Quickfix & Preview window resizing - vim

Normally when quickfix window opens it changes the screen layout, but Vim restores
it when that window is closed.
But there is a situation where the layout restoration fails: when the
preview window is open, vertical splits are presents and :wincmd J is executed
in quickfix (or it is opened with :botright copen). In this case the size of
preview window is changed.
I came with a solution which I placed on ~/.vim/ftplugin/qf.vim,
" Only do this when not done yet for this buffer
if exists("b:did_ftplugin")
finish
endif
" expand quickfix when there are vertical splits
wincmd J
func! RestorePreviewWindow()
let l:quickfixHeight = winheight(0)
wincmd p " include previous window on jump list
silent! wincmd P " jump to preview window
if &previewwindow " if we really get there...
exe "resize " . (&previewheight - l:quickfixHeight - 1)
wincmd p " back to old window
endif
endfunc
augroup quickfixClosing
au!
au BufDelete <buffer> call RestorePreviewWindow()
augroup END
, but I was wondering if there is some better/simpler solutions to this
problem.

If you can reproduce the problem in plain vanilla Vim (vim -N -u NONE), I'd report it to the vim_dev mailing list to have it fixed inside Vim. The preview window should not change its size when other, normal windows could stand in for it.
If this is just a peculiarity of your setup, I think your implemented workaround is fine; I would probably solve it along the same lines.

I was with this problem and I've tried your proposed qf.vim but it didn't work. I found something that did, in the qf help page, =|, so put this in your .vimrc:
au FileType qf botright cwindow

I used your answer to improve the default auto resize behaviour of vim.
It's not really an answer to this question but hopefully other people might find it useful as I stumbled across this question for that reason:
nmap <silent> <C-w>= :call ResizeAllWindows()<cr>
function! ResizeAllWindows()
call RestorePreviewWindowHeight()
wincmd = "set all equal after restore
endfunction
function! RestorePreviewWindowHeight()
silent! wincmd P "jump to preview, but don't show error
if &previewwindow
exec "resize" &previewheight
wincmd p "jump back
endif
endfunction

Related

Quickfix Location List linter window stays open

I love the linters and the quickfix window, but on occasion I don't want to fix anything and simply want to exit the file. The current issue is that when I close the file, the quickfix window stays open. I know I can use :qa to exit both at the same time, but I often forget to.
I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to close the quickfix buffer if it was the only open window/buffer left, but had no luck.
Anyone else know how to handle this better?
That feature is part of my vim-qf plugin but you don't really need a full-fledged plugin for such a mundane task. Actually, there have been many snippets floating around the internet for many years. Here is one:
augroup MyGroup
autocmd!
if exists('##QuitPre')
autocmd QuitPre * if &filetype != 'qf' | silent! lclose | endif
endif
augroup END
Basically, it closes the current quickfix/location window if it is the last remaining window in the current tab page.
Reference:
:help :augroup
:help :autocmd
:help exists()
:help QuitPre
if version >= 700
" automatically close quickfix if it's the only window left
autocmd WinEnter * if winnr('$') == 1 && &buftype == "quickfix" | quit | endif
endif

In vim, how can I automatically maximize the help window

When I display a vim helpfile by running e.g. :h au, the help is displayed in a horizontal split window:
Currently I always run Ctrl+w _ but I would prefer the help buffer to open in a maximized window automatically.
I've tried to create an autocmd to solve the issue:
"Automatically maximize help buffers
augroup filetype_help
autocmd!
autocmd BufWinEnter,FileType help wincmd _
augroup END
which only works sporadically.
EDIT:
I have done some further debugging.
Opening a certain help page the first time, e.g. :h au displays it maxmimized when having above augroup in my .vimrc.
Closing the helpfiles window via :q and then reopening the same helpfile a second time causes the help file to be displayed in a split as in the screenshot above.
Closing the helpfiles buffer window via :bd and then reopening it, causes it to being displayed maximized as desired.
How can I rewrite my augroup so that it also maximizes an already opened help buffer?
The BufWinEnter event matches the help filename, so the help pattern (which is fine for a FileType match) won't work. The 'filetype' option is only set once for a buffer, so when it is reused (after :q, but not after :bd), your maximization fails, in the way you've reported.
Instead, have the :autocmd match all buffers, and check for the 'buftype':
augroup filetype_help
autocmd!
autocmd BufWinEnter * if &l:buftype ==# 'help' | wincmd _ | endif
augroup END
I assume you'd like the help window to be horizontally maximized.
Sorry, I can't reproduce your bug (tried on MacVim 7.4-258 and vim 7.4-258), but here are some suggestions:
Try changing wincmd _ to set winheight=9999 in your augroup script.
How about opening the help in a new tab with wincmd T instead?
I think you can achieve your goal of getting your help buffers to be maximized more simply by putting the following in your .vimrc (or wherever), instead of the augroup/autocmd:
:set helpheight=9999
|CTRL-W_o| CTRL-W o close all but current window (like |:only|)

Vim highlight a word with * without moving cursor

I would like to be able to highlight the word under cursor without going to the next result.
The solution I found uses a marker:
noremap * mP*N`P
Is there any better solution ?
I noticed vim is not really good to keep the position of its cursor after the execution of commands. For instance, when I switch buffer, the cursor go back to the begining of the line.
I might be interesting to have a global setting for this.
There's unfortunately no global setting for that.
One common solution to the "highlight without moving" problem is:
nnoremap * *``
One solution to the "keep the cursor position when switching buffers" problem is:
augroup CursorPosition
autocmd!
autocmd BufLeave * let b:winview = winsaveview()
autocmd BufEnter * if(exists('b:winview')) | call winrestview(b:winview) | endif
augroup END
As detailed here, you can define a map as follows:
:nnoremap <F8> :let #/='\<<C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR>\>'<CR>:set hls<CR>
My SearchHighlighting plugin changes the * command, so that it doesn't jump to the next match; you can still jump by supplying a [count]. It also extends that command to visual mode (another frequently requested feature not in Vim), and some more.

How do I change the background color of current buffer or pane in vim?

Imagine I'm coding, and I have different split panes open. What settings should I pass into vimrc to change the background color as I switch from one buffer/pane to another?
I have tried:
autocmd BufEnter * highlight Normal ctermbg=black
autocmd BufLeave * highlight Normal ctermbg=white
I would like to add that I am sure that I've got 256 colors enabled
Actually, there is a way to get this effect. See the answer by #blueyed to this related question: vim - dim inactive split panes. He provides the script below and when placed in my .vimrc it does dim the background of inactive windows. In effect, it makes their background the same colour specified for the colorcolumn (the vertical line indicating your desired text width).
" Dim inactive windows using 'colorcolumn' setting
" This tends to slow down redrawing, but is very useful.
" Based on https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_use/IJU-Vk-QLJE/xz4hjPjCRBUJ
" XXX: this will only work with lines containing text (i.e. not '~')
" from
if exists('+colorcolumn')
function! s:DimInactiveWindows()
for i in range(1, tabpagewinnr(tabpagenr(), '$'))
let l:range = ""
if i != winnr()
if &wrap
" HACK: when wrapping lines is enabled, we use the maximum number
" of columns getting highlighted. This might get calculated by
" looking for the longest visible line and using a multiple of
" winwidth().
let l:width=256 " max
else
let l:width=winwidth(i)
endif
let l:range = join(range(1, l:width), ',')
endif
call setwinvar(i, '&colorcolumn', l:range)
endfor
endfunction
augroup DimInactiveWindows
au!
au WinEnter * call s:DimInactiveWindows()
au WinEnter * set cursorline
au WinLeave * set nocursorline
augroup END
endif
You can't. The :highlight groups are global; i.e. when you have multiple window :splits, all window backgrounds will be colored by the same Normal highlight group.
The only differentiation between active and non-active windows is the (blinking) cursor and the differently highlighted status line (i.e. StatusLine vs. StatusLineNC). (You can add other differences, e.g. by only turning on 'cursorline' in the current buffer (see my CursorLineCurrentWindow plugin.))
One of the design goals of Vim is to work equally well in a primitive, low-color console as in the GUI GVIM. When you have only 16 colors available, a distinction by background color is likely to clash with the syntax highlighting. I guess that is the reason why Vim hasn't and will not have this functionality.
Basically what Kent said above will work -- surprisingly well at that. The only limitation is that you can only dim the foreground color. Copy this into vimrc, and evoke :call ToggleDimInactiveWin().
let opt_DimInactiveWin=0
hi Inactive ctermfg=235
fun! ToggleDimInactiveWin()
if g:opt_DimInactiveWin
autocmd! DimWindows
windo syntax clear Inactive
else
windo syntax region Inactive start='^' end='$'
syntax clear Inactive
augroup DimWindows
autocmd BufEnter * syntax clear Inactive
autocmd BufLeave * syntax region Inactive start='^' end='$'
augroup end
en
let g:opt_DimInactiveWin=!g:opt_DimInactiveWin
endfun
A few things I had to look up in writing this:
(1) windo conveniently executes a command across all windows
(2) augroup defines autocommand groups, which can be cleared with autocmd! group
For Neovim users, there is the winhighlight option. The help file provides the following example:
Example: show a different color for non-current windows:
set winhighlight=Normal:MyNormal,NormalNC:MyNormalNC
Personally, I use my statusline to let me know this. I use the WinEnter and WinLeave autocmds to switch to an inactive status line (grayed out) when leaving and an active statusline (bright colors) when entering. The split panes you mention are windows in vim. This also works because :help statusline tells us that its setting is global or local to a window, so you can use :setlocal statusline=... or let &l:statusline=... to only apply to the current window.
Your method won't work because a) BufEnter and BufLeave aren't necessarily the events that you want and b) highlight groups are global, so changing Normal's definition changes it for every window.

How to map keys in vim differently for different kinds of buffers

The problem i am facing is that i have mapped some keys and mouse events for seraching in vim while editing a file. But those mappings impact the functionality if the quickfix buffer.
I was wondering if it is possible to map keys depending on the buffer in which they are used.
EDIT - I am adding more info for this question
Let us consider a scenario. I want to map <C-F4> to close a buffer/window. Now this behavior could depend on a number of things.
If i am editing a buffer it should just close that buffer without changing the layout of the windows. I am using buffkil plugin for this.
It does not depend on extension of file but on the type of buffer. I saw in vim documentation that there are unlisted and listed buffer. So if it is listed buffer it should close using bufkill commands.
If it is not a listed buffer it should use <c-w>c command to close buffer and changing the window layout.
I am new at writing vim functions/scripts, can someone help me getting started on this
function KillBuffer()
if &buflisted
" bufkill command here
else
execute "normal! \<C-w>c"
endif
endfunction
noremap <C-F4> :call KillBuffer()<CR>
Put this in your .vimrc
Or, if you want to handle quickfix window as unlisted buffers (in my Vim it is listed):
function KillBuffer()
if &buflisted && !&filetype=="qf"
" bufkill command here
else
execute "normal! \<C-w>c"
endif
endfunction
noremap <C-F4> :call KillBuffer()<CR>
According to the manual, you could replace execute "normal! \<C-w>c" with simpler close! in the above scripts.
You can create filetype specific settings. First, in your vimrc file, make sure filetype plugins are enabled by adding
filet plugin on
Then make a filetype specific plugin. Under Unix create a file called ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/[file-type-name].vim and put your mapping in there. In Windows the directory is $HOME/vimfiles/after/ftplugin. The [file-type-name] is the type detected by Vim, sometimes the same as the filename extension, e.g c.vim, python.vim, etc. Vim can tell you what the type is after you open the file if you enter
:echo &ft
You can intercept certain types of files loading and assign buffer specific mappings.
au! BufRead *.ext call <SID>init_hotkeys()
function s:init_hotkeys()
nnoremap <buffer> <CR> :Action<CR>
endfunction
To map complex logic on the hotkey you can use write something like this in your vimrc, or even better - put the following to the closebuffer.vim file inside your vim plugin directory
function s:close_buffer()
if &buflisted
" your command here from the killbuf plugin
echo "Listed Buffer"
else
wincmd c
" or
" normal <c-w>c
endif
endfunction
nnoremap <C-F4> :call <SID>close_buffer()<CR>
I use this in my vimrc to insert an empty line above or below the current line using only return and shift-return (as opposed to o<Esc> or O<Esc>) without interfering with the open file behaviour you want in the quickfix list.
" Use enter to insert newlines in normal mode, but not in quickfix
function! s:insert_line(direction)
if &buftype == "quickfix"
execute "normal! \<Enter>"
else
if a:direction == 'below'
execute "normal! o\<Esc>"
else
execute "normal! O\<Esc>"
endif
endif
endfunction
nmap <Enter> :call <SID>insert_line('below')<CR>
nmap <S-Enter> :call <SID>insert_line('above')<CR>
Hopefully someone else will find this useful.

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