Vim plugins

Plugin Managers

Various plugin manager. My current favorite is vim-plug.

apt-vim

Fully-automated, Cross-platform Plugin Manager for Vim.

Pathogen

Plugin manager from Tim Pope.

VIM (vim-addon-manager)

VAM manage and install vim plugins (including their dependencies) in a sane way.

vim-plug

Plugin manager from junegunn, author of fzf, vim-easy-align.

Interaction with $HOME version control

If we store our HOME files (dot-files) in git, we can't store the plugins anymore because they are fetched and stored locally as squashed git submodules. We can circumvent this by managing these plugins as git submodules.

First create .gitmodules:

[submodule "ack.vim"]
    path = .vim/plugged/ack.vim
    url = ./.vim/plugged/ack.vim
[submodule "auto-pairs"]
    path = .vim/plugged/auto-pairs
    url = ./.vim/plugged/auto-pairs
[submodule "a.vim"]
    path = .vim/plugged/a.vim
    url = ./.vim/plugged/a.vim

Then create the bare repositories:

git clone --bare /home/peetersm home.git
cd home.git/
mkdir -p .vim/plugged
cd .vim/plugged
for g in ~/.vim/plugged/*; do git clone --bare $g; done

Then, to clone the HOME repository:

git clone --recursive .../home.git

Finally we must update the tags file in vim. Start vim and run PlugInstall!. Ignore the error messages.

Troubleshooting

• Using short path may fail if plugin name has an extension. For instance:

" The following FAILS because of trailing .vim
Plug 'ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim'
" Use the following instead.
Plug 'https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim.git'

• Conditional plugin activation.

See the FAQ.

Plugins

Repositories

• https://github.com/vim-scripts?tab=repositories

A mirror of all plugins originally found on http://www.vim.org/scripts/ ;

• GitHub.

Getting help

• Most plugins come with local help files. Do :help local-additions to get a list of help files for locally installed plugins.

Installed

• snipMate : TextMate-style snippets for Vim
• Engine in VimL: https://github.com/garbas/vim-snipmate (garbas' fork), http://github.com/msanders/snipmate.vim (original, stalled)
• Engine in Python: https://github.com/SirVer/ultisnips
• Snippets definition: https://github.com/honza/vim-snippets
• Another engine, also very powerful but different syntax (not compatible with vim-snippets): https://github.com/drmingdrmer/xptemplate
Some snippets: #### C #### main main() inc #include <...> Inc #include "..." Def #ifndef ... #define ... #endif def #define ifdef #ifdef ... #endif #if #if ... #endif once #ifndef HEADER_H .... # define HEADER_H ... #endif (Header Include-Guard) if If (...) { ... } el else { ... } t ... ? ... : ... (tertiary conditional) do do ... while ( ... ) wh while (...) { ... } for for (... = 0; ...; ...) { ... } forr for (... = ...; ...; ...) { ... } fun ... function(...) { ... } fund ... function(...;) td typedef st struct tds typedef struct tde typedef enum pr printf fpr fprintf . [ ... ] un unsigned #### C++ #### readfile snippet for reading file map std::map<... , ...> map... vector std::vector<...> v... ns namespace ... { ... } cl class { public: ... private: };
• a.vim : Alternate Files quickly (.c --> .h etc) (forked version, the original version)
• AutoTag : Updates entries in a tags file automatically when saving
• surround.vim : Delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags/much more with ease (github)
• Install repeat.vim : Use the repeat command (.) with supported plugins
• tComment : An extensible & universal comment plugin that also handles embedded filetypes
• Smart Tabs : Use tabs for indent, spaces for alignment
• See also Indent with tabs & align with spaces
• cpp.vim: General C++ Settings (no indentation for namespace...)
(disabled highlight of leading tabs, line length overruns, unit test header test + nice AlterColour function that computes new colour...)
• CScope (also mirrored on GitHub)
• Cscope page is available on SourceForge.
• See the tutorial here
• Cscope on Vim Wiki
• One can also use cscope and ctags together
• ClosePairs : Auto closes pairs of characters (simpler than AutoClose, and can also delete pair of braces at once with <BS>).
  Below is a patch that learns ClosePairs to push down the closing brace when typing { twice (inspired from AutoClose plugin).
~/.vim/plugin/closepairs.vim.diff (<file name="closepairs.vim.diff" tag="source">download</file>)

--- a/.vim/plugin/closepairs.vim
+++ b/.vim/plugin/closepairs.vim
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@


 inoremap ( ()<left>
-inoremap { {}<left>
+inoremap <expr> { <SID>openpair('{','}')
 inoremap [ []<left>

 vnoremap <leader>" "zdi"<c-r>z"
@@ -44,6 +44,16 @@ function! s:delpair()
                return "\<bs>"
 endf

+function! s:openpair(left,right)
+       let l:col = col('.')
+       let l:lchr = getline('.')[l:col-2]
+       let l:rchr = getline('.')[l:col-1]
+    if a:left == l:lchr && a:right == l:rchr
+        return "\<esc>a\<CR>;\<CR>".a:right."\<esc>\"_xk$\"_xa"
+    endif
+    return a:left.a:right."\<left>"
+endf
+
 function! s:escapepair(right)

More auto-close plugins or similar:

• https://github.com/cohama/lexima.vim

Tested on NeoVim: undo broken but dot-repeatable (.).

• delimitMate by Israel Chauca Fuentes, https://github.com/Raimondi/delimitMate [1]
• AutoClose by Karl Guertin, https://github.com/vim-scripts/AutoClose [2]
• AutoClose by Thiago Alves, https://github.com/vim-scripts/AutoClose--Alves [3]
• Best so far — Auto Pairs by Miao Jiang, https://github.com/jiangmiao/auto-pairs

Tested on NeoVim: undoable and dot-repeatable (.) (and should be the same on vim 7.4.849+).

• ClosePairs by Edoardo Vacchi, https://github.com/vim-scripts/ClosePairs [4]
• Smartinput by Kana Natsuno, https://github.com/kana/vim-smartinput

breaks undo / dot-repeat (tested on neovim). Nice support of triple apostrophe.

• Simple pairs by Orestis Markou, https://github.com/vim-scripts/simple-pairs [5]

Requires Python.

• vim-autoclose by Townk, https://github.com/Townk/vim-autoclose

Tested on NeoVim: undo broken but dot-repeatable (.).

More on auto-close:

• Explanations on the issue by sharat78.
• All tips and plugins on wikia.com

More on the issue of dot-repeat (with list of plugins):

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/883437/how-do-i-get-vim-to-automatically-put-ending-braces
• Vim BufStat
• MiniBufExplorer questions (closing a buffer, making it invisible, etc.) (use d in minibufexpl, :set hidden to navigate to other buf even if current modified)
• Can we remap :q to :bd only when 2 or more buffer opened?
• An alternative is buftabs: Minimalistic buffer tabs saving screen space (more at StackOverflow - An alternative to minibufexplorer (vim)?)
• StackOverflow - MiniBufExplorer and NERD_Tree closing buffers unexpected behavior: See tip165 - bclose + custom mapping below, :bd might just be good enough though...

" GRB: use fancy buffer closing that doesn't close the split
cnoremap <expr> bd (getcmdtype() == ':' ? 'Bclose' : 'bd')

• LustyExplorer : Dynamic filesystem and buffer explore
• FuzzyFinder : buffer/file/command/tag/etc explorer with fuzzy matching
• Alternative, Command-T (inspired from TextMate)
• See also Super-Finder in Vim (using FuzzyFinder)
• After :set path=/path/to/project/**, one can do :find filename.ext (See [6], more details at [7])
• To find a file in a sub-directory, use the fuzzy query **/filename
• vim-latex (documentation
• Align : Help folks to align text, eqns, declarations, tables, etc (see examples)
• Sparkup — A parser for a condensed HTML format
Use ^e in edit mode to extend sparkup text, and ^n to go to next empty item. Some examples (more at Zen Coding:

div#page.section.main
div[title] 
a[title="Hello world" rel] 
td[colspan=2]
ul > li*5
li.item$$$*3
div#page>(div#header>ul#nav>li*4>a)+(div#page>(h1>span)+p*2)+div#footer
#content>.section
div#content>div.section
p>{Click }+a{here}+{ to continue}

• matchit.zip : extended % matching for HTML, LaTeX, and many other languages
• vimwiki : Personal Wiki for Vim (on GitHub)
• S-CR to continue list.
To quote a text block with {{{ ... }}} in visual mode, add to ~/.vim/ftplugin/vimwiki_custom.vim:

" Quote a block of text with {{{ }}} in visual mode
:vmap gq DO {{{<CR><ESC>P

• Silver search Vim plugin for the_silver_searcher, 'ag'
• Add this to bundle/ag/plugin/ag.vim to add command :ag instead of :Ag [8]:

cboreabbrev ag <c-r>=(getcmdtype()=':' && getcmdpos()==1 ? 'Ag' : 'ag')<CR>

And combined with plugin Ctrl-P (see below):

" CtrlP
" -----
"  Use AG for look-up. See https://robots.thoughtbot.com/faster-grepping-in-vim
if executable('ag')
  " Use ag over grep - See ag man page for option '--vimgrep'
  set grepprg=ag\ --vimgrep\ $*
  set grepformat=%f:%l:%c:%m

  " Use ag in CtrlP for listing files. Lightning fast and respects .gitignore
  let g:ctrlp_user_command = 'ag %s -l --nocolor -g ""'

  " ag is fast enough that CtrlP doesn't need to cache
  let g:ctrlp_use_caching = 0

  " AG
  " --
  " bind K to grep word under cursor
  nnoremap K :grep! "\b<C-R><C-W>\b"<CR>:cw<CR>
endif

• Ctrl-P : Fuzzy file, buffer, mru, tag, ... finder with regexp support (home,github,active fork) (if using ag, see this and [9])
• conque.vim: Run interactive commands inside a Vim buffer.
• mcf-make-target: Persistent make target in Vim
This plugin lets Vim to store the last arguments passed to make, and use that argument when make is invoked without arguments. For ease, define the following macro:

:nmap <F5> :wa<CR>:Make<CR>:cw<CR>             # Note the capital M to Make

To build a custom target:

:Make <targetname>           # first invocation. Store targetname for future use
<F5>                         # next

Not yet installed

• OmniCppComplete : C/C++ omni-completion with ctags database
• c.vim : C/C++ IDE -- Write and run programs. Insert statements, idioms, comments etc.
• winmanager : A windows style IDE for Vim 6.0 (Referenced in TagList plugin help)
• bufexplorer.zip : Buffer Explorer / Browser
• neocomplcache : Ultimate auto completion system for Vim
• project.tar.gz : Organize/Navigate projects of files (like IDE/buffer explorer)
• AutoClose : Auto close pair of characters (Another version with same name than the one I tried below)
• See also dedicated tip entry: Automatically append closing characters
• SuperTab continued : Do all your insert-mode completion with Tab
• Tim Pope's commentary: comment stuff out (referenced from Practical Vim)
• textobj-entire: Text objects for entire buffer (referenced from Practical Vim)
• LaTeX Box : Lightweight Toolbox for LaTeX
• unite.vim : Unite and create user interfaces (for more WOW factor, check this blog or the homepage)
• Plugin from OSCON 2013: "More Instantly Better Vim" - Damian Conway:
• autoswap.mac (manage automatically swap file — Mac only)
• vmath.mac (compute sums, averages, min and max)
• vis.vim (let : commands to act on visual blocks, not the full lines)
• visualdrags (allows moving / duplicate visual)
• closeb : Close complex brackets or tags
An extended version of closetag.vim. Press ^_ to automatically close current tag (HTML, XML, LaTeX...)
• Gist : vimscript for gist
• functionlist.vim : This plugin makes it easy to navigate between functions in a long file.
• ShowFunc.vim : Creates a list of all tags / functions from a window, all windows or buffers.
• taglist.vim : Source code browser (supports C/C++, java, perl, python, tcl, sql, php, etc)
• DeleteTrailingWhitespace : Delete unwanted whitespace at the end of lines
Currently using custom mapping / autocmd (see below).
• vim-easy-align

Some videos that illustrates those plugins:

• Top Vim Plugins (YouTube), showing Surround, SnipMate, TComment, MRU, FuzzyFinder, NerdTree, MatchIt
• Another list of nice plugins (MRU, SnipMate, VimExplorer)

Uninstalled

• easytags.vim : Automated tag file generation and syntax highlighting of tags in Vim
• Replaced by AutoTag — syntax highlighting of tags is limited to c files; moreover AutoTag has a clever way to look for the tags file in project hierarchy.
• AutoClose : Inserts matching bracket, paren, brace or quote
  Don't like it much because inserting the closing pair will jump out of nested pair, which is annoying when one try to simply insert a closing brace (but a solution is to use the Surrond plugin to surround some selected text with braces).
• trinity.vim : Build the trinity of srcexpl, taglist, NERD_tree to be a good IDE
• Source Explorer (srcexpl.vim) : A Source code Explorer based on tags works like context window in Source Insight
• taglist.vim : Source code browser (supports C/C++, java, perl, python, tcl, sql, php, etc)
• The NERD tree : A tree explorer plugin for navigating the filesystem
~/.vim/plugin/trinity.vim.diff (<file name="trinity.vim.diff" tag="source">download</file>)

--- trinity.vim	2009-12-22 19:50:06.000000000 +0100
+++ trinity-new.vim	2010-07-06 01:24:28.000000000 +0200
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@
     " Set the window width
     let g:Tlist_WinWidth = 24
     " Sort by the order
-    let g:Tlist_Sort_Type = "order"
+    let g:Tlist_Sort_Type = "name"
     " Do not display the help info
     let g:Tlist_Compact_Format = 1
     " If you are the last, kill yourself
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@
     " Do not show folding tree
     let g:Tlist_Enable_Fold_Column = 0
     " Always display one file tags
-    let g:Tlist_Show_One_File = 1
+    let g:Tlist_Show_One_File = 0
 
 endfunction " }}}

~/.vim/plugin/taglist.vim.diff (<file name="taglist.vim.diff" tag="source">download</file>)

--- taglist.vim	2007-09-21 18:11:20.000000000 +0200
+++ taglist-new.vim	2010-07-06 01:08:11.000000000 +0200
@@ -3207,14 +3207,7 @@
             if a:win_ctrl == 'newwin'
                 split
             endif
+		    " 20100706 - MIP PATCH BEGIN - USE badd / buffer! so that we can
+		    " switch files even when current buffer changes are not written ----
+		    if !bufexists(a:filename)
+		        exe "badd " . escape(a:filename, ' ')
+		    endif
+		    exe "buffer! " . escape(a:filename, ' ')
+		    " exe "edit " . escape(a:filename, ' ')
+		    " 20100706 - MIP PATCH END -----
-            exe "edit " . escape(a:filename, ' ')
         else
             " Open a new window
             if g:Tlist_Use_Horiz_Window

~/.vim/plugin/taglist.vim.diff (<file name="taglist.vim.diff" tag="source">download</file>)

--- taglist.vim	2011-06-27 00:32:33.000000000 +0200
+++ taglist-new.vim	2011-06-27 00:37:23.000000000 +0200
@@ -1552,6 +1552,8 @@
                 \ :call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('useopen')<CR>
     nnoremap <buffer> <silent> o
                 \ :call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('newwin')<CR>
+    nnoremap <buffer> <silent> O
+                \ :call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('newwinv')<CR>
     nnoremap <buffer> <silent> p
                 \ :call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('preview')<CR>
     nnoremap <buffer> <silent> P
@@ -1592,6 +1594,8 @@
                 \ <C-o>:call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('useopen')<CR>
     inoremap <buffer> <silent> o
                 \ <C-o>:call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('newwin')<CR>
+    inoremap <buffer> <silent> O
+                \ <C-o>:call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('newwinv')<CR>
     inoremap <buffer> <silent> p
                 \ <C-o>:call <SID>Tlist_Window_Jump_To_Tag('preview')<CR>
     inoremap <buffer> <silent> P
@@ -3206,6 +3210,10 @@
             " the existing window into two.
             if a:win_ctrl == 'newwin'
                 split
+            " 20110627 - MIP PATCH BEGIN - Allow vertical split -----
+            elseif a:win_ctrl == 'newwinv'
+                vsplit
+            " 20110627 - MIP PATCH END -----
             endif
 			" 20100706 - MIP PATCH BEGIN - USE badd / buffer! so that we can
 			" switch files even when current buffer changes are not written ----
@@ -3265,6 +3273,10 @@
         " existing window into two.
         if a:win_ctrl == 'newwin'
             split
+        " 20110627 - MIP PATCH BEGIN - Allow vertical split -----
+        elseif a:win_ctrl == 'newwinv'
+                vsplit
+        " 20110627 - MIP PATCH END -----
         endif
     endif
     endif
@@ -3313,6 +3325,7 @@
 " Jump to the location of the current tag
 " win_ctrl == useopen - Reuse the existing file window
 " win_ctrl == newwin - Open a new window
+" win_ctrl == newwinv - Open a new window (vertical)
 " win_ctrl == preview - Preview the tag
 " win_ctrl == prevwin - Open in previous window
 " win_ctrl == newtab - Open in new tab

• minibufexpl.vim : Elegant buffer explorer - takes very little screen space
• 1st attempt: No real tab support. Seems to interfere with trinity plugin. Interesting key bindings inside though. To reassess...
• 2nd attempt: Don't care about tabs, the idea is to fully replace tabs with buffers since most plugins interface better with buffers. Disabled
trinity plugin.
• Closing a buffer: Use d in minibufexpl window to close a buffer, or :bd[elete] seems to work most of the time.
• Uninstalled because found better alternative (bufstat)

• Someone is working on improving minibufexpl (v6.4)

• LustyJuggler: Switch very quickly among your active buffers
• Removed because I don't use it (LustyExplorer, NERDTree and FuzzyFinder are much better alternatives)
• Latex Text Formatter : This scripts makes it easier to format latex text
• Does not work well (line too short, line merge too aggressive)
• calendar.vim - A calendar application for Vim
• :Calendar to launch. < and > to cycle through views, E and T to view Event list or Task list.
• :Calendar 2001 1 1 to focus a specific date.
My settings in .vimrc:

" ----- Vim-Calendar ---------------------------------------------------------
let g:calendar_week_number=1
let g:calendar_first_day='monday'

• diffchanges.vim : Show changes made to current buffer since the last save
• Never used. Functionality quite limited (only compared with last save). And if file is stored in Git, plugin fugitive is a much better alternative.
• mru.vim : Plugin to manage Most Recently Used (MRU) files
• Never used. And same functionality is available in Ctrl-P plugin anyway.
~/.vim/plugin/mru.vim.diff (<file name="mru.vim.diff" tag="source">download</file>)

--- mru-old.vim	2010-06-29 00:45:59.000000000 +0200
+++ mru.vim	2010-07-22 14:14:19.000000000 +0200
@@ -657,7 +657,12 @@
                 let wcmd = '+buffer' . bufnum
             endif
 
-            exe 'silent! botright ' . g:MRU_Window_Height . 'split ' . wcmd
+            " MIP PATCH BEGIN - :botright conflicts with TagList + QuickFix windows
+            " if I have TagList + QuickFix window opened, calling :MRU multiple times makes the QuickFix window to grow
+            " endlessly
+            " exe 'silent! botright ' . g:MRU_Window_Height . 'split ' . wcmd
+            exe 'silent! ' . g:MRU_Window_Height . 'split ' . wcmd
+            " MIP PATCH END
         endif
     endif

• git:file.vim : open any version of a file in git
For instance, to open file filename.c at commit HEAD~4:

vim HEAD~4:./filename.c

• Never used. Similar functionality available in plugin fugitive.