Is there a way I can configure vim to remember buffers based on their tab?
I am currently working on two projects, and I have each project in its own tab, with its own local directory. To navigate through files I'm using FuzzyFinder.
The problem is that when I want to search through buffers, I get all the buffers from both projects.
Can I limit it to show only buffers from the current tab?
It may very well be that I am using a wrong approach here. If this is the case, what would be a better one?
Vim's tabs are not like most other editors tabs: they don't represent specific files or groups of files. They are just "views" allowing you to arrange buffers visually.
Vim's buffers are global and AFAIK there is no native way to bind them to specific tabs but I saw a "per-tab" fork of NERDTreee on Github the other day so it might be possible with some effort.
I use tabs only for quick edits and have usually one or two dozens buffers open. Most of them are hidden (:help hidden) and I rarely have more than 3 splits (only one file visible, most of the time). Buffer switching and file opening are done with LustyExplorer.
If I must work on two project I use two instances of GVim or two separate "GUI" windows in MacVim.
So yes, your approach is wrong (mine is most probably not perfect, either) but the culprit is the person or commity which decided to call Vim's tabs "tabs".
As a side note I find the "Rolodex Vim" idea quite enjoyable, there are two implementations on this page.
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Having multiple tabs in vim I've noticed that when I create a new buffer, this buffer stays inside the tab where I create it. Not being an expert at vim I expected the new buffer to behave like a new chrome window where I could put more tabs in. Is there a way to have a workspace like this in vim where when I switch buffers vim would show me a new set of tabs?
Thanks in advance!
That isn't how buffers work. Buffers are containers that hold and facilitate interaction with text. To use your Chrome analogy, this is like asking: how can I open new windows in my browser tabs? which of course you can't, beacuse that is not the interface is designed to work.
As I mentioned in the comments: tabs are containers for windows. Windows display buffers. Buffers hold text.
If a higher level of hierarchical abstraction is needed on top of tabs/windows, the best bet1 is probably to just open a new terminal window and start a separate instance of vim. That is even what is suggested here. I personally never use tabs, it's too clunky and I find it easier to flip between terminal sessions, which is second nature since I do that all the time anyway. The mechanics of vim tabs don't have that kind of "portability".
1: actually, the best bet is to close some of the unnecessary documents. If you're at the point where tabs and windows just aren't enough, adding more complexity isn't going to make you more efficient.
Is it possible to have a new instance on vim in every tab?
Because I want to have seperate buffers in each tab.
So I could run one tab for the controllers I'm editing, one for all my views etc.
As seen in comments I don't see why you should have different instances of vim, anyway you could try GNU screen or tmux to launch different vim sessions and switch beetween them.
No, the tabs are already inside Vim and you obviously can't run Vim inside itself.
The only way for you to really have separate instances in MacVim is to use two different GUI windows.
It sounds like you are having troubles keeping track of your buffers, don't you?
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I always work on multiple projects at the same time. The breakdown of the number of files I have is as follows
Project | Files
--------------------------
Thesis 20
Simulator 50
Plots 30
Graphs 30
Website 500+
Having all of these files in one window is cumbersome. There are several options, and I will discuss their drawbracks, or dare I say their Achilles Heel.
Split Windows I could split vim into 5 windows, one for each project, but I might as well be coding through a pinhole. I have actually never been a fan of split windows, except for cases where you are constantly comparing and editing two related files. Also I don't find navigating in two dimensions as seamless as in the horizontal direction only.
Tabs Tabs, or rather viewports foolishly called tabs, seem to be exactly for this kind of problem, but they don't provide restrictions for buffers to use. For example, if I'm in my Thesis tab, I want to navigate only those 20 buffers, not all 500+ website related buffers as well. As I am saving these as sessions, it could potentially lead to problems if I accidentally switch to a website buffer in my Thesis tab, exit, then upon entering I have two website tabs. This is further problematic because I have set local directories (:lcd) for each tab.
Terminal Tabs Using the Terminal tabs ensures that that buffers in each tab remain independent. However, each vim session can no longer share information. I can't yank text from one terminal to the other (I suppose I could yank into the + register). I also can no longer use :buffdo on all the buffers. Also, I like the fact that I can save all of my vim tabs to a single session.
I know SO is anathema to public discussion, so I will instead ask if there exists a way to achieve the functionality I am striving for.
EDIT A good way to summarize what I need is to say that I want "sub buffers".
EDIT What I want to get out of the tabs in vim is the ability to more effectively use them as what they really are: viewports. I want to be able to have one tab exclusively for my Thesis section. In this section I will change the local directory to reflect it. Furthermore, I want to filter out the buffers in that table to only be a subset of all the buffers. Similarly in the Simulator tab I want to use it exclusively for my Simulator files.
Essentially what I want is the ability, through tabs, to run multiple independent sessions of vim, but still with some of the added perks (ie. sharing registers to be able to yank)
I found out a way to do this. The vim tabs are near useless. Instead I used the Gnome Terminal Tabs.
global registers To simulate using global registers, so as to be able to copy paste across different instances of vim, 'pipe' the system clipboard and the unnamed register together by adding the line set clipboard=unnamedplus to your .vimrc file. This has the effect of all yank/delete... operations being copied to the system clipboard. From there, other instances of vim will have access to it. Similarly, any copy pasting you do outside of vim, will now be stored in the unnamed register.
Gnome Terminal Tab Shortcuts The default shortcuts for going to the next and previous tabs are Ctrl Pg Up and Ctrl Pg Dn. Since I use Shift k and Shift j for my next and previous buffers, I mapped Ctrl k and Ctrl j to go to my next and previous tabs. Simply go to the Gnome Terminal > Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts
Gnome Terminal Tabs Write a shell script to launch each vim instance as a new terminal tab. See here for instructions
Vim Instances Finally, for each vim instance save a session file :mksession fileName
It's not perfect (for example, named registers can not be copied across terminals) but it is, in my opinion, much more representative of what a viewport (here called 'tabs') should do.
EDIT I have actually gone back to using vim tabs. I learned vim script, and mapped my keys so ShiftJ and ShiftK map to previous/next buffers and CtrlJ and CtrlK map to previous/next tabs. Then I downloaded the tabname script so I could set meaningful tab names, then modified the making of vim sessions to save tab names (see here), then switched from gVim back to Vim so I could use the full screen mode. It was a long arduous journey, but I'd like to think it was worth it.
I have this same issue for a long time, working the same time with several projects.
To solve partially this frustration, I have used this this plugin https://github.com/xolox/vim-session.
vim-session make easier the navigation between sessions and in each session we have a project.
After using this some weeks, I became frustrated because it needs each time you need to switch, all the changes of the current session's files need to be saved.
The best solution for me now is Spacemacs with Vim mode.
I really like the editing spirit that Vim offer and the experience is the same with Spacemacs + better project handling + better git integration.
I agree with ehamberg.
Vim's buffers are global so any grouping or splitting will only appear to work for a few minutes and actually break at the first occasion.
Instead use one Vim instance for each project. If you really need to share something you can always use the system clipboard. Try set clipboard+=unnamedplus to synchronise Vim's default register with the system clipboard.
But I'm wondering if your way of managing projects is rational:
In point 3 you write "I also can no longer use :buffdo on all the buffers.". Why would you use a command that works on all the open buffers across multiple different projects?
Do you seriously have 500+ buffers open at the same time? I know Vim can probably handle it but why do you open that many buffers? I do web development for a living and I rarely work on more than a dozen files in a given day, even on "large" projects.
BufExplorer plugin can group buffers by tab. CtrlP plugin can reuse buffer from another tab.
I was using multiple vim instances for working simultaneously with different projects but it was not satisfatory. I ended up having to many open tabs in my terminal.
I've been using vim-rooter, which is a simple plugin that will automatically change the working directory to the project root of the buffer you open, provided there is a .git dir at project root. It will only be triggered only by opening files with certain extensions, but that list can be customized. Works with ctrlp and any other plugin.
How can I get tabs in gVim to work like they do in most good IDEs? I say gVim specifically because that is the version of Vim that I use but I am open to alternatives.
I want the following things for my tabs:
Ctrl+Tab goes to the MRU (most recently used) tab.
Holding down Ctrl and then pressing Tab multiple times continues to change to the next most recently used tab every time you press Tab.
When ctags are built and working and you press Ctrl+], if this takes you to a different file it should open that file in a new tab or if a tab with that file is already open it should switch to that one.
Easy tab reordering with the mouse just by dragging them around.
I am posting all these as a single question because I am hoping there is a good single solution that will do all or most of these things instead of having to hack each customization in individually. I would think this would be the preferred behavior by most of us.
Vim has no built in MRU. There is at least one plugin for that, though, but I've never used it.
The tabs in Vim are not the same as the tabs in your IDE, they are more like perspectives. The equivalent of your IDE's tabs in Vim are buffers and "(split)windows". There are a number of ways to work with buffers including some native ones and a number of third party plugins. Some of these plugins have MRU-like features.
The Vim wiki has a bunch of pages about tabs.
Here's how global bookmarks work.
Let's say I have two tabs in my vim session. One showing foo.txt, one showing bar.txt. I go to line 10 in foo.txt and hit mA
Then I go to the other tab, showing bar.txt. I hit `A, and the workspace on that tab opens foo.txt, putting my cursor on line 10.
So now I have two tabs, both showing foo.txt. This is less than ideal.
How I want it to work is, if one of my active workspaces on any tab is showing the file I the bookmark system is trying to navigate too, move my focus to that tab. If the file isn't open, sure - open it in my active workspace.
Is there any way to make this possible?
Thanks!
This is not a problem with Vim's global bookmarks. It's a problem with Vim's tabs.
In most text editors, tabs serve as a list of currently open files, but in Vim, the buffer list serves this purpose. If you think of a tab in Vim as being like a saved layout for split windows, then you'll meet less friction. This answer sums it up nicely, and I made a screencast to try and explain how tabs can be used.
Here is a script that answers your initial question. But as far as I'm concerned, nelstrom is right: tabs are not meant to contains the others files, but other layouts.
How do I jump to markers within different tabs in vim?