I'm currently trying to switch from Coda (a Mac IDE) to Vim. One thing I loved about Coda and my knowledge of Vim cannot replace were the so-called "clips". Basically, you type, say, "new", press TAB, and the text is replaced with a basic XHTML page. And you can add as many keyword/clips combinations as you want.
The most I could get with Vim so far was to create a new file containing my clip, and then use :r FILE in Vim in order to get it inserted, but this is not a very elegant solution, as I'd have to carry these clips around in every directory I have a file I want to use my clips with.
So assuming I've explained things properly, what would be my choices?
For various editors, there's a functionality called '''snippets''' which tab expands the beginnings of common text (like a HTML div, or C function definition) into a skeleton for that code.
There's a couple vim plugins that present this functionality. Two off the top of my bookmark list:
snippetsEmu
snipMate
I heard of another plugin for quick HTML editing that uses snippets recently:
zencoding
Check those out and see if they're near what you're looking for.
Also, you can define a default BufNewFile action in vim - which lets you read in a skeleton for a file if it doesn't already exist automatically.
*skeleton* *template*
To read a skeleton (template) file when opening a new file: >
:autocmd BufNewFile *.c 0r ~/vim/skeleton.c
:autocmd BufNewFile *.h 0r ~/vim/skeleton.h
:autocmd BufNewFile *.java 0r ~/vim/skeleton.java
Put those (or the equivalent) in your .vimrc (w/o the leading colon) to have them set up automatically every time you run vim.
Very late to the party, but:
I would recommend something like Dash for this, because the snippets are then available across all your apps.
This can be a significant bonus as your muscle-memory starts to rely on particular snippets, and can also ease the transition from one editor to the other, because your snippets are independent.
Sometimes I find myself using snippets in something like Mail to send to someone else, or in a Vim terminal on a remote machine I haven't configured, and it's great to have them all there at the ready.
Now all we need is a cross-platform solution which moves with you to a colleague's machine!
As well as the various snippet plugins, Vim also has an abbreviation feature built in, using the :ab[breviate] command.
For example you can define this:
:ab <h <head>^M</head>^M<body>^M<\body>
Then when you type <h<SPACE> it will expand into the full text. The ^M in the example above are actually carriage returns inserted in the string definition with <ctrl-V><RETURN>.
Related
I installed Latex-Suite for Vim, and I like it very much, but I'd like to be able to customize the environment mappings that came by default, and add new ones. For example I want to edit the equation environment that appears typing EEQ and move around some elements, like the \label{} command. How can I do this? I've been scanning everything inside my /usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftplugin but I can't find a way to do it (or I just don't understand what those files are).
You want to check out the documentation on Macro Customisation, specifically the Tex_Env_{name} bit.
In short, if you want your theorem snippet to look like
\begin{theorem}
<++>
\end{theorem}<++>
then you want a line like
let g:Tex_Env_theorem = "\\begin{theorem}\<CR><++>\<CR>\\end{theorem}"
in your vimrc.
Note the backslashes to escape carriage-return, and double-backslash for normal backslashes.
The <F5> functionality (press F5 after typing an environment name, i.e. figure<F5>) should work out of the box, but you may need to refresh the three-letter code. This is more hassle than it needs to be, but something like
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.tex call IMAP('EFI', g:Tex_Env_figure,'tex')
will do the job.
The answer to the question you asked comes with a caveat, which is that Latex-Suite is an enormous amount of code that is very hard and annoying to modify, and which does not play nicely with other plugins. This falls into Latex-Suite's philosophy that it's the only plugin you need for editing latex within vim.
That said, you want to look in /path/to/ftplugin/latex-suite/envmacros.vim. Searching for EEQ will lead you on the path to understanding the set of calls that latex-suite performs. I would like to reiterate that many functions are deeply intertwined.
On the other hand, there is a very easy way to have very easily customizable environments, which are snippets. See the UltiSnips page for a good example of how this works. These are designed for customization and extremely easy to write.
In Zsh, I can use filename completion with slashes to target a file deep in my source tree. For instance if I type:
vim s/w/t/u/f >TAB<
zsh replaces the pattern with:
vim src/wp-contents/themes/us/functions.php
What I'd like is to be able to target files the same way at the Vim command line, so that typing
:vi s/w/t/u/f >TAB<
will autocomplete to:
:vi src/wp-contents/themes/us/functions.php
I'm trying to parse the Vim docs for wildmode, but I don't see what settings would give me this. It's doing autocompletion for individual filenames, but not file paths. Does Vim support this natively? Or how can I customize the autocomplete algorithm for files?
Thanks for any advice!
-mykle-
I couldn't find a plugin to do this, so I wrote one. It's called vim-zsh-path-completion. It does what you're looking for, although via <C-s> rather than <Tab>. You can use it with <Tab> for even more control over what matches, though.
It's got bugs, but for basic paths without spaces/special characters, it should work. I think it's useful enough in its current state to be helpful. I hope to iron out the bugs and clean up the code, but I figured I'd start soliciting feedback now.
Thanks for the idea!
Original (wrong) answer, but with some useful information about Vim's wildmode.
Put the following in your .vimrc:
set wildmenu
set wildmode=list:longest
That will complete to the longest unique match on <Tab>, including appending a / and descending into directories where appropriate. If there are multiple matches, it will show a list of matches for what you've entered so far. Then you can type more characters and <Tab> again to complete.
I prefer the following setting, which completes to the first unique match on <Tab>, and then pops up a menu if you hit <Tab> again, which you can navigate with the arrow keys and hit enter to select from:
set wildmode=list:longest,list:full
Check out :help wildmenu and :help wildmode. You might also want to set wildignore to a list of patterns to ignore when completing. I have mine as:
set wildignore=.git,*.swp,*/tmp/*
Vim doesn't have such a feature by default. The closest buil-in feature is the wildmenu/wildmode combo but it's still very different.
A quick look at the script section of vim.org didn't return anything but I didn't look too far: you should dig further. Maybe it's there, somewhere.
Did you try Command-T, LustyExplorer, FuzzyFinder, CtrlP or one of the many similar plugins?
I use CtrlP and fuzzy matching can be done on filepath or filename. When done on filepath, I can use the keysequence below to open src/wp-contents/themes/us/functions.php (assuming functions.php is the only file under us that starts with a f):
,f " my custom mapping for the :CtrlP command
swtuf<CR>
edit
In thinking about a possible solution I'm afraid I was a little myopic. I was focused on your exact requirements but Vim has cool tricks when it comes to opening files!
The :e[dit] command accepts two types of wildcards: * is like the * you would use in your shell and ** means "any subdirectory".
So it's entirely possible to do:
:e s*/w*/t*/u*/f*<Tab>
or something like:
:e **/us/f<Tab>
or even:
:e **/fun<Tab>
Combined with the wildmode settings in Jim's answer, I think you have got a pretty powerful file navigation tool, here.
How can I use Latex effectively in VIM?
Is there a way to configure compile errors by highlighting the line in vim?
I have syntax highlight. What are other recommended add-ons? Is a makefile the recommended way to compile a latex file to pdf?
TexWorks lets you open and replace the opened pdf everytime it's recompiled. Is there a plugin to do something similar in vim?
I've just begun playing around with LaTeX-Box. It seems like a good plugin. I, also used VIM-LaTeX for a while, but I didn't really like the key mappings, and it seemed a bit to heavyweight as Jeet described.
I like LaTeX-Box so far because it used latexmk to compile, which is what I was using anyway. Latexmk will sit in the background and watch your .tex file for changes, and then automatically compile for you. And if you use a pdf viewer which refreshed changes (such as evince on Linux) you can see updates every time you change. Adding
let g:LatexBox_latexmk_options = "-pvc -pdfps"
to my .vimrc got latexmk working properly. You also need the latexmk script somewhere on you PATH. The key mapping to start latexmk is the same as Vim-Latex's compile: '\ll' (that's lowercase LL).
I also use SuperTab plugin for completions, which is great. And I took the dictionary files from Vim-LaTeX so I have a ton of auto completion words to use. This dictionary file is: ftplugin/latex-suite/dictionaries/dictionary in the vim-latex files. What I did was copy this file into ~/.vim/dictionaries/ and renamed it 'tex' then I added these lines to my .vimrc file:
set filetype on
au FileType * exec("setlocal dictionary+=".$HOME."/.vim/dictionaries/".expand('<amatch>'))
set complete+=k
Then if I type the beginning of a latex command and hit 'tab' I will get a list of completions. Pretty handy. BTW that 'au' command in the vimrc will also load dictionaries for any other filetypes if you want. A useful trick.
check out vim latex
If you use vim latex put the following in your .vimrc:
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat='pdf'
and it should compile to pdf by default. (I think the default compilation key
is \ll).
You can also check AutomaticLatexPlugin, it has many nice features (see the features list).
Its main point is to compile the document in the background using autocommands, so that you are free from compilation cycle. This works nicely on Linux and MacOs. It contains (extended version of) Latex-Box.
vim-latex is great. But I found it too heavyweight for my tastes. I prefer more of a "Vim with LaTeX compile & view" approach, rather than "A LaTeX IDE with Vim key-bindings". So I rolled my own: 'TeX-PDF: Lightweight "stay-out-of-your-way" TeX-to-PDF development support'.
Also check out: "LaTeX Help : Help for LaTeX in vim.help format" for calling up help of LaTeX from within Vim.
I personally can get by on:
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.tex set makeprg=pdflatex\ %\ &&\ open\ %:r.pdf
where open is Mac OS X specific. Linux users will want a different command to view their compiled file after running make. This works best if you have mapped a key to write and then run make (and you should - once you have single key save and compile, you'll never go back).
I am using several languages, and currently I am obliged to indicate to vim with which of these the spell check must be done. Is there a way to set up vim so that it automatically detects the correct one? I vaguely remember that in a previous version of vim, when the spell check was not integrated, the vimspell script made this possible.
It would be even better if this could apply not only to a file but also to a portion of a file, since I frequently mix several languages in a single file. Of course, I would like to avoid to load several dictionaries simultaneously.
I don't know if there is a way to autodetect it, but if you put vim:spell:spelllang=foo,bar,baz at the bottom of the file, vim will set the spellchecking languages to foo, bar, and baz when the file is opened. Note that you must put at least one space before that text, or vim will think it's part of the file.
Since vim is missing this feature, I found it useful to define shortcuts like these in .vimrc:
command! Nb :set spelllang=nb
command! En :set spelllang=en
How do you manage big projects (hundreds of files) using only VIM?
I personally start having problems in any larger than small project.
is there any way to quickly 'go to file', preferably with name completition?
same for 'go to class definition', when it is in another file
I kinda know all the VIM basics, so I don't have problem using it for writing scripts or quick editing some source code. But it gets really messy for me when I have to navigate between files.
VIM has excellent support for tags. Once you have created a tags file for your project, you can jump to a definition or declaration of a method, class, etc., including jumping across files, all inside the same editing session.
Try
:help tags
To generate a tags file for C/C++, go to your shell prompt (I'm assuming your system is *nix/Cygwin) and type
info ctags
or
ctags --help
I like simple solutions, my favorite way to navigate at the moment is:
Add to ~/.vimrc.local
set path=$PWD/**
Then type this in the editor to find the file anywhere in the current working directory (pwd)
:find user_spec.rb
You can use tab-completion on the filenames to find multiple choices as well, making this TextMate convert very happy.
I use a combination of NERDTree (directory sidebar), FuzzyFinder Textmate (go-to-file like TextMate's CMD+T), and Sessions (:h sessions) to help me deal with large projects.
I would suggest using some sessions helper plugin. I would mention what I use, but I'm not satisfied with it yet. Just Google "vim sessions".
One thing to note with getting FuzzyFinder Textmate to work is that it depends on an old version the FuzzyFinder plugin, specifically v2.16. Anything higher and you'll get errors. But it's definitely worth the trouble. While it doesn't have name completion, its search is smart so if I search for fro/time/actionsphp it will pull up the file apps/(fro)ntend/modules/(time)_tracking/actions/(actions).class.(php) (parenthesis denote what it's matching). It makes it very easy to pick out files that are only unique by their folder name.
As well as the invaluable ctags and the various associated commands. I also couldn't live without the project plugin, which allows you to have the files of interest associated with a project in a separate pane. I can't remember how much of my setup is customised, but if I want to open a source file called Debug.c, I hit:
<F12> " Opens the project pane
/De " Searches for "De", which is likely to be enough to find Debug.c or possibly Debug.h
<ENTER> " Opens the selected file and closes the project pane
I often then do:
:vsp " Vertically split the window
<F12> " Reopen project pane
# " Search back to find previous entry with the same name (to find
Debug.h if I was on Debug.c: my headers are in Headers/ and
my source is in Source/, so the headers come earlier in the list
than the source). I use * to go the other way, obviously.
<ENTER> " Open the header file in the other window and close the project window.
With this relatively short sequence, I can open any file and it's header in a vertical split. Since the project plugin window is just a text file, completion is achieved by using Vim's searching capability.
Starting in Vim 7.3, the :find command has tab-completion of filenames.
So if you set your 'path' option to contain your entire project (probably using the ** wildcard to allow recursively searching subdirectories), then you can use the :find, :sfind, :tabfind, etc. commands with completion to get to any file in your project. This also allows jumping to files directly with gf and friends if the file name is in your text, for example in an include directive.
With this method, no external tools or plugins are needed for navigating to specific files. Although, it may admittedly not be as fast or easy to use, and doesn't address the need for jumping to definitions. For definitions, I use ctags as other answers suggest.
If you are using ctags as other posters have recommended, then make sure you look at the taglist plugin.
Make sure you take the time to read the docs and learn the key bindings. Here are a few to get you started (from the TList window):
o - open file in new window
t - open file in new tab
[[ or backspace - previous file in list
]] or tab - next file in list
Exuberant ctags.
Use Ctrl-] to jump to the tag under the cursor.
Opening vim from root of your source file and extending path option to include all sub-directories therein.
For example set path+=/usr/include/c++/** for C++ headers and set path+=** for your source directory.
This ,then, opens a plethora of following possibilities.
1) Opening file by name or parts of it
:find file_name
You can use auto-completion and wildcard expansion with :find reliably. You type the name, it will locate the name. This works language agnostic.I am sure you will like it.
2) Navigating to files under cusror:
if you want to go a file path like #include "project/path/classA.h.
gf or gF - go to file under cursor.
Ctrl-6 - to come back to last cursor position after gf or gF
3) API lookup and navigating to the API location
[i or [I can be used to look up your function signature for word under cursor without leaving your workspace. [<Tab> to actually go to declaration. Use Ctrl-6 to come back to last location.
Without extending path, you can start navigating files by :Ex command and navigate and open your file. I prefer NerdTree over this though.
I use FindFile. If you open vim at the root of your project and run :FC . the plugin will cache all the filenames beneath your cwd. You can then do :FF to open a completion menu and type the name of the file you want (or rather, the first few letters).
Although I'm kinda hoping someone will point out a better solution so I can learn something, NERDTree has been good to me for getting to specific files with name completion as long as I have the tree expanded. The command when I need to get to a file is something like:
,d/foo.pyo (where foo.py is a file name)
,d to open the tree, / to enter search mode, the name (or partial name, or regex, or whatever) of the file, and then o to open.
Of course you may have to hit 'n' a few times if you didn't type enough of the filename or there are duplicates.
I admit it feels like a bit of a hack using NERDTree like this although it has gotten so far into my muscle memory by now that I don't even think about it.
Of course I use ctags too but those are only useful when you have a function near the cursor and need to get to its definition in another file or something. A lot of times I say "OK, I need to work on feature x now" and need to navigate to another file without any references nearby that ctags would really help with.
I'm using two plugins of mine:
searchInRuntime that completes filenames on command line. It is somehow similar to fuzzyfinder and lookupfile,
lh-tags which is completely experimental and undocumented. It offers two features: automatic and quick update of the tagfile on file save(ing?), and a tag selector plugged to <c-w><m-down> by default. You may want to check the renowned taglist plugin instead.
Both require my viml library lh-vim-lib.
Try SourceCodeObedinece. This one I developed to handle C++ 1Gb source files project.
I use it in pair with 0scan.
These two plugins are wrappers around the most popular Vim browsing tools: ctags and cscope.