Stay Away from Cream/Vim for Windows

Submitted by David Grant on Tue, 2007-07-24 13:39

I have had endless problems since I tried using Cream (a bunch of crap on top of gvim). Here are some of them:

  • Disconnect between buffers and tabs; all buffers are not always shown.
  • The tabbed windows feature seems to stop working randomly and collapse to one tab, when I open a new document in Cream/Vim
  • Copy and paste from another windows program into Cream does not work nicely. CTRL-V is supposed to work but that spits out a weird character instead. Selecting "paste" from the edit menu does work.
  • cream-user.vim does not want to load my python.vim file for some reason (this is not a case of me not having it in the right directory or anyting, vim opens it just fine. Cream says "cannot open python.vim")
  • Repeatedly decides to tell me that a swap file already exists for some file when it doesn't. This has nothing to do with which file it is. Seems to happen whenever I open more than 1 document in the same Cream/Vim window.
  • Default cream mode sucks, there is no hjkl navigation. So I have to switch to Cream Lite mode. And in order to stop it from warning me about Cream Lite mode every time I boot it tells me to edit a .vim file somewhere in Program Files\vim-cream\?
  • I have to put my settings in a cream-user.vim file in some folder under Documents and Settings?

No cream with my Vim thanks. All the above problems disappear if I use plain gvim.

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Comments

numerodix (not verified)

Wed, 2007-07-25 08:08

I do use vim and I have quite a few problems with it. But to me gvim is really quite bad in terms of a gui applications. It adds very little by bringing along a gui.

Perhaps I'll try cream and see if it's any better. And probably run into the same issues you did.

Brian (not verified)

Wed, 2007-07-25 11:39

CTRL+V inserts control characters by default in Vim. i.e. type CTRL+V CTRL+X in Insert mode and you'll insert a literal ^X (one character). Is that what it was doing? I know GVim in "Windows mode" overrides this to paste, but inserting control characters is the proper default. You could try Shift+Insert for paste. Or the Vim way, in normal mode type "+p.

I don't think I want any Cream either, but only because Vim is nice enough to begin with. :) Cream doesn't sound too appealing.

David Grant

Wed, 2007-07-25 14:22

Yeah gvim handles it properly out of the box and cream screws it up. No big deal, but IMHO cream should be a super set of vim and key features like cut/copy and paste should behave the same as vim out-of-the-box.

I'm not sure who Cream is trying to appeal to. I mean the hjkl navigation doesn't even work out of the box?

shagbark (not verified)

Sun, 2011-03-20 14:44

I agree - I just want to uninstall Cream and install gvim without losing my gvim settings.

mcmike (not verified)

Tue, 2015-02-17 13:34

Cream can be useful for people who have never used vi/vim before, and are used to Windows-type GUI editors. That's why it starts in insert mode. If you are trying to learn how to use a vi type editor, it can make the learning curve easier, but if you already know vim then it will just slow you down.

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