6 ms·

I have been using Vim for a few years. I recently installed a trial version of ViEmu plugin for Visual Studio. With Vim inside my main IDE at work, I have the

by blt 15y ago

I have been using Vim for a few years. I recently installed a trial version of ViEmu plugin for Visual Studio. With Vim inside my main IDE at work, I have the chance to really master it. But I ran into an unexpected hiccup - nobody else can use it when we're collaborating on code! Sadly, I think this might be a big enough reason to remove it.

AlexFromBelgium 15y ago
I am increasingly disappointed in all those Vim 'emulators'. VsVim, jVi, ... They aren't vim, no plugins, no real customizations. I really like that they exist, but it could be better. We need the REAL vim in an IDE, not some vim functionality.. EDIT: I use VsVim and you can disable it with ctrl+shift+F12. This helps when working together with other people..
- edanm 15y ago
  Now THIS is a great idea. vim lacks a lot of modern features, and the fact that it has to be compatible with running on shells means that it can't implement a lot of things which you would need to make it look and feel like a normal editor. For example, we'd need the ability to make windows that are only part of the screen, in order to make convenient popups (for, say, ctrl-p find in files actions). We'd need the ability to have actual graphics to separate sections. We'd need the ability to have different fonts for different buffers. Etc. What I think we need is an IDE which is just a layer on top of vim, which gives it a few things: * a sidebar, ala NERDTree, only good-looking and consistent with how sidebars should act, e.g. doesn't move with the other window-movement commands, can't be changed to another buffer. * Honest-to-God normal IDE Tabs, which let you have lots of open buffers, let you see them visually and switch between them normally. * A buit-in, fast, find-in-project/find-tag/command-t like functionality, which has nice graphics to make it easy to use and is actually fast on any project. Etc. And all of this can be done on top of a normal vim, making it have the ability to have all of the old plugins and configurations works. Obviously a lot won't be necessary (e.g. NERDTree), but for GUI environments, this would absolutely make vim rock.
  - AlexFromBelgium 15y ago
    Most of this can be done with Vim already... And the stuff that can't, like graphics, popups... I don't care for. How would you control that sidebar? With the MOUSE O.o !? I like nerdtree exactly because it's a buffer, because I can navigate it like my text. The essence of my comment above is that I want this in my IDE's, not the other way around.. Also: vim has tabs (:tabnew)... And there are search plugins for vim, fuzzy finder being one. EDIT: But I like your idea of turning Vim into a real IDE, I've been looking into this .. Vim need to "understand" the code. Better omnicomplete, refactoring ...
    - el_presidente 15y ago
      For smart completion there is clang complete: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3302 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3302
    - edanm 15y ago
      I'm not blaming you specifically, but this is the problem - anytime someone points out something that could be better with vim, people jump in to show "yes vim CAN do that". And they're right. It's just that it's done worse, and takes a lot of setting up to get right. To elaborate on the "worse" part, there are a few problems right now: 1. The plugins don't interact nicely with each other. For example, NERDTree exists, but it doesn't always play nicely with other plugins. Keeping it always stuck on the left side of the screen, taking up the same space, is not possible. If you use fuzzyfinder, for example, running fuzzyfinder from withing the NERDTree buffer will open the new buffer INSTEAD of NERDTree. This is never what I want. For another example, try jumping to a saved mark across files (e.g. 'V) from within NERDTree. This is not even getting into plugins that will create new windows, and screw with your window layout, including messing up NERDTree. In my vision, I would want to have a sidebar, make it keyboard-controllable of course, just make it "outside" of the actual vim, letting you control it absolutely. This is just one example. 2. The second problem is, vim looks bad. I'm sorry, but little graphical conveniences just don't exist in vim, and it is often the worse for it. For example, open Sublime Text's "find if project" drawer. It looks much better, is better convenience-wise, and it's something I use 200 times a day - I want it to be perfect. The fact that the drawer appears in the top-left, has a larger font-size, uses bold properly to make it clear what you're selecting, etc., is something that is just plain BETTER. 3. As for the current solutions to some of the things you mentioned: Find file in project plugins: Yes they work. They don't look nice (see point 2 above), but they do exist. However, you have a choice between: - Command-t, which is annoying to set up (don't take my word for it - look at the list of users who rant and rave about how good ctrl-p is, because it is easier to set up!). - Ctrl-p - awesome (I use this one), but often slow. Especially when I want to display 50 results at a time (I have a large screen, I want to USE it). Coloring all the results is slow, and I'm not on a slow machine or anything. I'm not even talking about the indexing time, which luckily for me isn't a problem with my currently small projects. - FuzzyFinder - nice, but looks terrible, and has a lot of funky behavior. E.g., the NERDTree mess (ctrl-p avoids this by writing code in the plugin to detect "common buffers" and not load things into them - not a scalable solution). As for tabs, sure, vim has tabs - except they're not supposed to be used like the tabs everyone is familiar with, because that's what buffers are for. They're more for "workspaces". Forget the terrible naming of a feature which is similar, but different to what everyone else in the world means when they say "tab" - there are still no good ways to show which files you have open. It's not a killer feature, but a convenience a lot of people would like. Summary: Let me get this straight. I love vim. I adore it. I kind of hate it, because having used vim, I can't find myself liking anything else - even my beloved Sublime Text 2, which is an amazing editors, frustrates me for lack of vim features. The reason I write all of this is because I want the editing experience of vim, but the "everything-else" experience of Sublime Text 2 (or any modern editor). That would be an amazing thing.
- mattbriggs 14y ago
  IMO the only great vim emulator is evil mode for emacs :)
Derbasti 15y ago
I just disable ViEmu whenever other people sit down at my keyboard. The switch is right up there in the menu bar. More recently though, I just open up Sublime Text and have them work in that. My computer, my rules.
jng 14y ago
Ctrl-Shift-Alt-V will toggle ViEmu on/off to help with that.
eagsalazar 14y ago
Stop programming on Windows, problem solved!

by blt 15y ago

AlexFromBelgium 15y ago

I am increasingly disappointed in all those Vim 'emulators'. VsVim, jVi, ... They aren't vim, no plugins, no real customizations. I really like that they exist, but it could be better. We need the REAL vim in an IDE, not some vim functionality.. EDIT: I use VsVim and you can disable it with ctrl+shift+F12. This helps when working together with other people..

edanm 15y ago
Now THIS is a great idea. vim lacks a lot of modern features, and the fact that it has to be compatible with running on shells means that it can't implement a lot of things which you would need to make it look and feel like a normal editor. For example, we'd need the ability to make windows that are only part of the screen, in order to make convenient popups (for, say, ctrl-p find in files actions). We'd need the ability to have actual graphics to separate sections. We'd need the ability to have different fonts for different buffers. Etc. What I think we need is an IDE which is just a layer on top of vim, which gives it a few things: * a sidebar, ala NERDTree, only good-looking and consistent with how sidebars should act, e.g. doesn't move with the other window-movement commands, can't be changed to another buffer. * Honest-to-God normal IDE Tabs, which let you have lots of open buffers, let you see them visually and switch between them normally. * A buit-in, fast, find-in-project/find-tag/command-t like functionality, which has nice graphics to make it easy to use and is actually fast on any project. Etc. And all of this can be done on top of a normal vim, making it have the ability to have all of the old plugins and configurations works. Obviously a lot won't be necessary (e.g. NERDTree), but for GUI environments, this would absolutely make vim rock.
- AlexFromBelgium 15y ago
  Most of this can be done with Vim already... And the stuff that can't, like graphics, popups... I don't care for. How would you control that sidebar? With the MOUSE O.o !? I like nerdtree exactly because it's a buffer, because I can navigate it like my text. The essence of my comment above is that I want this in my IDE's, not the other way around.. Also: vim has tabs (:tabnew)... And there are search plugins for vim, fuzzy finder being one. EDIT: But I like your idea of turning Vim into a real IDE, I've been looking into this .. Vim need to "understand" the code. Better omnicomplete, refactoring ...
  - el_presidente 15y ago
    For smart completion there is clang complete: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3302 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3302
  - edanm 15y ago
    I'm not blaming you specifically, but this is the problem - anytime someone points out something that could be better with vim, people jump in to show "yes vim CAN do that". And they're right. It's just that it's done worse, and takes a lot of setting up to get right. To elaborate on the "worse" part, there are a few problems right now: 1. The plugins don't interact nicely with each other. For example, NERDTree exists, but it doesn't always play nicely with other plugins. Keeping it always stuck on the left side of the screen, taking up the same space, is not possible. If you use fuzzyfinder, for example, running fuzzyfinder from withing the NERDTree buffer will open the new buffer INSTEAD of NERDTree. This is never what I want. For another example, try jumping to a saved mark across files (e.g. 'V) from within NERDTree. This is not even getting into plugins that will create new windows, and screw with your window layout, including messing up NERDTree. In my vision, I would want to have a sidebar, make it keyboard-controllable of course, just make it "outside" of the actual vim, letting you control it absolutely. This is just one example. 2. The second problem is, vim looks bad. I'm sorry, but little graphical conveniences just don't exist in vim, and it is often the worse for it. For example, open Sublime Text's "find if project" drawer. It looks much better, is better convenience-wise, and it's something I use 200 times a day - I want it to be perfect. The fact that the drawer appears in the top-left, has a larger font-size, uses bold properly to make it clear what you're selecting, etc., is something that is just plain BETTER. 3. As for the current solutions to some of the things you mentioned: Find file in project plugins: Yes they work. They don't look nice (see point 2 above), but they do exist. However, you have a choice between: - Command-t, which is annoying to set up (don't take my word for it - look at the list of users who rant and rave about how good ctrl-p is, because it is easier to set up!). - Ctrl-p - awesome (I use this one), but often slow. Especially when I want to display 50 results at a time (I have a large screen, I want to USE it). Coloring all the results is slow, and I'm not on a slow machine or anything. I'm not even talking about the indexing time, which luckily for me isn't a problem with my currently small projects. - FuzzyFinder - nice, but looks terrible, and has a lot of funky behavior. E.g., the NERDTree mess (ctrl-p avoids this by writing code in the plugin to detect "common buffers" and not load things into them - not a scalable solution). As for tabs, sure, vim has tabs - except they're not supposed to be used like the tabs everyone is familiar with, because that's what buffers are for. They're more for "workspaces". Forget the terrible naming of a feature which is similar, but different to what everyone else in the world means when they say "tab" - there are still no good ways to show which files you have open. It's not a killer feature, but a convenience a lot of people would like. Summary: Let me get this straight. I love vim. I adore it. I kind of hate it, because having used vim, I can't find myself liking anything else - even my beloved Sublime Text 2, which is an amazing editors, frustrates me for lack of vim features. The reason I write all of this is because I want the editing experience of vim, but the "everything-else" experience of Sublime Text 2 (or any modern editor). That would be an amazing thing.
mattbriggs 14y ago
IMO the only great vim emulator is evil mode for emacs :)

Derbasti 15y ago

I just disable ViEmu whenever other people sit down at my keyboard. The switch is right up there in the menu bar. More recently though, I just open up Sublime Text and have them work in that. My computer, my rules.

jng 14y ago

Ctrl-Shift-Alt-V will toggle ViEmu on/off to help with that.

eagsalazar 14y ago

Stop programming on Windows, problem solved!