I typically use an ide for large projects and vi for small single file scripts temporary files etc.
Lately I have heard of people using vi for larger projects too - actually, quite defensive and particular proud to do so.
I have tried, but i found it very cumbersome. Do any other programmers here use vi for and medium - large projects? If so, are there any tips/tricks you can offer for navigating source, looking at multiple files etc?
I have tried using tmux to see if it made things easier - but it still felt quite cumbersome
There is no magical tool that can make everything perfect. Vim is an editor, and it's pretty good at it, but it's not and will never be an IDE.
There used to be the pida project that made an IDE around vim, for better interaction when using python, but it got abandonned.
There is eclim which is a really neat tool that can use eclipse as a backend IDE accessible in a few keystrokes from within vim, while having all the power of eclipse for tagging, refactoring, debugging etc.. But you have to want running eclipse in background, which is like hiding an elephant under the carpet...
There are many little plugins you may want to use, and I'm pretty sure everyone has his favorite set of plugins, that helps navigate easily in the code and help tagging (like fugitive, nerdtree, etc..)
Finally, there is vim, a shell and that's all. Vim does a lot of things correctly, like navigating in the source, launching compilations and parsing the errors etc.. And for what vim is not good at, you can use your shell, to execute, to do git stuff, to open more vim windows to edit code..
Anyway, there's no perfect answer to your question, and I bet your question will be closed because of being "non constructive".
What do you find cumbersome? What works for you? What doesn't? What kind of feature do you need to be able to work efficiently with multiple files? How many are multiple files anyway?
Some people use Vim for working on quite large projects: the Linux kernel, Firefox, Vim itself… I guess that you need to know Vim pretty well to pull that off but it's all very doable, even without many plugins.
But I tend to think "complexity" rather than "quantity".
When I work with "complex" languages+projects (quotes because it is all very subjective) I'll use a more suited IDE with a Vim-emulation plugin: Flash Builder+Vrapper for Actionscript 3, Eclipse+Vrapper (then) Android Studio+IdeaVim (now) for Android.
When I work with "simple" (quotes, again) languages+projects I'll use Vim: that's any project involving HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP, from 3 to 50+ files.
File/buffer navigation
Vim is very good at opening files (which sounds funny), even without plugins. :sp **/foo<Tab>, for example, is quick and easy. :Ex foo/bar as well.
Switching buffers is also very easy, if a bit awkward at first. :bn, :bN and :b <Tab> will get you a long way.
And if you don't like those built-in methods, you can create your own cool mappings or choose from many plugins.
"Semantic" navigation
I like to think about my project in class/method names rather than in file names. With an up-to-date tags file (generated with ctags or some compatible program), :tag foo is a very efficient way to move around, <C-]> jumps to the definition of the tag under the cursor and <C-w>} opens that definition in a small preview window. That's more than enough for my needs.
I don't particularly like them but you can also use TagBar or TagList to have something that resembles the class browser of your IDE.
I'd suggest you make your needs more clear and ask more specific questions or look around on SO. The subjects above are pretty well covered.
Just a few pointers: I like NERDTree and CtrlP for easy/powerful file navigation and splits for keeping several files visable and navigatable at the same time.
Related
I am looking for recommendations on using VIM as an IDE. I generally code in a number of programming languages, including C, C++, assembler, MATLAB, Maple, BASH scripts, to name a few.
In general, I like to use a single IDE for the bulk of my projects for the sake of consistency, and I have found that I perform about 90% of all my coding in VIM, and occasionally use Eclipse instead for certain projects in C/C++ (ie: projects people have already put together as an Eclipse project, or PIC24/32 projects from www.microchip.com).
I am already very familiar with the basic functionality of VIM (windows vs buffers, text manipulation, scripting), and would like to use it as my primary IDE. I have already taken a few tips from here:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Use_Vim_like_an_IDE#Writing_Code
I already use the nerdTree plugin for directory browsing in a project, etc, but I need to do something about code completion and symbol resolution, as those are my two greatest concerns.
Symbol resolution
I have some limited experience in the use of C-tags, and wanted a suggestion on what I should use if I am working with a VERY large code-base that changes frequently. The projects I work on typically are pulling in header files from at least a dozen other projects, and I would like to be able to jump to the file where a function, constant, or macro is defined quickly (ie: like the CTRL-G feature in Eclipse, "jump to definition"), as well as rapidly get a list of all calls/references to a function/macro/constant/etc (ie: like the CTRL-SHIFT-G feature in Eclipse, "Show all references in project or current working directory").
Tab completion
One of the features I really like in Visual Studio and Eclipse, for example, is when I type in a variable name (ie: pointer to struct) and it resolves the names and types of all structure members and gives me a tab completion list to choose the appropriate member. They also point out when I've incorrectly used "." vs "->" for member access. I've tried superTab in VIM, but I just couldn't get it working. I also want the tab-completion feature to use the same C-tags as generated by the symbol resolution plugin
Handling build output
The final concern of mine is having an auto-generated list of build warnings and build errors. When I, for example, just run "make all" at the command-line prompt, it is a pain to have to read through code listings to manually find all build warnings.
I realize this is a lot to ask, and that I could always just fall-back to Visual Studio or Eclipse, but I really want just a simple cross-platform console-capable modal editor for all my development needs, and none of the major IDE's out there fill this need.
Thank you all in advance.
http://eclim.org/ - bring Eclipse functionality to the Vim editor
https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic - syntax checker warnings in quickfix list
I think (but haven't checked) that Eclim satisfies #1 and #2 while I'm sure that Syntastic satisfies #3. More things of interest:
https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline - just nice
https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim - quick file finder
https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen - plugin manager (to install the others)
And are you aware of omnicompletion via Ctrl-p and Ctrl-n (prev and next) in insert mode? That's not code completion, but frequently does the job.
For the auto-completion part (point 2), I am proficiently using clang_complete.
For a quick setup and reference, try this page: http://zwiener.org/vimautocomplete.html
EDIT: this is for C, C++ and Objective-C only.
I use the following configuration in vim:
zipped file
It has autocomplete based on tag list, ctags, nerd commenter and some more plugins.
Hope it helps.. :)
I have been using Vim as an IDE for about a year now. All of my customization is online at github.
That said, I don't think a Vim beginner should start using vim like this; rather I think the Vim beginner should learn vim incrementally. The only changes that I think are so essential I would make them from the very beginning are:
Remap ESC to jk
Switch : and ;
Set leader key to ,
This question has been asked few times here and there, but you see all of them seem to have a linux desktop, i don't want a notepad++ alternative for a linux desktop, I want a notepad++ alternative for centos server, and I want it to be like nano not like vi, I don't know vi, so i'm looking for an editor that let me open a file on vps, choose a programming language, and it should correct my coding mistakes, this way I would not waste my time uploading files from windows to the vps, it should be easy to use and small, I don't want to waste my vps resources on an editor
Does such an editor exist?
Edit
#romainl
my vps is from 2host.com, I have centos 5 64 bit VPS E-CLASS, go to there for more info, that's all the info I know.
It's my production vps true, but i asked because i have another vps from chvps.com, the cheapest plan, i have mysite.com and mysite.net, I bought mysite.net, so no one can steal it, so i redirect users from mysite.net to mysite.com, I'm creating a new script for my site so chvps host mysite.net where i do some testing for the new version, like a staging server.
moreover i play with django on alwaysdata.com so I would like to get an editor.
I have seen many people saying that they love vim/vi, i will learn to use vim if you can tell me why vim is more powerful? aren't they all just editors?
To answer your question directly, here are a few CLI editors:
ne
joe
midnight commander's editor
As far as I know they won't show syntax errors as you type or even on save, you won't get any (semi)auto-completion either. All in all these are more powerful than nano but less powerful than NP++ (which I'm not familiar with) and a fortiori vim or emacs.
Anyway, a stock vim, even built with "huge" feature-set won't check the syntax of your PHP files as you type or on save, you'll need a bunch of plugins for that.
I don't know about emacs, but vim can be used in "easy" mode like this: vim -y yourfile.php.
Vim is one of the two best editors out there, learning its basics is not that hard. You probably don't have much time to spend on it right now but, once you do, try it. It rocks.
Can you tell us a bit more about your workflow (server layout, use of a VCS…)? At a glance it looks like you are editing files directly on a production server which is not really recommended.
<EDIT>
About Vim and all the others being just editors.
Yes they all have the same set of basic features: ability to input text, cut, paste, move the cursor… but even these basic features can be implemented in many manners. You say that you want NP++ features in a CLI editor, we can assume that you have tried other editors and ultimately decided to go with it because it worked better for you than the others.
All the CLI editors are different, like their GUI counterparts they shine in one place and lack in another. Because you are a programmer you "need" some advanced features and any editor not having a full fledged search/replace system supporting regex, some sort of auto-completion, macros, ability to build and show errors and so on.
Vim and Emacs both offer these fatures and sooo much more either natively or via plugins. As far as I know they are the only CLI editors really suited for programming so, to be able to work directly on your VPS, and be productive, you don't really have much choice: it's either one or the other.
The first problems you may be facing is the abruptness of the learning path and the weirdness of their "models" but most vim/emacs users will tell you that once its internalized it's hard to come back.
Why Vim (or emacs)?
I don't have a specific selling pitch to serve you. I was an advanced TextMate user, for me it was the best editor and it fitted all my needs but I was a little bored.
Then I stumbled on a Python screencast where everything looked magical to me and I found other screencasts by Dereck Wyatt and others and I was hooked: the way they moved through their code, the way they search/replaced, the omni-completion, the crazy plugins (surround rocks), the freaking motions and text-objects…
I took advantage of a slow week to learn the basics and make/revert a lot of mistakes and now I look at TextMate the same way you'd look at Notepad (not ++).
Here are a bunch of additional vim links for you:
One of the greatest answers here on SO
Coming home to Vim
Vi for smarties
The Physics of VIM
Vim Introduction and Tutorial
Ask HN: Suggestions for mastering vim?
Use Vim Like A Pro
Power Vim Usage
Why, oh WHY, do those #?#! nutheads use vi?
How I boosted my Vim
Ho, I just remembered another CLI editor: diakonos.
</EDIT>
If you asked allready a few times maybe the application you're looking for doesn't exists yet. I have to do the same things like you (edit files on the server, config and scripts) and I do it with jEdit with the langauge specific plugins plus FTP plugin. At least you could give it a try.
I've been using Vim for a while now and love it, but one thing I've noticed when I use other editors is that I've never really got autocomplete working with much efficiency. I have supertab & snipmate working, I have tags for whatever language I'm using set up, but somehow it seems a little too cumbersome to use all that much, and apart from long method names I typically just avoid autocomplete.
Does anyone have fast, comprehensive autocomplete funcitonality set up in vim? Specifically:
At the moment, I hit "tab" to autocomplete class/method/variable names & generate snippets, but Ctrl+X+O for inbuilt langauge commands. I'd rather press tab for everything.
The ordering doesn't seem to be too intelligent. Very common stuff is often hidden in the middle of a bunch of rarely-used commands.
I've set up autocomplpop to show potential autocompletes as I'm typing, but I have to hit tab twice to accept the first entry. One much rather single-tab it.
So, any tips on setting up an efficient, comprehensive autocomplete configuration in vim? I know this question is a little vague - but if anyone has an overview of how they autocomplete well, and/or a link to a guide, it would be much appreciated.
Just thought I'd come back and mention that I finally found something I like: A customised version of NeoComplCache. Nice auto popup, everything integrated pleasantly into 'tab', and with a bit of customisation plays nice with snippets.
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2620
This is very dependant on your working domain. Vim is a text editor with the ability to interface with intelligent text-aware mechanisms.
If you are using java there is eclim, which is the eclipse backend together with a vim plugin for the frontend.
For C or C++ there is the plugin OmniCppComplete
It works by scanning the headers in the paths you have set up in vim (see :h path), and works very well imo.
If you have to press Ctrl-X_Ctrl-O for omnicompleteion, then your supertab config seems a bit broken. It should try omni or filename completion first, and then fall back to word completion.
YouCompleteMe plugin by Valloric is a very decent plugins for autocomplete and suggestion.
It contains support for all the major languages and you can extend the feature with setting up different engine .
it also comes with syntax checker so u don't have to use Syntastic separately
For setup details visit this link
https://github.com/Valloric/YouCompleteMe
Any advice on how you would interface texshop on mac osx with vim? I'm using vim quite a lot lately for coding. I find myself now trying to use vim-commands (replace, search, pattern matching, move, etc) when writing documents for latex with texshop and they obviously don't work. However, I don't want to leave texshop altogether, because it has some pretty nice tools I use very often (maybe the most important one is the ability to click the compliled .pdf file while pressing the CMD key on my macbook to jump immediately to the corresponding place in the .tex file).
Thanks in advance!
Can't really help with the question but if you want to use vim I would highly recommend vim-latex suite. It has a lot of mappings and other latex goodness including completion of references/citations (it loads them from the bib file and gives prompts based on what you've already typed). Also it supports pdfsync forward/backward searching - I use that with Skim. There is some information here on how to get that working (and see other posts on that blog).
Are there any other texshop features you would like to reproduce in Vim?
I have spent lot of time doing research on VIM. I am Windows guy since last 6 yrs and was using VS.
Now started working on Linux. I want to make VIM as close as possible to VS.
I want features like
Project Navigation
Files in Different Tabs
Search in Project
AutoCompletion
I have found plugins for the above requirements
Project Pligin
MiniExplore
Taglist
OmniComplete
I am not able to correctly set vimrc script.
When I try to open file from Project it gets open in different tabs.I want to get it open in different buffers.
Also when I want to close file in buffer , complete window gets closed.
Open taglist and project window makes all mess.
Has any one done settings with these plugin..
Could you guys please post your vimrc files??
It will save lot of time for newbies like me..
Vim is a very different tool than Visual Studio. Plugins may help you get certain bits of functionality you desire, but do not expect them to work exactly like VS, work well together, or even work at all.
If you are looking for a programming environment more like Visual Studio, there are many good graphical IDE's you can use such as NetBeans, Eclipse, Code::Blocks, KDevelop, Anjuta, etc. Some of these tools are, IMHO, better heavyweight IDE's than Visual Studio, and all are available on Linux for free.
You should either learn to use Vim the way it was built to be used, or find a different tool that suits you better. Shoehorning Vim into a surrogate for Visual Studio will probably cause you more pain than it's worth.
Yes it's different to VS, but that doesn't mean it can't be used in the same way. It's just not as easy to do it :)
Personally I go the other way and use ViEmu to get VS to behave like VIM. But I'm not in the same situation as the author of this question.
Why not have a dig through some uploaded vimrc files on dotfiles.org?
You can use the following script, Trinity.
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2347
It will require 3 more scripts, and Vim will look like an IDE.
The TagList at left, a file exporer (NERDTree) at right, and Source Explorer at bottom.
Also, you can find some very useful blog entries at
http://kevin-berridge.blogspot.com/search/label/vim
The author, Kevin, explains how to compile solutions form inside Vim. He also shows interfacing and jumping between them which is very useful too.
Furhermore, there is the script vim-visual-studio which can be found at
http://code.google.com/p/vim-visual-studio/
This script is using Python extension. I have Python 2.5 installed in Windows. I am using Gvim 7.2 which is compiled with Python 2.4. So, I have replaced the executables of Gvim as explained here:
http://www.gooli.org/blog/gvim-72-with-python-2526-support-windows-binaries/
So, Gvim became compatible with Python 2.5 and raised no problems. Also, a menu entry "Visual Studio" has appeared as expected. It connects to Visual Studio itself, and it works perfectly. It does not just compiles a file, it can compile a solution containing more than one project as in Visual Studio. You can even use the Vim's 'quickfix' feature. Hope this helps.
If you really want to have vim as the front end, try Eclim. It uses Eclipse as a backend daemon for code completion and project management, and vim as the interface.
If you only like vim because of the vi key bindings, but want it to be more IDE like, you could try the latest MonoDevelop that has it built in.
These plugins used to exist long before vim had tabs. I'd be quite surprised there isn't a way to tune these plugins to split windows instead of opening tabs.
Now I can't help you much as I don't use these specific plugins but other ones. You should look at their help (:h project, :h taglist, etc)
PS: in vim terminology (it will help you browse the help files), what you call "buffer" is actually called "window", while a "buffer" is just the text you are working on, it may be associated to a file, or not. For a given buffer, there may be no or several window displaying parts of the buffer.
you can give a try to eXvim
http://code.google.com/p/exvim/