Updated to Vim 9.0.1897
Special Notes
As some of you may have read, Bram Moolenaar, the creator and maintainer of Vim, has passed away recently. He has worked tirelessly on Vim for more than 30 years and this release is dedicated to him. If you would like, you could pay your respects at this discussion thread.
The Vim project has transitioned to new maintainers, and MacVim will continue to be supported as long as Vim is around.
Features
More flexible Python integration
MacVim now allows you to use Python runtime (via pythonthreedll, used for Python plugins) of any version at or above 3.9. Previously you had to use the exact same version that was used to build MacVim (Python 3.11). The Python detection logic is also updated to always just find the latest version of Homebrew Python instead of a fixed one, and it will also now locate the default macOS / Xcode Python provided by the Xcode Command Line Tools if that is the only Python available. This should hopefully make configuring Python for MacVim a lot more seamless. See :h python3-stable-abi. Vim v9.0.1776 / #1428.
New Vim features
- New built-in support for EditorConfig via an optional package. Use
packadd editorconfig to activate it. See vim/vim#12902.
g<End> now goes to the first non-blank char. v9.0.1753- API changes
- Miscellaneous security fixes.
Security Fixes
- Fixed insecure usages of interprocess communication in MacVim (CVE-2023-41036)
Fixes
- Fixed MacVim to correctly set up the runtime folder in the app bundle. As a corollary,
xxd is now bundled with MacVim like most other Vim distributions, and MacVim.app now provides man page for the CLI vim commands if the user wants to associate man pages with the mvim comamnd (see :h macvim-PATH). #1430
- Fixed Vim occasionally crashing and/or hung when autocmd calls
serverlist() on exit. #1427
Known issues
:Man command doesn’t work properly if gdefault option is set. vim/vim#13097.
Scripting
- Scripting languages versions: Python now supports 3.9 or above.
Compatibility
Requires macOS 10.9 or above. (10.9 - 10.12 requires downloading a separate legacy build)
Script interfaces have compatibility with these versions:
- Lua 5.4
- Perl 5.30
- Python2 2.7
- Python3 3.9 or above
- Ruby 3.2
Updated to Vim 9.0.1276
This is the first release in 2023! It took a little longer than I hoped to push this out, but it contains a decent amount of new features and bug / crash fixes, MacVim is now split into a normal binary for macOS 10.13+ and a “legacy” binary for macOS 10.9-10.12. You can also opt-in to a pre-release update channel for getting beta software faster in the future.
Note: r175 had a bug where tabs could crash MacVim, and was skipped in favor of this release (r176), which contains the fix (#1361).
Features
Dictionary lookup
You can now use Force Touch or Cmd-Ctrl-D to look up definitions of word under the cursor (or selected text in visual mode). This will also preview URLs, and support data types such as phone numbers and addresses. #1312 #1313
This feature can also be invoked programmatically from VimScript (see :h macvim-lookup). #1315
You can now use SF Symbols for Tool bar and Touch Bar icons, including using different symbol styles such as “palette” or “multicolor”. Menu items can now also use the icon= syntax to specify icons as well. See :help macvim-toolbar-icon for details. #1329
The default tool bar also has updated icons to look similar to SF Symbols used by newer macOS versions. #1214 by @sfsam
Window management actions
There are new macaction’s for managing the MacVim window. The new zoomLeft/zoomRight actions allow you to pin the window to the left/right of the screen, and there are also new actions for interacting with Stage Manager (requires macOS 13+). See :h macvim-actions for details. #1330
Pre-release updates / Sparkle 2
MacVim now supports pre-release software builds. It’s sometimes hard for us to release frequent updates due to the desire to pick a stable upstream Vim version, needing to test the release on multiple OS versions, making sure there aren’t half-complete or buggy features, and other reasons.
This new feature now allows us to push pre-release beta builds out in a more frequent fashion, which could be useful if there are particular features or fixes that you would like to try out before the next official release. Pre-release builds will be released depending on bug fixes and features instead of a fixed cadence. Do note that these pre-release builds may not be as well-validated and may have half-baked features.
If you are using the built-in auto-updater to update MacVim, you can turn this on by going to Advanced settings pane, and enable “Enable pre-release software updates”.
This feature is only available for macOS 10.13 or above.
The auto-updater has also been updated from Sparkle 1.27.1 to 2.3.0 for 10.13+ builds. Legacy (10.9-10.12) builds are still using Sparkle 1.
See #1332.
New Vim features
New smoothscroll option allows you to scroll through a long wrapped line (using Ctrl-E or mouse wheel) without immediately jumping to the next line. (v9.0.0640)
splitscroll option has been renamed splitkeep, with more flexibility than before. (v9.0.0647)
Sound playback on macOS is now supported. You can use has('sound') to check. See help sound for details. (v9.0.0694)
Terminals now support :confirm for :q, etc, which also means MacVim’s Cmd-W will work properly for terminal windows. (v9.0.0710)
Virtual text had numerous bugs fixed.
General
Legacy build for 10.9 - 10.12
Per a previous announcement (#1271), the default MacVim binary will now require macOS 10.13 or above. Users of macOS 10.9 - 10.12 can use a separate “legacy” build which will still be supported. The legacy binary will still have the latest versions of Vim and be supported, but may not have all the latest features (e.g. pre-release builds).
If you are using the auto-updater (Sparkle) to update MacVim, it should “just work” and find the best version for you. If you are downloading MacVim from the website, there is also a link to download the legacy version marked for 10.9+ as well. If you download the normal binary marked for 10.13+ from the website, it won’t work on these older macOS versions.
See #1331.
Fixes
CoreText Renderer clipping and rendering bugs
Unicode characters with multiple composing characters (e.g. “x⃗”) will now render correctly. #1172
Texts (e.g. Tibetan, Zalgo texts) that are taller than the line height will no longer be clipped inappropriately. You can use a new setting MMRendererClipToRow to re-enable clipping if the tall texts are distracting. #995 / #1356
Tab crash
Fixed a crash when opening new tabs that seems to only occur in macOS 13 Ventura. #1333
Other bugs
- Fixed non-native full screen not working well with the notch on newer MacBook’s when set to not show menu bar. You can also use
MMNonNativeFullScreenSafeAreaBehavior to force MacVim to use the notch area as well if you don’t mind some content being obscured. Note that the previous release also claimed it fixed this, but because the binary was built against an old macOS SDK (Big Sur), the fix did not work in the binary release. #1261
- Allow “Open untitled window: never” and “After last window closes: Quit MacVim” to be set together again. Added safeguards to make sure doing so won’t immediately close the app. #1338
- Edit.Cut / Copy menu items will now be properly disabled when there isn’t selected text. #1308
- Fixed potential
:emenu crash when the menu is associated with an action in a non-valid mode. #1305
- Fixed bug where just bringing up the right-click (or the MacVim→Services) menu would somehow copy the selected texts to the system clipboard. #1300
- Fixed a Japanese input method bug where using left/right arrow to move to a different section of the input text would previously result in the candidate list not showing up at the correct position. #1312
- Fix non-CoreText renderer not handling text styles like strikethrough correctly (note: this renderer has been deprecated for a while and you should not use it). #1296
- This release uses an older sh/bash syntax file because the latest one in Vim has a bug. #1358
Misc
New settings:
- “No drop shadows” (Appearance). #1301
- “Treat Ctrl-click as right-click” (Input) (#1326). This was previously configurable via command-line, but now also possible in the settings pane under the new “Input” category.
“About MacVim” now reports the version number in a clearer way with clearly specified release number vs Vim version.
Known Issues
Printing
Printing using File→Print or :hardcopy is currently not working under macOS 13 Ventura due to its removal of PostScript support in the Preview app. This will be fixed in a later release. See the issue for workarounds. #1347
Scripting
- Scripting languages versions:
- Perl is now built against 5.30, up from 5.18.
- Ruby is now built against 3.2, up from 3.1.
Compatibility
Requires macOS 10.9 or above. (10.9 - 10.12 requires downloading a separate legacy build)
Script interfaces have compatibility with these versions:
- Lua 5.4
- Perl 5.30
- Python2 2.7
- Python3 3.10
- Ruby 3.2