[vile] missing initial one-line help

[Paul Fox]

there's a problem with startup messages that i don't understand,
after a few minutes looking at the code.

when vile starts, it's supposed to show this message (main.c:945)
        msg = "[Use ^A-h, ^X-h, or :help to get help]";

i can't get that message to appear, which is too bad -- i think that's
a very important initial message.

in addition, if vile is run with '-h', and help is unavailable, i get
left in a buffer containing the single word 'help', with this as
status and message line:
    === [vileopts] [view-only] ===============================(1,1) 100% ==
    [Buffer '[vileopts]' is being displayed]

none of that is very "help"ful.  :-)

i think vile used to show something like:

    [Sorry, can't find the help information]

or maybe even:

    "[Problem with help information. Type \":quit\" to exit if you wish]";


tom -- do you know what's happening here?

[ i got into this because there's a discussion at work about how
useful very terse initial guidance can be, when using a new program.
i was going to use vile's welcoming instructions on how to get full
help as an example, and discovered that it no longer works! ]

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 43.9 degrees)