Fix util echo function: ensure l:msg is a list after split()

[Kaycell]

There was a bug on GoBuild with vim74. The variable l:msg in util echo function is a string even after calling split() that causes a crash on the map() call.
Issue #1483

[bhcleek]

@Kleww thank you for the contributation. #1483 was filed against an old version of Vim. What is the lowest version of Vim where you've seen l:msg be a string instead of list?

[Kaycell]

I have seen this bug on this vim version:

VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4
Included patches: 1-488, 576
Extra patches: 8.0.0322, 8.0.0056

I know it's a bit old but I'm stuck with it at work... I didn't encounter any problem on last vim version.
I am not an expert at all in vimL but currently:

function! s:echo(msg, hi)
 let l:msg = a:msg
    if type(l:msg) != type([])
    let l:msg = split(l:msg, "\n")
endif

If a:msg is a string l:msg will be a string then a list (which old vim version doesn't allow), isn't this could be error-prone ?

[arp242]

Thanks, seems to work well 👍

I would strongly recommend updating to a newer Vim version though. You should be able to just install it to ~/vim or some such, don't need root permissions (./configure --prefix=$HOME/vim). This is what I used to do when I was stuck on some ancient CentOS box years ago :-)