouse requires a third hand, | |
60 which we don't have. Many terminals don't have a mouse. | |
61 - When the mouse is used anyway, avoid the need to switch back to the | |
62 keyboard. Avoid mixing mouse and keyboard handling. | |
63 - Add commands and options in a consistent way. Otherwise people will have a | |
64 hard time finding and remembering them. Keep in mind that more commands and | |
65 options will be added later. | |
66 - A feature that people do not know about is a useless feature. Don't add | |
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67 obscure features, or at least add hints in documentation that they exist. |
7 | 68 - Minimize using CTRL and other modifiers, they are more difficult to type. |
69 - There are many first-time and inexperienced Vim users. Make it easy for | |
70 them to start using Vim and learn more over time. | |
71 - There is no limit to the features that can be added. Selecting new features | |
72 is one based on (1) what users ask for, (2) how much effort it takes to | |
73 implement and (3) someone actually implementing it. | |
74 | |
75 | |
76 VIM IS... MULTI PLATFORM *design-multi-platform* | |
77 | |
78 Vim tries to help as many users on as many platforms as possible. | |
79 - Support many kinds of terminals. The minimal demands are cursor positioning | |
80 and clear-screen. Commands should only use key strokes that most keyboards | |
81 have. Support all the keys on the keyboard for mapping. | |
82 - Support many platforms. A condition is that there is someone willing to do | |
83 Vim development on that platform, and it doesn't mean messing up the code. | |
84 - Support many compilers and libraries. Not everybody is able or allowed to | |
85 install another compiler or GUI library. | |
86 - People switch from one platform to another, and from GUI to terminal | |
87 version. Features should be present in all versions, or at least in as many | |
88 as possible with a reasonable effort. Try to avoid that users must switch | |
89 between platforms to accomplish their work efficiently. | |
90 - That a feature is not possible on some platforms, or only possible on one | |
91 platform, does not mean it cannot be implemented. [This intentionally | |
92 contradicts the previous item, these two must be balanced.] | |
93 | |
94 | |
95 VIM IS... WELL DOCUMENTED *design-documented* | |
96 | |
97 - A feature that isn't documented is a useless feature. A patch for a new | |
98 feature must include the documentation. | |
99 - Documentation should be comprehensive and understandable. Using examples is | |
100 recommended. | |
101 - Don't make the text unnecessarily long. Less documentation means that an | |
102 item is easier to find. | |
103 | |
104 | |
105 VIM IS... HIGH SPEED AND SMALL IN SIZE *design-speed-size* | |
106 | |
107 Using Vim must not be a big attack on system resources. Keep it small and | |
108 fast. | |
109 - Computers are becoming faster and bigger each year. Vim can grow too, but | |
110 no faster than computers are growing. Keep Vim usable on older systems. | |
111 - Many users start Vim from a shell very often. Startup time must be short. | |
112 - Commands must work efficiently. The time they consume must be as small as | |
113 possible. Useful commands may take longer. | |
114 - Don't forget that some people use Vim over a slow connection. Minimize the | |
115 communication overhead. | |
116 - Items that add considerably to the size and are not used by many people | |
117 should be a feature that can be disabled. | |
118 - Vim is a component among other components. Don't turn it into a massive | |
119 application, but have it work well together with other programs. | |
120 | |
121 | |
122 VIM IS... MAINTAINABLE *design-maintain* | |
123 | |
124 - The source code should not become a mess. It should be reliable code. | |
125 - Use the same layout in all files to make it easy to read |coding-style|. | |
481 | 126 - Use comments in a useful way! Quoting the function name and argument names |
127 is NOT useful. Do explain what they are for. | |
7 | 128 - Porting to another platform should be made easy, without having to change |
129 too much platform-independent code. | |
130 - Use the object-oriented spirit: Put data and code together. Minimize the | |
131 knowledge spread to other parts of the code. | |
132 | |
133 | |
134 VIM IS... FLEXIBLE *design-flexible* | |
135 | |
136 Vim should make it easy for users to work in their preferred styles rather | |
137 than coercing its users into particular patterns of work. This can be for | |
138 items with a large impact (e.g., the 'compatible' option) or for details. The | |
139 defaults are carefully chosen such that most users will enjoy using Vim as it | |
140 is. Commands and options can be used to adjust Vim to the desire of the user | |
141 and its environment. | |
142 | |
143 | |
144 VIM IS... NOT *design-not* | |
145 | |
146 - Vim is not a shell or an Operating System. You will not be able to run a | |
147 shell inside Vim or use it to control a debugger. This should work the | |
148 other way around: Use Vim as a component from a shell or in an IDE. | |
149 A satirical way to say this: "Unlike Emacs, Vim does not attempt to include | |
150 everything but the kitchen sink, but some people say that you can clean one | |
151 with it. ;-)" | |
722 | 152 To use Vim with gdb see: http://www.agide.org and http://clewn.sf.net. |
7 | 153 - Vim is not a fancy GUI editor that tries to look nice at the cost of |
154 being less consistent over all platforms. But functional GUI features are | |
155 welcomed. | |
156 | |
157 ============================================================================== | |
158 2. Coding style *coding-style* | |
159 | |
160 These are the rules to use when making changes to the Vim source code. Please | |
161 stick to these rules, to keep the sources readable and maintainable. | |
162 | |
163 This list is not complete. Look in the source code for more examples. | |
164 | |
165 | |
166 MAKING CHANGES *style-changes* | |
167 | |
168 The basic steps to make changes to the code: | |
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169 1. Get the code from github. That makes it easier to keep your changed |
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170 version in sync with the main code base (it may be a while before your |
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171 changes will be included). You do need to spend some time learning git, |
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172 it's not the most user friendly tool. |
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173 2. Adjust the documentation. Doing this first gives you an impression of how |
7 | 174 your changes affect the user. |
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175 3. Make the source code changes. |
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176 4. Check ../doc/todo.txt if the change affects any listed item. |
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177 5. Make a patch with "git diff". You can also create a pull request on |
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178 github, but it's the diff that matters. |
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179 6. Make a note about what changed, preferably mentioning the problem and the |
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180 solution. Send an email to the vim-dev maillist with an explanation and |
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181 include the diff. Or create a pull request on github. |
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182 |
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183 |
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184 C COMPILER *style-compiler* |
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185 |
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186 The minimal C compiler version supported is C89, also known as ANSI C. |
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187 Later standards don't add much and C89 is the widest supported. |
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188 |
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189 One restriction that this implies: no // comments, only /* comments */. |
7 | 190 |
191 | |
192 USE OF COMMON FUNCTIONS *style-functions* | |
193 | |
194 Some functions that are common to use, have a special Vim version. Always | |
195 consider using the Vim version, because they were introduced with a reason. | |
196 | |
197 NORMAL NAME VIM NAME DIFFERENCE OF VIM VERSION | |
198 free() vim_free() Checks for freeing NULL | |
199 malloc() alloc() Checks for out of memory situation | |
200 malloc() lalloc() Like alloc(), but has long argument | |
201 strcpy() STRCPY() Includes cast to (char *), for char_u * args | |
202 strchr() vim_strchr() Accepts special characters | |
203 strrchr() vim_strrchr() Accepts special characters | |
204 isspace() vim_isspace() Can handle characters > 128 | |
1240 | 205 iswhite() vim_iswhite() Only TRUE for tab and space |
711 | 206 memcpy() mch_memmove() Handles overlapped copies |
207 bcopy() mch_memmove() Handles overlapped copies | |
7 | 208 memset() vim_memset() Uniform for all systems |
209 | |
210 | |
211 NAMES *style-names* | |
212 | |
213 Function names can not be more than 31 characters long (because of VMS). | |
214 | |
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215 Don't use "delete" or "this" as a variable name, C++ doesn't like it. |
7 | 216 |
217 Because of the requirement that Vim runs on as many systems as possible, we | |
218 need to avoid using names that are already defined by the system. This is a | |
219 list of names that are known to cause trouble. The name is given as a regexp | |
220 pattern. | |
221 | |
222 is.*() POSIX, ctype.h | |
223 to.*() POSIX, ctype.h | |
224 | |
225 d_.* POSIX, dirent.h | |
226 l_.* POSIX, fcntl.h | |
227 gr_.* POSIX, grp.h | |
228 pw_.* POSIX, pwd.h | |
229 sa_.* POSIX, signal.h | |
230 mem.* POSIX, string.h | |
231 str.* POSIX, string.h | |
232 wcs.* POSIX, string.h | |
233 st_.* POSIX, stat.h | |
234 tms_.* POSIX, times.h | |
235 tm_.* POSIX, time.h | |
236 c_.* POSIX, termios.h | |
237 MAX.* POSIX, limits.h | |
238 __.* POSIX, system | |
239 _[A-Z].* POSIX, system | |
240 E[A-Z0-9]* POSIX, errno.h | |
241 | |
1121 | 242 .*_t POSIX, for typedefs. Use .*_T instead. |
7 | 243 |
244 wait don't use as argument to a function, conflicts with types.h | |
245 index shadows global declaration | |
246 time shadows global declaration | |
247 new C++ reserved keyword | |
248 try Borland C++ doesn't like it to be used as a variable. | |
249 | |
3281 | 250 clear Mac curses.h |
251 echo Mac curses.h | |
252 instr Mac curses.h | |
253 meta Mac curses.h | |
254 newwin Mac curses.h | |
255 nl Mac curses.h | |
256 overwrite Mac curses.h | |
257 refresh Mac curses.h | |
258 scroll Mac curses.h | |
259 typeahead Mac curses.h | |
260 | |
7 | 261 basename() GNU string function |
262 dirname() GNU string function | |
263 get_env_value() Linux system function | |
264 | |
265 | |
266 VARIOUS *style-various* | |
267 | |
502 | 268 Typedef'ed names should end in "_T": > |
269 typedef int some_T; | |
7 | 270 Define'ed names should be uppercase: > |
271 #define SOME_THING | |
272 Features always start with "FEAT_": > | |
273 #define FEAT_FOO | |
274 | |
275 Don't use '\"', some compilers can't handle it. '"' works fine. | |
276 | |
277 Don't use: | |
278 #if HAVE_SOME | |
279 Some compilers can't handle that and complain that "HAVE_SOME" is not defined. | |
280 Use | |
281 #ifdef HAVE_SOME | |
282 or | |
283 #if defined(HAVE_SOME) | |
284 | |
285 | |
286 STYLE *style-examples* | |
287 | |
288 General rule: One statement per line. | |
289 | |
290 Wrong: if (cond) a = 1; | |
291 | |
292 OK: if (cond) | |
293 a = 1; | |
294 | |
295 Wrong: while (cond); | |
296 | |
297 OK: while (cond) | |
298 ; | |
299 | |
300 Wrong: do a = 1; while (cond); | |
301 | |
302 OK: do | |
303 a = 1; | |
304 while (cond); | |
305 | |
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306 Wrong: if (cond) { |
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307 cmd; |
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308 cmd; |
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309 } else { |
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310 cmd; |
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311 cmd; |
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312 } |
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313 |
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314 OK: if (cond) |
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315 { |
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316 cmd; |
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317 cmd; |
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318 } |
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319 else |
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320 { |
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321 cmd; |
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322 cmd; |
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323 } |
7 | 324 |
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325 Use ANSI (new style) function declarations with the return type on a separate |
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326 indented line. |
7 | 327 |
328 Wrong: int function_name(int arg1, int arg2) | |
329 | |
330 OK: /* | |
331 * Explanation of what this function is used for. | |
332 * | |
333 * Return value explanation. | |
334 */ | |
335 int | |
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336 function_name( |
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commit https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/13d5aeef56e3140a8eb8f40c7062aa1c5700f76e
Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
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337 int arg1, /* short comment about arg1 */ |
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commit https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/13d5aeef56e3140a8eb8f40c7062aa1c5700f76e
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338 int arg2) /* short comment about arg2 */ |
7 | 339 { |
340 int local; /* comment about local */ | |
341 | |
342 local = arg1 * arg2; | |
343 | |
344 | |
345 | |
346 SPACES AND PUNCTUATION *style-spaces* | |
347 | |
348 No space between a function name and the bracket: | |
349 | |
350 Wrong: func (arg); | |
351 OK: func(arg); | |
352 | |
353 Do use a space after if, while, switch, etc. | |
354 | |
355 Wrong: if(arg) for(;;) | |
356 OK: if (arg) for (;;) | |
357 | |
358 Use a space after a comma and semicolon: | |
359 | |
360 Wrong: func(arg1,arg2); for (i = 0;i < 2;++i) | |
361 OK: func(arg1, arg2); for (i = 0; i < 2; ++i) | |
362 | |
363 Use a space before and after '=', '+', '/', etc. | |
364 | |
365 Wrong: var=a*5; | |
366 OK: var = a * 5; | |
367 | |
368 In general: Use empty lines to group lines of code together. Put a comment | |
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369 just above the group of lines. This makes it easier to quickly see what is |
7 | 370 being done. |
371 | |
372 OK: /* Prepare for building the table. */ | |
373 get_first_item(); | |
374 table_idx = 0; | |
375 | |
376 /* Build the table */ | |
377 while (has_item()) | |
378 table[table_idx++] = next_item(); | |
379 | |
380 /* Finish up. */ | |
381 cleanup_items(); | |
382 generate_hash(table); | |
383 | |
384 ============================================================================== | |
385 3. Design decisions *design-decisions* | |
386 | |
387 Folding | |
388 | |
389 Several forms of folding should be possible for the same buffer. For example, | |
390 have one window that shows the text with function bodies folded, another | |
391 window that shows a function body. | |
392 | |
393 Folding is a way to display the text. It should not change the text itself. | |
394 Therefore the folding has been implemented as a filter between the text stored | |
395 in a buffer (buffer lines) and the text displayed in a window (logical lines). | |
396 | |
397 | |
398 Naming the window | |
399 | |
400 The word "window" is commonly used for several things: A window on the screen, | |
401 the xterm window, a window inside Vim to view a buffer. | |
402 To avoid confusion, other items that are sometimes called window have been | |
403 given another name. Here is an overview of the related items: | |
404 | |
405 screen The whole display. For the GUI it's something like 1024x768 | |
406 pixels. The Vim shell can use the whole screen or part of it. | |
407 shell The Vim application. This can cover the whole screen (e.g., | |
408 when running in a console) or part of it (xterm or GUI). | |
409 window View on a buffer. There can be several windows in Vim, | |
410 together with the command line, menubar, toolbar, etc. they | |
411 fit in the shell. | |
412 | |
413 | |
236 | 414 Spell checking *develop-spell* |
415 | |
416 When spell checking was going to be added to Vim a survey was done over the | |
417 available spell checking libraries and programs. Unfortunately, the result | |
418 was that none of them provided sufficient capabilities to be used as the spell | |
419 checking engine in Vim, for various reasons: | |
420 | |
421 - Missing support for multi-byte encodings. At least UTF-8 must be supported, | |
422 so that more than one language can be used in the same file. | |
323 | 423 Doing on-the-fly conversion is not always possible (would require iconv |
424 support). | |
236 | 425 - For the programs and libraries: Using them as-is would require installing |
323 | 426 them separately from Vim. That's mostly not impossible, but a drawback. |
236 | 427 - Performance: A few tests showed that it's possible to check spelling on the |
428 fly (while redrawing), just like syntax highlighting. But the mechanisms | |
625 | 429 used by other code are much slower. Myspell uses a hashtable, for example. |
430 The affix compression that most spell checkers use makes it slower too. | |
300 | 431 - For using an external program like aspell a communication mechanism would |
432 have to be setup. That's complicated to do in a portable way (Unix-only | |
433 would be relatively simple, but that's not good enough). And performance | |
434 will become a problem (lots of process switching involved). | |
236 | 435 - Missing support for words with non-word characters, such as "Etten-Leur" and |
436 "et al.", would require marking the pieces of them OK, lowering the | |
437 reliability. | |
438 - Missing support for regions or dialects. Makes it difficult to accept | |
439 all English words and highlight non-Canadian words differently. | |
440 - Missing support for rare words. Many words are correct but hardly ever used | |
441 and could be a misspelled often-used word. | |
323 | 442 - For making suggestions the speed is less important and requiring to install |
443 another program or library would be acceptable. But the word lists probably | |
444 differ, the suggestions may be wrong words. | |
7 | 445 |
625 | 446 |
447 Spelling suggestions *develop-spell-suggestions* | |
448 | |
449 For making suggestions there are two basic mechanisms: | |
450 1. Try changing the bad word a little bit and check for a match with a good | |
451 word. Or go through the list of good words, change them a little bit and | |
452 check for a match with the bad word. The changes are deleting a character, | |
453 inserting a character, swapping two characters, etc. | |
454 2. Perform soundfolding on both the bad word and the good words and then find | |
455 matches, possibly with a few changes like with the first mechanism. | |
456 | |
457 The first is good for finding typing mistakes. After experimenting with | |
458 hashtables and looking at solutions from other spell checkers the conclusion | |
459 was that a trie (a kind of tree structure) is ideal for this. Both for | |
460 reducing memory use and being able to try sensible changes. For example, when | |
461 inserting a character only characters that lead to good words need to be | |
462 tried. Other mechanisms (with hashtables) need to try all possible letters at | |
463 every position in the word. Also, a hashtable has the requirement that word | |
464 boundaries are identified separately, while a trie does not require this. | |
465 That makes the mechanism a lot simpler. | |
466 | |
467 Soundfolding is useful when someone knows how the words sounds but doesn't | |
468 know how it is spelled. For example, the word "dictionary" might be written | |
469 as "daktonerie". The number of changes that the first method would need to | |
470 try is very big, it's hard to find the good word that way. After soundfolding | |
471 the words become "tktnr" and "tkxnry", these differ by only two letters. | |
472 | |
473 To find words by their soundfolded equivalent (soundalike word) we need a list | |
474 of all soundfolded words. A few experiments have been done to find out what | |
475 the best method is. Alternatives: | |
476 1. Do the sound folding on the fly when looking for suggestions. This means | |
477 walking through the trie of good words, soundfolding each word and | |
478 checking how different it is from the bad word. This is very efficient for | |
479 memory use, but takes a long time. On a fast PC it takes a couple of | |
480 seconds for English, which can be acceptable for interactive use. But for | |
481 some languages it takes more than ten seconds (e.g., German, Catalan), | |
482 which is unacceptable slow. For batch processing (automatic corrections) | |
1197 | 483 it's too slow for all languages. |
625 | 484 2. Use a trie for the soundfolded words, so that searching can be done just |
485 like how it works without soundfolding. This requires remembering a list | |
486 of good words for each soundfolded word. This makes finding matches very | |
487 fast but requires quite a lot of memory, in the order of 1 to 10 Mbyte. | |
488 For some languages more than the original word list. | |
489 3. Like the second alternative, but reduce the amount of memory by using affix | |
490 compression and store only the soundfolded basic word. This is what Aspell | |
491 does. Disadvantage is that affixes need to be stripped from the bad word | |
492 before soundfolding it, which means that mistakes at the start and/or end | |
493 of the word will cause the mechanism to fail. Also, this becomes slow when | |
494 the bad word is quite different from the good word. | |
495 | |
496 The choice made is to use the second mechanism and use a separate file. This | |
497 way a user with sufficient memory can get very good suggestions while a user | |
498 who is short of memory or just wants the spell checking and no suggestions | |
499 doesn't use so much memory. | |
500 | |
501 | |
502 Word frequency | |
503 | |
504 For sorting suggestions it helps to know which words are common. In theory we | |
505 could store a word frequency with the word in the dictionary. However, this | |
506 requires storing a count per word. That degrades word tree compression a lot. | |
507 And maintaining the word frequency for all languages will be a heavy task. | |
508 Also, it would be nice to prefer words that are already in the text. This way | |
509 the words that appear in the specific text are preferred for suggestions. | |
510 | |
511 What has been implemented is to count words that have been seen during | |
512 displaying. A hashtable is used to quickly find the word count. The count is | |
513 initialized from words listed in COMMON items in the affix file, so that it | |
514 also works when starting a new file. | |
515 | |
516 This isn't ideal, because the longer Vim is running the higher the counts | |
1197 | 517 become. But in practice it is a noticeable improvement over not using the word |
625 | 518 count. |
519 | |
7 | 520 ============================================================================== |
521 4. Assumptions *design-assumptions* | |
522 | |
523 Size of variables: | |
524 char 8 bit signed | |
525 char_u 8 bit unsigned | |
625 | 526 int 32 or 64 bit signed (16 might be possible with limited features) |
527 unsigned 32 or 64 bit unsigned (16 as with ints) | |
7 | 528 long 32 or 64 bit signed, can hold a pointer |
529 | |
530 Note that some compilers cannot handle long lines or strings. The C89 | |
531 standard specifies a limit of 509 characters. | |
532 | |
533 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: |