No, but a lot of editors have some level of vim emulation (eg, Atom, or IntelliJ, or VisualStudio, or XCode) that always comes up a bit short. The point the author is making is that this actually embeds vim and is not a re-implementation of vim features.
I fail to see how this is better than to use gvim, which is crossplatform, together with NERDTree, CTRL+p + some other language specific plugins that can run on your server, on your desktop (which can be windows, linux or osx, whatever you like).
Feels like the authors effort would be better spent on helping some project like NeoVim instead. https://github.com/neovim/neovim
>I fail to see how this is better than to use gvim, which is crossplatform, together with NERDTree, CTRL+p + some other language specific plugins that can run on your server, on your desktop (which can be windows, linux or osx, whatever you like).
It's better for people that could not care less using a version that's "cross platform" as the lowest common denominator, and want something that runs well and with native hooks to the platforms they use.
Wow, 1 hour and not one positive comment. I love this. For an user getting started with vim, just the mac-like design for sidebar and File finder is a million times useful.
Damn, I'm sorry there have been so many haters here. Looks like a really cool project and you should totally keep working on it to make it even more appealing over something like MacVim. Excellent job guys!
As an avid MacVim user, I'm really interested in people pushing the graphical vim experience on Mac OS X.
I find it interesting that you included a fuzzy quick-open. One of the pain points with CtrlP in a large project - even with fast hardware - is the synchronous building of its filesystem cache. I would be interested in trying another implementation that lives inside of an app (where it can be dispatched asynchronously).
All in all, a nice looking app! I'm interested in giving it a shot!
Ctrl-p is great but I agree, lack of caching is a signigicant pain point. I raised an issue on that and the author explained it's because there's actually no mechanism for Vimscript to do it, so someone would probably need to come up with some way to spawn headless Vim from a periodic Cronjob. A standalone app like VimR can also route around this constraint.
For those confused, this project uses a fork of macvim that the author himself turned into a framework(osx library) to be used in third party programs. [1]
(Kinda how some linux projects used xembed to embed gvim into their apps, eclim also used to have a mode to embed gvim into eclipse)
Think of it as a proof of concept implementation for a vim editor based on the macvim framework version. At worst, you don't really give a crap. At best you can use this in your own editor/ide/debugger/whatever.
The wording not emulated as mentioned in a post below is in reference to vi emulation in eclipse/idea/sublime/atom/xvim or one of the other 1000 editors that have vi keybindings.
Ps. I'm not affiliated in any way, I still use tmux and console vim, but I've been following this project for a while.
I love the idea. I use terminal Vim as my daily editor, and could see myself switching (at least part-time) to something like this.
Yes, you can achieve all this using plugins like NERDTree and Ctrl-p, but sometimes a polished GUI just provides a better experience than any ncurses-based interface can. And you're not giving anything up in the process—you can still open NERDTree from VimR if you want to.
Hope the negativity here isn't discouraging. I'm really excited to see where this project goes.
I love the negativity in many of the responses here. Obviously people like native apps. Macvim is a thing. Emacs has a gui version for os x. Sublime is a thing. This is a polished port of macvim that has a file drawer, which is a feature that many people want baked into macvim. Browsing complex file hierarchies and large projects isn't great inside a terminal, and is a giant hurdle for many new users of vim.
If this isn't for you then fine but don't rush here to proudly proclaim how you don't understand the point of this. I don't know why anyone submits their pet projects here.
As a MacVim user, I find this intriguing. It seems to work very well for my needs. I particularly like the built-in Markdown preview.
My only gripe so far is that I'd like to be able to configure additional filtering for the fuzzy file find to, for example, make it automatically ignore node_modules folders.
This looks very promising. I use MacVim daily and being able to extend the GUI (like the markdown plugin) sounds awesome.
I already see tons of possible plugin. A simple one would be to have a webkit window which reloads the page when working on a web project, with javascript bindings on the webkit window there is a lot of potential.
Or an OpenGL shader preview for real time GLSL editing.
Could also be simply a documentation browser.
There are many tools I'd like to integrate more with my editor.
To all the haters, use your imagination, it's much more than just vim in the terminal. And I'm well aware that I can have a gazillion window open (web browser, doc browser, shader preview, game window...), but this kind of integration can improve productivity and reduce frustrations.
Looks pretty neat. Good work folks. I wrote a blog post sometime back to setup macvim that looks exactly same as your projects. Good thing is that I don't have to do all that hard work to set it up and just use yours instead. :)
Here is that blog post. http://vinitkumar.me/articles/2014/01/03/Setup-Macvim-for-ma...
Does anybody know how to really close a tab in vim? When I type t on a file to open it in a tab and then type :q, it looks like ist closed. But when I type :ls I see that its still open.
When you write `:ls` you see all the buffers, not tabs. To remove the buffer you can use `:bd :bdel :bdelete` (see `:help :bdel`) which unloads a buffer and deletes it from the bugger list.
Sure. But I want to close the buffer AND the tab. :bd only closes the tab if there are multiple tabs open. It does not close the tab when its the last tab before the file explorer:
1) in the shell run "vim ."
2) hit "t" on a file
3) type ":bd<enter>"
You still have 2 tabs open. One with the file explorer and one with an empty file. Probably because the file explorer has type "nofile" or something, so vim things the buffer you just closed was the last one. Im not sure why its not closing the tab. It might be a bug.
Is there a way to tell vim "When I type :bd close the frickin tab, even if its the last one!"?
I have low enthusiasm for this project because I don't see a big added-value above NerdTree and CtrlP.
But I would love to see more cross-platform Gui wrappers and more embedded Vim. I'm hopeful that NeoVim will help make this happen.
NeoVim seems to be making really good progress. There are packages for installing on OSX and Linux. In my daily use NeoVim has been solid. I love the direction that NeoVim is taking, and believe it will be a great foundation for embedded vim.
Hey, there are some great things in here. I've used it for a bit this morning, and have a couple of comments:
1. I could not figure out how to change the font. I'd love a smaller font.
2. The "show" and "hide" side bar shortcuts should be merged into a single "toggle" shortcut
3. Generally, shortcuts should be more vim-y. If I wanted to do cmd + } I would be using emacs :)
4. could not find a keyboard shortcut to change focus from the editor to the sidebar, so I have to use my mouse there (bad).
5. Quick open does not have vim-like navigation. So I need to use the arrows to select a file in the list. Also, is there a way to set an ignore list? (e.g. ignore all the object files).
6. Long term, it would be amazing if gui actions could be tied to keyboard shortcuts via the vimrc.
Thanks for the feedback! ⌘1 is what you want to focus the sidebar, and <Esc> will take you back to your buffer. We're working on some improvements to the View menu.
68 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 121 ms ] threadFeels like the authors effort would be better spent on helping some project like NeoVim instead. https://github.com/neovim/neovim
It's better for people that could not care less using a version that's "cross platform" as the lowest common denominator, and want something that runs well and with native hooks to the platforms they use.
If you find that there's a specific feature missing, please open an issue. All feedback is appreciated :) This is still very much a work in progress.
[1] https://github.com/qvacua/vimr/wiki/File-Browser-Actions
Thanks Guys for making this!
I find it interesting that you included a fuzzy quick-open. One of the pain points with CtrlP in a large project - even with fast hardware - is the synchronous building of its filesystem cache. I would be interested in trying another implementation that lives inside of an app (where it can be dispatched asynchronously).
All in all, a nice looking app! I'm interested in giving it a shot!
https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim/issues/222
(Kinda how some linux projects used xembed to embed gvim into their apps, eclim also used to have a mode to embed gvim into eclipse)
Think of it as a proof of concept implementation for a vim editor based on the macvim framework version. At worst, you don't really give a crap. At best you can use this in your own editor/ide/debugger/whatever.
The wording not emulated as mentioned in a post below is in reference to vi emulation in eclipse/idea/sublime/atom/xvim or one of the other 1000 editors that have vi keybindings.
Ps. I'm not affiliated in any way, I still use tmux and console vim, but I've been following this project for a while.
[1] https://github.com/qvacua/macvim
Yes, you can achieve all this using plugins like NERDTree and Ctrl-p, but sometimes a polished GUI just provides a better experience than any ncurses-based interface can. And you're not giving anything up in the process—you can still open NERDTree from VimR if you want to.
Hope the negativity here isn't discouraging. I'm really excited to see where this project goes.
If this isn't for you then fine but don't rush here to proudly proclaim how you don't understand the point of this. I don't know why anyone submits their pet projects here.
http://tosbourn.com/vimr-first-look/
My only gripe so far is that I'd like to be able to configure additional filtering for the fuzzy file find to, for example, make it automatically ignore node_modules folders.
I already see tons of possible plugin. A simple one would be to have a webkit window which reloads the page when working on a web project, with javascript bindings on the webkit window there is a lot of potential.
Or an OpenGL shader preview for real time GLSL editing.
Could also be simply a documentation browser.
There are many tools I'd like to integrate more with my editor.
To all the haters, use your imagination, it's much more than just vim in the terminal. And I'm well aware that I can have a gazillion window open (web browser, doc browser, shader preview, game window...), but this kind of integration can improve productivity and reduce frustrations.
1) in the shell run "vim ."
2) hit "t" on a file
3) type ":bdel<enter>"
The tab is still open.
But I understand it's not a very good solution.
1) in the shell run "vim ."
2) hit "t" on a file
3) type ":bd<enter>"
You still have 2 tabs open. One with the file explorer and one with an empty file. Probably because the file explorer has type "nofile" or something, so vim things the buffer you just closed was the last one. Im not sure why its not closing the tab. It might be a bug.
Is there a way to tell vim "When I type :bd close the frickin tab, even if its the last one!"?
But I would love to see more cross-platform Gui wrappers and more embedded Vim. I'm hopeful that NeoVim will help make this happen.
NeoVim seems to be making really good progress. There are packages for installing on OSX and Linux. In my daily use NeoVim has been solid. I love the direction that NeoVim is taking, and believe it will be a great foundation for embedded vim.
1. I could not figure out how to change the font. I'd love a smaller font.
2. The "show" and "hide" side bar shortcuts should be merged into a single "toggle" shortcut
3. Generally, shortcuts should be more vim-y. If I wanted to do cmd + } I would be using emacs :)
4. could not find a keyboard shortcut to change focus from the editor to the sidebar, so I have to use my mouse there (bad).
5. Quick open does not have vim-like navigation. So I need to use the arrows to select a file in the list. Also, is there a way to set an ignore list? (e.g. ignore all the object files).
6. Long term, it would be amazing if gui actions could be tied to keyboard shortcuts via the vimrc.