is there a way to move vim windows in this way? - vim

I have four windows like this:
| | | |
| A | | |
|_________| C | D |
| B | | |
| | | |
So, how can I change them into this way?
| | |
| A | C |
|_________|______|
| B | D |
| | |
the
ctrl+W/J/K/L
thing is always moving the window to the far other side, I can't use them to do this.
Thanks!

what I can think of is two steps:
move cursor to C, press C-W c to close the window
move cursor to D, press :sp #<enter>
The idea is, close one window(buffer), and reopen it in right place (by sp or vs).
glad to know if there is easier way.

Related

Moving a split Vim window to the other half of the screen

Let's say we have 3 buffers (A, B, C) open in Vim arranged as follows
-----------------------------------------
| | |
| | |
| | |
| A | |
| | |
| | |
|------------------| B |
| | |
| | |
| C | |
| | |
| | |
-----------------------------------------
and we want to rearrange it as
-----------------------------------------
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | B |
| | |
| | |
| A |--------------------|
| | |
| | |
| | C |
| | |
| | |
-----------------------------------------
I know I can do this by closing C and reopening it after splitting B. Is there a simple way to do this where I don't have to close buffers and I can rearrange the windows directly?
You wouldn't "close" the buffer C, only the window that displays it.
Vim has dedicated normal mode commands for:
switching a window and the next one in a row or column,
rotating the whole window layout,
pushing a window to the far top, far right, far bottom, and far left,
but it doesn't have one for moving a window to an arbitrary point so, assuming the window you want to move has the focus, the command should look like this:
:q|winc w|sp c
which is not too shabby. You might be able to find a plugin that provides the level of control you are after on https://www.vim.org.

vim: "extend" window into next window

Let's say I have this layout in vim:
+-----+-----+-----+
| | | |
| a | | |
| | | |
+-----+ c | d |
| | | |
| b | | |
| | | |
+-----+-----+-----+
is it possible to end up with this layout:
+-----+-----+-----+
| | | |
| a | c | |
| | | |
+-----+-----+ d |
| | |
| b | |
| | |
+-----+-----+-----+
like an "extend right" command ?
PS. Don't tell me to use ctrl-w J on b then ctrl-w L on d, my layout is actually more complex then this. I'm really looking for an "extend right" command if it exists.
This is hard to implement as a feature since there can be a lot of edge case scenarios to consider, also why vim doesn't do this natively.
If you don't like the option of using ctrl-w J on b then ctrl-w L on d then the simplest approach would be to close the c split and then open a new vertical split on a and open the buffer / file within it that you desired.
This is brittle, but probably better than nothing!
function! ExtendRight()
let l:start=winnr()
exe "normal \<c-w>l"
let l:shrink=bufnr('%')
close
exe "normal " . l:start . "\<c-w>w"
exe "normal \<c-w>k"
vsplit
exe "b " . l:shrink
endfunction
You can map it with nnoremap <c-w>e :call ExtendRight()<CR>.

Vim: do not move window content when opening preview / quickfix

When splitting Vim window horizontally, contents of the "old" window are scrolled so as to preserve relative cursor line position. This happens even for small "helper" buffers, like quickfix or preview window.
The text movement caused by this becomes annoying when a split is repeatedly opened and closed - e.g. preview window used by completion plugin. Is it possible to disable this feature, and don't scroll old window when splitting (unless it's necessary to keep cursor line visible)?
Example - current behavior:
+--------------+ +--------------+
| a | | b |
| b | copen | c (cursor) |
| c (cursor) | --> | d |
| d | +--------------+
| e | | (preview) |
+--------------+ +--------------+
Desired behavior:
+--------------+ +--------------+
| a | | a |
| b | copen | b |
| c (cursor) | --> | c (cursor) |
| d | +--------------+
| e | | (preview) |
+--------------+ +--------------+
I reached this question when searching for a solution to this problem myself. I couldn't find a good solution and it really bugged me so I ended up writing a small vim plugin that will solve this.
https://github.com/gillyb/stable-windows
I think it does exactly what you want it to do. I only wrote it recently, so if there's any bugs feel free to open an issue and I will try to fix them.
Hope it helps! :)
Try something like
map <F12> mcHmh:split<cr>'hzt`c
store position in c mc
H move to top
store the position to h mh
your command here split for example
got to h 'h
put this to lien to top zt and got to c

Write a command to increase or decrease the number of vertical splits

I usually have my Vim screen split into two vertical windows, each of which may be further horizontally split. Sometimes, I want to add or delete a vertical window. Is there a way to detect how many top-level vertical splits there are and add or remove vsplits as necessary?
For example, suppose my screen looks like this:
+--------+--------+
| | |
| | |
+--------+ |
| | |
| | |
| +--------+
| | |
+--------+--------+
I want :Columns 1 to give me
+--------+
| |
| |
+--------+
| |
| |
| |
| |
+--------+
by closing the two right-most windows.
I want :Columns 2 to do nothing, detecting that two columns are already open.
And I want :Columns 3 to give me
+--------+--------+--------+
| | | |
| | | |
+--------+ | |
| | | |
| | | |
| +--------+ |
| | | |
+--------+--------+--------+
I am fine if the function ignores vertical splits within horizontal splits. For example, if I had
+--------+
| |
| |
+---+----+
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
+---+----+
and I ran :Columns 2, I would get
+--------+--------+
| | |
| | |
+---+----+ |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+---+----+--------+
There is indeed a way, but it is involved; the first step is to count the currently-open vertical windows, and I don’t know of any built-in function that facilitates this. The working approach I found to it is basically to start at the first window (the top of the first — if not the entirety of the first — vertical split), and to then, using wincmd l, move to the next window to the right for as long as wincmd l moves to a new window, adding each to a count of open vertical windows including the first one. (I think this is what Gary Fixler referred to in the comments on the question.)
I started trying to write the code for posting here, and it grew to become larger than any function I would want to put in my ~/.vimrc, so I ended up turning it into a plugin which takes the above approach and provides the :Columns command; see Columcille (on vim.org at http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=4742.) The plugin also provides a command for similarly managing horizontal split windows: :Rows divides the current column (or the main window, if there are no open vertical splits) into the specified number of “rows.”

How to move vertical split window to horizontal split, when there is an existing horizontal split?

In Vim I tend to open buffers in new vertical splits (with the occasional horizontal split). I keep my code to 80 chars wide, so this works pretty well on large monitors.
I often end up with this window arrangement:
---------------------
| | | | |
| | | | |
------ | A | B |
| | | | |
| | | | |
---------------------
At four or five columns wide, it can start getting a bit too narrow, so then I want to move the windows around so it looks like this:
----------------
| | | A |
| | | |
------ ------
| | | B |
| | | |
----------------
As far as I know, this is impossible to do by moving the windows in Vim.
The only way to get that window arrangement I've found, is to close window A, and then re-open A as a new horizontal split from window B.
Is that correct, or is there a way to move/re-arrange windows like that in Vim? Maybe a plugin?
I'm yet to find anything, so I thought I would ask because I find the opening/closing of windows anoying and breaks my flow.
FWIW, I find the Ctrl-W + J / Ctrl-W + K shortcuts useless, because they make the new horizontal split as wide as the whole screen, rather than splitting with the neighbouring window. I.e. Ctrl-W + J would give me this:
----------------
| | | |
| | | |
------ | A |
| | | |
| | | |
----------------
| |
| B |
----------------
Which is generally never what I want.
If anyone has some ideas, let me know!
There's a plugin that can do exactly what you want. Here's the link : https://github.com/fabi1cazenave/suckless.vim.

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