6 ms·

Vim-powerline: The ultimate vim statusline utility

201 points by mnazim 15y ago

mutewinter 15y ago
Looks like a nice replacement for status.vim https://github.com/dickeytk/status.vim https://github.com/dickeytk/status.vim. Just needs syntastic support https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic.
- Oompa 15y ago
  It has syntastic support https://img.skitch.com/20120112-t9qeth7nhrdxp25rekxxjqgk16.jpg https://img.skitch.com/20120112-t9qeth7nhrdxp25rekxxjqgk16.j...
  - mutewinter 15y ago
    Nice. Looks prettier than status.vim too.
RShackleford 15y ago
enough news about vim, dont post about it, i hate vim.
g3orge 15y ago
I've spend hours configuring my status line, but I'm definitely gonna install this. Very beautiful and functional.
meta 15y ago
I love how easy pathogen (https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen) makes installing vim plugins from github. I always struggled with it in the past (and mostly avoided it) but now it is as simple as git clone and done.
- Legion 15y ago
  Vundle is even better than Pathogen IMO. It takes away the need to manage git submodules, in favor of just creating a text file that defines your plugins, Bundler style. Removing plugins from your setup is MUCH cleaner.
  - jhchabran 15y ago
    I have to +1 this, I tend to use every piece that Tim Pope produces for their goodness, but Vundle truly rocks for exactly what you mentioned.
    - Legion 15y ago
      And to be fair to tpope, Vundle is something that clearly came along later, looking to refine the experience that Pathogen established. Vundle is a minor but very welcome improvement on Pathogen, while Pathogen was a monsterous improvement on the painful Vim plugin management of before. I too am a big fan of tpope Vim plugins, and Vundle is the first plugin that I've ever used to replace one of his with. So now I don't have Pathogen but I have a Vundle file that says "tpope" all over it. :)
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - dguaraglia 15y ago
    Also, Vundle has a nice interface to manage installation/removal of new plugins (BundleSearch, BundleInstall, BundleClean, etc.). Pathogen is more of a 'do it yourself' approach, while Vundle tries to be a complete suite a la Aptitude.
  - jvc26 15y ago
    Cheers for the heads up - great plugin. Hadn't heard of Vundle before, but its handling of plugin installation, update and removal is really slick!
  - gurraman 15y ago
    Vundle installed. I agree that it is nicer than Pathogen, thanks for the tip.
chow 15y ago
Beautiful, thank you for this! Would be nice if there it was bundled with sample patched fonts, so those wanting to try it could see if it's worth the trouble to patch a font.
igorgue 15y ago
I love this plugin, man I spent so much time configuring my colorscheme and my status line to know in which window I am currently on. I like that is written in full VimScript too.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- gurraman 15y ago
  I too appreciate "native" plugins. I've even recompiled vim without support for Python, Ruby and Perl in an attempt to speed up startup (it starts a "great deal" faster, if I remember my tests correctly).
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    How much faster could it start? It's already instant.
    - gurraman 15y ago
      For various definitions of "instant", I guess. I move around a lot and I want my editor (and my shell, for that matter) to be ready the instant I hit enter.
      - gbog 15y ago
        So do I. Removing plugins and autoloads seems less cripling than recompile without python et al...
jvc26 15y ago
Great piece of work! Thanks! Have added it to my Pathogen plugins already - wonder where we'd be without Pathogen?
- funksta 15y ago
  Agreed, this is a really great plugin. I love how I can see which mode (normal/insert/etc) I'm in by the statusbar color change. The color change is strong enough that I can see it in my peripheral vision, and don't ever have to take my eyes off of the code. I'm so used to pathogen now that I almost forgot how much a mess installing vim plugins used to be. Really seems like there's been a plugin renaissance in the last couple of years.
monological 15y ago
I'm a noob. Can someone please explain how to install this thing?
- mnazim 15y ago
  The way you would install any Vim plugin. Extract these files inside your ~/.vim directory such that. copy vim-poweline/autoload/* to ~/.vim/autoload/* copy vim-poweline/doc/* to ~/.vim/doc/* copy vim-poweline/plugin/* to ~/.vim/plugin/* and so on. PS. Learn Pathogen or Vundle. It will be very well invested time.
  - monological 15y ago
    thank you
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    I just learnt Vundle. It took all of a minute to read the three lines of documentation, and now all my vim instances will always be in sync.
  - jon6 15y ago
    If you don't want to install pathogen or vundle here is another simple way: ~/.vim $ git clone https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline.git powerline Edit your ~/.vimrc and add set runtimepath=~/.vim/powerline,$VIMRUNTIME
    - stewbrew 15y ago
      Since some plugins write temporary files to the first directory in runtimepath, this could have unintended consequences though.
agscala 15y ago
It even shows which git branch I'm in. How cool is that!
- xhuang 15y ago
  How did you do that? the doc said there is a $branch variable, how do you add it?
  - g3orge 15y ago
    I think it's activated by default. I didn't do anything and it appears next to the filename.
  - dhotson 15y ago
    Pretty sure it's using the fugitive.vim git plugin.
gaving 15y ago
Goodbye old friend https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/plugin/statusline.vim https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/plugin/s...
- gaving 15y ago
  Real link: https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/19d95fa1ee0461dbe4d5d9a6e95bb1c9407da8e1/.vim/plugin/statusline.vim https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/19d95fa1ee0461dbe4d5... Mind you on second thoughts, I really miss the mixed indentation warning.
  - Lokaltog 15y ago
    You cold fork the repo (or even better, create your own statusline theme) and add indentation warnings and the other stuff as a Powerline segment. ;)
    - gaving 15y ago
      Totally intend to if/when I get some time :)
qrush 15y ago
Installed it earlier this week, and it is awesome. I've uploaded patched versions of Menlo and Mensch here if you don't want to bother doing it yourself. https://gist.github.com/1595572 https://gist.github.com/1595572
- rahim 15y ago
  Thanks for sharing these! As long as you're encoding fonts, any chance you could do Monaco?
  - nmk 15y ago
    I would be interested in a patched version of Monaco as well.
- parkerny 15y ago
  Great, I'd been hoping that someone would patch Menlo, thanks!
ax 15y ago
The docs say that this will work best on a unix like system but doesn't say what that means or whether it will work on Windows. Has anyone tried this on Windows? Does it work?
- cleverjake 15y ago
  you should try it and let us know =]
- jamesgeck0 15y ago
  It does work on Windows. Kinda. I'm using Consolas, and simple mode has a little question-mark-in-a-box where some dividers should be. Unicode mode is worse. Absolutely usable, though. It'll take more fiddling than it's worth to patch the font on Windows, so I plan on booting Ubuntu to do it later.
  - ax 15y ago
    Yeah I'm getting the same behavior. When you patch it, can you let me know?
  - gaving 15y ago
    Yeah, feel sorry for those that haven't discovered Consolas, such a better looking font on gvim anyway :) Seconding a upload request if someone patches it. Had a go on cygwin but you're needing a few dependencies by the looks of things.
    - flaie 15y ago
      I'm trying to patch the Consolas font on Windows 7 using Cygwin, installing a bunch of dependencies for it. I will try to host it somewhere if I succeed and if no one did it until then :)
    - flaie 15y ago
      I can't get it working on Windows. The Consolas patched font looks ugly and it does not show the fancy glyphs. Even using Menlo, Inconsolata or Mensch version posted here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3457785 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3457785 the glyphs does not show as on the screenshots on the vim-powerline readme. Sad :)
alexyoung 15y ago
If you've tried this on Snow Leopard and are confused as to why it looks nothing like the screenshots, you might want to try a different terminal application. Terminal in Snow Leopard doesn't support 256 colours, so iTerm2 should show vim-powerline closer to the screenshots. It's open source and works pretty well in my experience. The Terminal in Lion supports 'xterm-256color'.
lynndylanhurley 15y ago
I've been using this all morning - it's really incredible.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nicksergeant 15y ago
Inconsolata patched for Powerline here if anyone is interested: http://cl.ly/3G2414080H1I0c2v3B27 http://cl.ly/3G2414080H1I0c2v3B27
morpher 15y ago
I've been using this for a few weeks, and really love it. It is definitely worth patching your vim font (although not very well documented). You can use `:set guifont` in gvim to determine your font. Then, just run the included fontpatcher python script on the correct font to add the new symbols. Note that this script requires installing the fontforge python package (python-fontforge on ubuntu). Then tell gvim to use the patched font with `:set guifont=<fontname>`.
- Lokaltog 15y ago
  That's good to know, I'll include it in the documentation.
sohooo 15y ago
Screenshot of how powerline looks like: https://github.com/sohooo/vimfiles https://github.com/sohooo/vimfiles This is without patched fonts. You get nice symbols if you perform that additional step.
scotu 15y ago
My patched version of all the variants of Ubuntu Mono https://github.com/scotu/ubuntu-mono-powerline/ https://github.com/scotu/ubuntu-mono-powerline/
jvm 15y ago
Anybody have linux fonts patched? I can't deal with these OTFs.

201 points by mnazim 15y ago

Looks like a nice replacement for status.vim https://github.com/dickeytk/status.vim https://github.com/dickeytk/status.vim. Just needs syntastic support https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic.

Oompa 15y ago
It has syntastic support https://img.skitch.com/20120112-t9qeth7nhrdxp25rekxxjqgk16.jpg https://img.skitch.com/20120112-t9qeth7nhrdxp25rekxxjqgk16.j...
- mutewinter 15y ago
  Nice. Looks prettier than status.vim too.

RShackleford 15y ago

enough news about vim, dont post about it, i hate vim.

g3orge 15y ago

I've spend hours configuring my status line, but I'm definitely gonna install this. Very beautiful and functional.

meta 15y ago

I love how easy pathogen (https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen) makes installing vim plugins from github. I always struggled with it in the past (and mostly avoided it) but now it is as simple as git clone and done.

Legion 15y ago
Vundle is even better than Pathogen IMO. It takes away the need to manage git submodules, in favor of just creating a text file that defines your plugins, Bundler style. Removing plugins from your setup is MUCH cleaner.
- jhchabran 15y ago
  I have to +1 this, I tend to use every piece that Tim Pope produces for their goodness, but Vundle truly rocks for exactly what you mentioned.
  - Legion 15y ago
    And to be fair to tpope, Vundle is something that clearly came along later, looking to refine the experience that Pathogen established. Vundle is a minor but very welcome improvement on Pathogen, while Pathogen was a monsterous improvement on the painful Vim plugin management of before. I too am a big fan of tpope Vim plugins, and Vundle is the first plugin that I've ever used to replace one of his with. So now I don't have Pathogen but I have a Vundle file that says "tpope" all over it. :)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- dguaraglia 15y ago
  Also, Vundle has a nice interface to manage installation/removal of new plugins (BundleSearch, BundleInstall, BundleClean, etc.). Pathogen is more of a 'do it yourself' approach, while Vundle tries to be a complete suite a la Aptitude.
- jvc26 15y ago
  Cheers for the heads up - great plugin. Hadn't heard of Vundle before, but its handling of plugin installation, update and removal is really slick!
- gurraman 15y ago
  Vundle installed. I agree that it is nicer than Pathogen, thanks for the tip.

chow 15y ago

Beautiful, thank you for this! Would be nice if there it was bundled with sample patched fonts, so those wanting to try it could see if it's worth the trouble to patch a font.

igorgue 15y ago

I love this plugin, man I spent so much time configuring my colorscheme and my status line to know in which window I am currently on. I like that is written in full VimScript too.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
gurraman 15y ago
I too appreciate "native" plugins. I've even recompiled vim without support for Python, Ruby and Perl in an attempt to speed up startup (it starts a "great deal" faster, if I remember my tests correctly).
- StavrosK 15y ago
  How much faster could it start? It's already instant.
  - gurraman 15y ago
    For various definitions of "instant", I guess. I move around a lot and I want my editor (and my shell, for that matter) to be ready the instant I hit enter.
    - gbog 15y ago
      So do I. Removing plugins and autoloads seems less cripling than recompile without python et al...

jvc26 15y ago

Great piece of work! Thanks! Have added it to my Pathogen plugins already - wonder where we'd be without Pathogen?

funksta 15y ago
Agreed, this is a really great plugin. I love how I can see which mode (normal/insert/etc) I'm in by the statusbar color change. The color change is strong enough that I can see it in my peripheral vision, and don't ever have to take my eyes off of the code. I'm so used to pathogen now that I almost forgot how much a mess installing vim plugins used to be. Really seems like there's been a plugin renaissance in the last couple of years.

monological 15y ago

I'm a noob. Can someone please explain how to install this thing?

mnazim 15y ago
The way you would install any Vim plugin. Extract these files inside your ~/.vim directory such that. copy vim-poweline/autoload/* to ~/.vim/autoload/* copy vim-poweline/doc/* to ~/.vim/doc/* copy vim-poweline/plugin/* to ~/.vim/plugin/* and so on. PS. Learn Pathogen or Vundle. It will be very well invested time.
- monological 15y ago
  thank you
- StavrosK 15y ago
  I just learnt Vundle. It took all of a minute to read the three lines of documentation, and now all my vim instances will always be in sync.
- jon6 15y ago
  If you don't want to install pathogen or vundle here is another simple way: ~/.vim $ git clone https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline.git powerline Edit your ~/.vimrc and add set runtimepath=~/.vim/powerline,$VIMRUNTIME
  - stewbrew 15y ago
    Since some plugins write temporary files to the first directory in runtimepath, this could have unintended consequences though.

agscala 15y ago

It even shows which git branch I'm in. How cool is that!

xhuang 15y ago
How did you do that? the doc said there is a $branch variable, how do you add it?
- g3orge 15y ago
  I think it's activated by default. I didn't do anything and it appears next to the filename.
- dhotson 15y ago
  Pretty sure it's using the fugitive.vim git plugin.

gaving 15y ago

Goodbye old friend https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/plugin/statusline.vim https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/master/.vim/plugin/s...

gaving 15y ago
Real link: https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/19d95fa1ee0461dbe4d5d9a6e95bb1c9407da8e1/.vim/plugin/statusline.vim https://github.com/gaving/dotfiles/blob/19d95fa1ee0461dbe4d5... Mind you on second thoughts, I really miss the mixed indentation warning.
- Lokaltog 15y ago
  You cold fork the repo (or even better, create your own statusline theme) and add indentation warnings and the other stuff as a Powerline segment. ;)
  - gaving 15y ago
    Totally intend to if/when I get some time :)

qrush 15y ago

Installed it earlier this week, and it is awesome. I've uploaded patched versions of Menlo and Mensch here if you don't want to bother doing it yourself. https://gist.github.com/1595572 https://gist.github.com/1595572

rahim 15y ago
Thanks for sharing these! As long as you're encoding fonts, any chance you could do Monaco?
- nmk 15y ago
  I would be interested in a patched version of Monaco as well.
parkerny 15y ago
Great, I'd been hoping that someone would patch Menlo, thanks!

ax 15y ago

The docs say that this will work best on a unix like system but doesn't say what that means or whether it will work on Windows. Has anyone tried this on Windows? Does it work?

cleverjake 15y ago
you should try it and let us know =]
jamesgeck0 15y ago
It does work on Windows. Kinda. I'm using Consolas, and simple mode has a little question-mark-in-a-box where some dividers should be. Unicode mode is worse. Absolutely usable, though. It'll take more fiddling than it's worth to patch the font on Windows, so I plan on booting Ubuntu to do it later.
- ax 15y ago
  Yeah I'm getting the same behavior. When you patch it, can you let me know?
- gaving 15y ago
  Yeah, feel sorry for those that haven't discovered Consolas, such a better looking font on gvim anyway :) Seconding a upload request if someone patches it. Had a go on cygwin but you're needing a few dependencies by the looks of things.
  - flaie 15y ago
    I'm trying to patch the Consolas font on Windows 7 using Cygwin, installing a bunch of dependencies for it. I will try to host it somewhere if I succeed and if no one did it until then :)
  - flaie 15y ago
    I can't get it working on Windows. The Consolas patched font looks ugly and it does not show the fancy glyphs. Even using Menlo, Inconsolata or Mensch version posted here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3457785 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3457785 the glyphs does not show as on the screenshots on the vim-powerline readme. Sad :)

alexyoung 15y ago

If you've tried this on Snow Leopard and are confused as to why it looks nothing like the screenshots, you might want to try a different terminal application. Terminal in Snow Leopard doesn't support 256 colours, so iTerm2 should show vim-powerline closer to the screenshots. It's open source and works pretty well in my experience. The Terminal in Lion supports 'xterm-256color'.

lynndylanhurley 15y ago

I've been using this all morning - it's really incredible.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

nicksergeant 15y ago

Inconsolata patched for Powerline here if anyone is interested: http://cl.ly/3G2414080H1I0c2v3B27 http://cl.ly/3G2414080H1I0c2v3B27

morpher 15y ago

I've been using this for a few weeks, and really love it. It is definitely worth patching your vim font (although not very well documented). You can use `:set guifont` in gvim to determine your font. Then, just run the included fontpatcher python script on the correct font to add the new symbols. Note that this script requires installing the fontforge python package (python-fontforge on ubuntu). Then tell gvim to use the patched font with `:set guifont=<fontname>`.

Lokaltog 15y ago
That's good to know, I'll include it in the documentation.

sohooo 15y ago

Screenshot of how powerline looks like: https://github.com/sohooo/vimfiles https://github.com/sohooo/vimfiles This is without patched fonts. You get nice symbols if you perform that additional step.

scotu 15y ago

My patched version of all the variants of Ubuntu Mono https://github.com/scotu/ubuntu-mono-powerline/ https://github.com/scotu/ubuntu-mono-powerline/

jvm 15y ago

Anybody have linux fonts patched? I can't deal with these OTFs.