Vim7 on Ubuntu/Kubuntu

[Matthew Kuiken]

marc wrote:
> At what level? I can live without Linux and use Windows instead. So can 
> you. I can live without a computer. So can you. I can't live without 
> heat, food and water. And neither can you.
>
> Between those things, we both have a lot of choice.
>
> At a professional level, which may be outside your experience, decisions 
> have to be made, and when a criterion is vim7, then vim6 is not an 
> option. As I said, this may well be outside your experience.
>
> If the answer to the OP is that vim7 is not available on Ubuntu, then 
> that's fine; I'd just like to know. And, since I have a personal as well 
> as professional interest in the outcome, I'd like to know the likely 
> ETA.
>   

Marc,

Because of the time based release schedule that Paul pointed out on the 
Kubuntu list, 6.06 contains the version that it will contain for its 
lifetime now.  There is a repository called dapper-backports which will 
contain updated packages for 6.06.  Backports can be requested.  You can 
read about it here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BackportsHowto

Note the section on "How to request a package to be backported".  Vim7 
must not have been out in time for the 6.06 version freeze.  Seeing as 
vim7 is in the edgy repositories, it probably won't be too hard to 
backport to 6.06.  You won't really know that until you get a reply from 
a dev when you file the bug. 

An alternative to waiting for a backport would be to enable the edgy 
repository, install vim7, and disable it again to ensure that nothing 
else gets accidentally upgraded.  I would not recommend this unless you 
really know what you are doing.  It could majorly hose up your system.  
Even though I know enough to do something like this, I do not feel 
comfortable that I could fix the possible breakage with my skillz, and 
thus I would never try it myself.

Also note that it is highly recommended *not* to keep a system up to 
date against the backports repository.  This is because backports are 
updated versions of programs, and may cause problems that were 
unforeseen.  The backports repository is unsupported in the same way as 
the universe repository, but universe has at least had more testing and 
debug than backports.  If you wish to use this, I recommend looking at 
the pinning howto as well:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PinningHowto

Hope this helps,
-Matt