diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim_configurable.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim_configurable.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cee263ddb02f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim_configurable.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+rgs:
+let edf = args.lib.enableDisableFeature; in
+( args.mkDerivationByConfiguration {
+    # most interpreters aren't tested yet.. (see python for example how to do it)
+    flagConfig = { 
+      mandatory = { cfgOption = "--enable-gui=auto --with-features=${args.features}"; 
+                    buildInputs = ["ncurses" "pkgconfig"];
+                  };
+# x11 = { buildInputs = "x11"; };
+      # using this flag does result in cannot find libXmu..
+      X11 = { buildInputs = [ "x11" "libX11" "libXext" "libSM" "libXpm" "libXt" "libXaw" "libXau" "libXmu" ]; };
+
+    } // edf "darwin" "darwin" { } #Disable Darwin (Mac OS X) support.
+      // edf "xsmp" "xsmp" { } #Disable XSMP session management
+      // edf "xsmp_interact" "xsmp_interact" {  } #Disable XSMP interaction
+      // edf "mzscheme" "mzschemeinterp" { } #Include MzScheme interpreter.
+      // edf "perl" "perlinterp" { } #Include Perl interpreter.
+      // edf "python" "pythoninterp" { pass = "python"; } #Include Python interpreter.
+      // edf "tcl" "tclinterp" { } #Include Tcl interpreter.
+      // edf "ruby" "rubyinterp" { } #Include Ruby interpreter.
+      // edf "cscope" "cscope" { } #Include cscope interface.
+      // edf "workshop" "workshop" { } #Include Sun Visual Workshop support.
+      // edf "netbeans" "netbeans" { } #Disable NetBeans integration support.
+      // edf "sniff" "sniff" { } #Include Sniff interface.
+      // edf "multibyte" "multibyte" { } #Include multibyte editing support.
+      // edf "hangulinput" "hangulinput" { } #Include Hangul input support.
+      // edf "xim" "xim" { pass = "xim"; } #Include XIM input support.
+      // edf "fontset" "fontset" { } #Include X fontset output support.
+
+  #--enable-gui=OPTS     X11 GUI default=auto OPTS=auto/no/gtk/gtk2/gnome/gnome2/motif/athena/neXtaw/photon/carbon
+    /*
+      // edf "gtk_check" "gtk_check" { } #If auto-select GUI, check for GTK default=yes
+      // edf "gtk2_check" "gtk2_check" { } #If GTK GUI, check for GTK+ 2 default=yes
+      // edf "gnome_check" "gnome_check" { } #If GTK GUI, check for GNOME default=no
+      // edf "motif_check" "motif_check" { } #If auto-select GUI, check for Motif default=yes
+      // edf "athena_check" "athena_check" { } #If auto-select GUI, check for Athena default=yes
+      // edf "nextaw_check" "nextaw_check" { } #If auto-select GUI, check for neXtaw default=yes
+      // edf "carbon_check" "carbon_check" { } #If auto-select GUI, check for Carbon default=yes
+      // edf "gtktest" "gtktest" { } #Do not try to compile and run a test GTK program
+    */
+      // edf "acl" "acl" { } #Don't check for ACL support.
+      // edf "gpm" "gpm" { } #Don't use gpm (Linux mouse daemon).
+      // edf "nls" "nls" { } #Don't support NLS (gettext()).
+    ; 
+
+  optionals = ["python"];
+
+  extraAttrs = co : {
+    name = "vim_configurable-7.1.0";
+
+
+    #configurePhase = "
+      #set | grep python | grep flag
+      #fail
+    #";
+    src = args.fetchurl {
+      url = ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/editors/vim/unix/vim-7.1.tar.bz2;
+      sha256 = "0w6gy49gdbw7hby5rjkjpa7cdvc0z5iajsm4j1h8108rvfam22kz";
+    };
+
+    meta = {
+      description = "The most popular clone of the VI editor";
+      homepage = "www.vim.org";
+    };
+};
+} ) args
diff --git a/pkgs/lib/default-unstable.nix b/pkgs/lib/default-unstable.nix
index b609c65a04b9..5653508dca9a 100644
--- a/pkgs/lib/default-unstable.nix
+++ b/pkgs/lib/default-unstable.nix
@@ -309,6 +309,9 @@ rec {
         collectAttrs = attr : catAttrs attr flatOptions;
         optsConcatStrs = delimiter : attrs : concatStrings 
                 ( intersperse delimiter (flatten ( collectAttrs attrs ) ) );
+
+        ifStringGetArg = x : if (__isAttrs x) then x # ( TODO implement __isString ?)
+                             else avs x (__getAttr x args);
           
     in assert ( all id ( mapRecordFlatten ( attr : r : if ( all id ( flatten (getAttr ["assertion"] [] r ) ) ) 
                                               then true else throw "assertion failed flag ${attr}" )
@@ -322,13 +325,15 @@ rec {
 
           buildInputs = map ( attr: if (! hasAttr attr args) then throw "argument ${attr} is missing!" else (builtins.getAttr attr args) )
                         (flatten  (catAttrs "buildInputs" flatOptions));
+          propagatedBuildInputs = map ( attr: if (! hasAttr attr args) then throw "argument ${attr} is missing!" else (builtins.getAttr attr args) )
+                        (flatten  (catAttrs "propagatedBuildInputs" flatOptions));
 
           configureFlags = optsConcatStrs " " "cfgOption";
 
           #flags = listToAttrs (map ( flag: av flag (hasAttr flag options) ) (attrNames flagConfig) );
           flags_prefixed = listToAttrs (map ( flag: av ("flag_set_"+flag) (hasAttr flag options) ) (attrNames flagConfig) );
 
-          pass = mergeAttrs (flatten (collectAttrs "pass") );
+          pass = mergeAttrs ( map ifStringGetArg ( flatten (collectAttrs "pass") ) );
       } #  now add additional phase actions (see examples)
       // listToAttrs ( map ( x : av x (optsConcatStrs "\n" x) ) collectExtraPhaseActions ) );
 }
@@ -362,7 +367,8 @@ rec {
   # features:
   # * configure options are passed automatically
   # * buildInputs are collected (they are special, see the setup script)
-  # * they can be passed by additional name as well using pass =
+  # * they can be passed by additional name as well using pass = { inherit (args) python } 
+  #                                       ( or short (value not attrs) : pass = "python" )
   # * an attribute named the same way as the flag is added indicating 
   #   true/ false (flag has been set/ not set)
   # * extra phase dependend commands can be added
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index da7982975d0a..14d06b7f4ff8 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -4443,6 +4443,24 @@ rec {
     flags = ["hugeFeatures" "gtkGUI" "x11Support"];
   };
 
+  # gvim: error while loading shared libraries: libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
+  # What's causing this?
+  vim_configurable = import ../applications/editors/vim_configurable.nix {
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv ncurses pkgconfig mkDerivationByConfiguration;
+    inherit (xlibs) libX11 libXext libSM libXpm
+        libXt libXaw libXau libXmu;
+    inherit (gtkLibs) glib gtk;
+    lib = lib_unstable;
+    features = "huge"; # one of  tiny, small, normal, big or huge
+    # optional features by passing
+    # python 
+    # TODO mzschemeinterp perlinterp
+    inherit python /*x11*/;
+
+    # optional features by flags
+    flags = [ "X11" ]; # only flag "X11" by now
+  };
+
   vlc = import ../applications/video/vlc {
     inherit fetchurl stdenv perl x11 wxGTK
             zlib mpeg2dec a52dec libmad ffmpeg