Installing VIM

Download here:
Current VIM beta: VIM version 0.95

(1) Check that an up-to-date version of Python is installed. To do this, start up a terminal window and type python. You should see the version number, which must be 2.4 or greater. There will also be a python prompt like ">>>".

(2) Check that CherryPy 3.1 or newer is installed. At the python prompt, type
import cherrypy
from cherrypy.process import plugins
If all is correct, you will see just the python prompt each time ">>>". The first line checks for CherryPy itself, the second line checks for version 3.1 or newer. If these tests fail, go to http://www.cherrypy.org, and install the package according to instructions.

(3) Check that up-to-date Java is installed. To do this, type in a terminal window "java -version", and you should see a version number which is 1.5 or greater. If not, go to http://java.sun.com and follow the instructions.

(4) Download the Vim package that you can find at the link above. Unzip and untar. Change directory to the top level, where you find README.txt and the script that starts and stops Vim web service, it is called runVim.py.

(5) Edit the file runVim.py in the top-level directory. You will need to set

(6) Now start the Vim service. In a terminal window type:

  python runVim.py start

and leave this window open for messages.

(7) Point your browser to the URL for the installation. For a desktop install, this is http://localhost:8888

(8) To stop the service, type

  python runVim.py stop