3 ms·

Buffers and tabs serve different purposes. I think a lot of people dismiss tabs because they don't understand their purpose. It's not just about switching to di

by doix 4y ago

Buffers and tabs serve different purposes. I think a lot of people dismiss tabs because they don't understand their purpose. It's not just about switching to different buffers quickly. Tabs are an organized collection of windows, and you can quickly switch between them. I might organize my windows so half the screen is one buffer and on the other half, is split 3 times horizontally. Then I edit some code and realize I need to edit some other part of the codebase. I make a new tab instead of changing buffer, so I can go back to the view I setup already without having to recreate it. Tabs are the true power of vim, I don't have that functionality in any other editor (apart from Emacs?) and I miss it constantly. Buffers aren't really a novel concept, they work the same in VS code and JetBrains IDEs.

pxc 4y ago
> Tabs are the true power of vim, I don't have that functionality in any other editor (apart from Emacs?) Yeah, Emacs also lets you do that! You can achieve similar workflows via tmux or a tiling window manager as well. It's my favorite way to work! For whatever reason I've never gone down the tiling WM rabbit hole, but I use this kind of thing in Emacs and tmux all the time.
- doix 4y ago
  So I do use a tiling window manager, but the problem is that to take advantage of it, I'd need the editor to put each buffer in its own (real xorg) window. I couldn't get something working with either vscode or IntelliJ. One editor that does support it, is kakoune. I forgot about it when writing my previous comment. Each instance can connect to a server, so they can all share registers/buffers/etc. Then you can use tmux or your window manager to create the layout you want. It's very clever, I actually think it's superior to vim, as you aren't limited to organizing your views inside a single vim "main" window. You could do stuff like kak | browser | kak, and both kak instances share everything. Unfortunately I can't get used to the kak commands so I'll probably never change. Perhaps neovim will one day implement something similar.
sodapopcan 4y ago
Ya, "tabs" are a misnomer coming from almost any other editor which is unfortunate. Vim doesn't have what most people think of as "tabs" (I guess you could think of them as "dynamic" tabs but I digress). Vim has been my only code editor for the past 10+ years and I wish I used tabs a little better (ie, the way you describe). As it stands I have some plugins that open in a tab so they are easy to close (like gv.vim) and otherwise use my tabline as a secondary status line (it tells me my working directory and if I'm tracking a session or not).
- Aperocky 4y ago
  airline and bufferline plugins are great - it helps unify/bridge buffer and tabs
  - sodapopcan 4y ago
    I never liked airline as I felt it was too busy and I like customizing my own statusline, though you've piqued my interest with how they deal with tabs. I actually like vim's tabs just as they are--I mostly need better mapping for manipulating them. I'm otherwise a dual-split-with-a-mark-or-two person.

by doix 4y ago

pxc 4y ago

> Tabs are the true power of vim, I don't have that functionality in any other editor (apart from Emacs?) Yeah, Emacs also lets you do that! You can achieve similar workflows via tmux or a tiling window manager as well. It's my favorite way to work! For whatever reason I've never gone down the tiling WM rabbit hole, but I use this kind of thing in Emacs and tmux all the time.

doix 4y ago
So I do use a tiling window manager, but the problem is that to take advantage of it, I'd need the editor to put each buffer in its own (real xorg) window. I couldn't get something working with either vscode or IntelliJ. One editor that does support it, is kakoune. I forgot about it when writing my previous comment. Each instance can connect to a server, so they can all share registers/buffers/etc. Then you can use tmux or your window manager to create the layout you want. It's very clever, I actually think it's superior to vim, as you aren't limited to organizing your views inside a single vim "main" window. You could do stuff like kak | browser | kak, and both kak instances share everything. Unfortunately I can't get used to the kak commands so I'll probably never change. Perhaps neovim will one day implement something similar.

sodapopcan 4y ago

Ya, "tabs" are a misnomer coming from almost any other editor which is unfortunate. Vim doesn't have what most people think of as "tabs" (I guess you could think of them as "dynamic" tabs but I digress). Vim has been my only code editor for the past 10+ years and I wish I used tabs a little better (ie, the way you describe). As it stands I have some plugins that open in a tab so they are easy to close (like gv.vim) and otherwise use my tabline as a secondary status line (it tells me my working directory and if I'm tracking a session or not).

Aperocky 4y ago
airline and bufferline plugins are great - it helps unify/bridge buffer and tabs
- sodapopcan 4y ago
  I never liked airline as I felt it was too busy and I like customizing my own statusline, though you've piqued my interest with how they deal with tabs. I actually like vim's tabs just as they are--I mostly need better mapping for manipulating them. I'm otherwise a dual-split-with-a-mark-or-two person.