[Feature]: plugin integrations

[mrjones2014]

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Description

Just toying with an idea, what if we could integrate with various other plugins that add default keymaps? For example diffview.nvim adds a bunch of keymaps when diffview is open, we could built an integration that would automatically show them in the legendary finder.

[doctoromer]

I tried to integrate it with packer.nvim and failed. My goal is to have keymaps of lazy-loaded plugins displayed in the legendary API before the plugin is actually loaded.
I tried to use the helpers module, but it clashes with packer's bindings for lazy loading.

[mrjones2014]

For now you should be able to manually add the keymaps to legendary. There isn’t a great way to do it automatically at the moment.

I need to put a lot more thought into this.

[mrjones2014]

We’ll be starting with nvim-tree. My comment from #289:

Hey there, this is awesome, thanks for filing the issue!

This may be better suited actually for #184, nvim-tree is probably a good candidate for a first one for a proof of concept.

I'm not sure exactly what they will look like, but I have a few ideas. The best idea I have currently is along the lines of:

Legendary.nvim must be loaded before other plugins. We have a set of plugins, or plugins can be provided by the other plugin itself, at legendary.plugins.[plugin name]. This way, plugins can be looked up dynamically; that is, if they wanted to, nvim-tree could provide its own legendary.nvim integration by adding lua/legendary/plugins/nvim_tree.lua in their repo, just for an example.

The plugin is just a plugin-specific script that must handle registering its keymaps, commands, autocmds, and functions. It may set up autocmds to do so on BufEnter for example, or it may call some custom logic to determine the correct buffer to attach to.

So for this example, and nvim-tree / legendary.nvim plugin would look like:

User's config:

require('legendary').setup({
  plugins = {
    nvim_tree = true,
  }
})

File: lua/legendary/plugins/nvim_tree.lua

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('FileType', {
  pattern = 'NvimTree',
  once = true,
  callback = function()
        local   nvimtreemappings = require("nvim-tree.keymap").keymaps
        local   keystodisable    = vim.tbl_map(function(e) return e.key end, nvimtreemappings)
        -- Set up Legendary plugin keybindigns
        local keymaps = vim.tbl_map(function(e)
            -- just set up a description-only keymap
            local entry = {}
            entry.mode  = "n"
            entry[1]    = e.key        -- Key
            if type(e.key) == "table" then entry[1] = e.key[1] end
            entry.description = "Nvim-tree: " .. e.desc
            entry.opts = { buffer = bufnr, noremap = true }
            return entry
        end, nvimtreemappings)
        require('legendary').keymaps(keymaps)
  end
})

[mrjones2014]

See also:

• Expose DEFAULT_KEYMAPS And Current Mappings nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua#1858
• Event.TreeAttachedPost nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua#1869

[hinell]

@mrjones2014 You may also want to take a look at how persisted.nvim deals with Telescope integration over here.

[hinell]

@mrjones2014 Minor feedback here. I think Legendary dont' needs a sophisticated module-resolving system akin to Telescope one. The best way to handle plugins IMO by registering a plugin table (object) with a meta information and init function that is provided by api instance e.g.:

   local legendary = require("legendary")
   legendary.plugins:add({
      name = "FooPlugin",
      init = function(api)
         api.register({ keymaps = { ... } })
      end
)

I have seen this approach many times in Web development tools.

[mrjones2014]

I disagree.

This doesn't allow the user to easily load only the plugins they want, unless you mean the user will be writing the snippet you gave above themselves, in which case I think that's just really un-ergonomic. This also doesn't easily allow other plugin authors to provide their own legendary.nvim plugin integrations.

I have seen this approach many times in Web development tools.

That's an extremely different use case.

[hinell]

@mrjones2014 Flexibility may be achieved both by consumers and plugin-writers:

    -- init.lua
    local PluginA = require("cool/legendary/extensionA")
    local PluginB = require("cool/legendary/extensionB")
    local PluginC = require("myExtensions/legendary/keymaps")
             
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginA)
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginB)
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginC)
    legendary.plugins:add({
        name = "foo-keymaps"
        init = function(legendaryApi) ... end
    })

[mrjones2014]

That's a lot less ergonomic than just being able to do:

require('legendary').setup({
  plugins = {
    plugin_a = true,
    plugin_b = true,
  },
})

It also potentially breaks lazy-loading setups.

Is there any actual downside to a module resolution system like I described above? I see only benefits, and I see many downsides with your suggested approach, with no benefit over the module resolution system.

[hinell]

@mrjones2014 Well this way it's too simplified. It's going to be a nightmare if two different modules use the same name. It also deprives user from a control over module system.

This way you also can't add plugins on the fly.

Upd: and I don't even know how you are going to sanely debug plugins cause this way of configuration is basically a black box

[hinell]

Any progress on this?

I have a question about package manager status intergration. Like, how would a third-party plugin check that Legendary.nvim is installed? In packer we can do:

local L = packer_plugins["legendary.nvim"]
if L and L.loaded) then
 ...
end

UPD: Turns out we can use pcall() like:

local ok, mod = pcall(require, "Legendary")

[mrjones2014]

Haven’t made any progress yet, I have been abroad in the Netherlands, so I haven’t had time to work on open source lately.

[mrjones2014]

Looking into this again, we also need: nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua#1895

[mrjones2014]

We could technically do it by re-binding the keymaps in nvim-tree's on_attach but then we'd be creating duplicate keymaps every time you open nvim-tree.

[mrjones2014]

This should be possible now, by setting the keymaps generated to have filters = { filetype = 'NvimTree' }

[hinell]

@mrjones2014 Please add docs & examples on how to implement extensions. Thanks.

Upd, seems like it's done via filters. Not very obvious....

[mrjones2014]

Filters are one of a few tools you can use. I consider the API unstable currently, as is noted in the docs. I’m still iterating in it, I will add thorough docs once I feel like it’s in a good place.

[airtonix]

@mrjones2014 Flexibility may be achieved both by consumers and plugin-writers:

    -- init.lua
    local PluginA = require("cool/legendary/extensionA")
    local PluginB = require("cool/legendary/extensionB")
    local PluginC = require("myExtensions/legendary/keymaps")
             
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginA)
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginB)
    legendary.plugins:add(PluginC)
    legendary.plugins:add({
        name = "foo-keymaps"
        init = function(legendaryApi) ... end
    })

That's a lot less ergonomic than just being able to do:

require('legendary').setup({
  plugins = {
    plugin_a = true,
    plugin_b = true,
  },
})

It also potentially breaks lazy-loading setups.

Is there any actual downside to a module resolution system like I described above? I see only benefits, and I see many downsides with your suggested approach, with no benefit over the module resolution system.

This is the composition vs configuration as convetion approach.

ruby on rails went down the latter. you'll end spending the rest of your life tweaking offical default configs due to n+inifity requests in tickets.

I mean, you should step back and rexamine what it really is you're trying to achieve:

• cool plugin system?
• a super god like config convention that's tricky: "lol i anticipated every possible edge case, so just put yourpluginname = true"
• registering other plugins keymaps so the user has superior UX?

I dare say the actual goal here is :

registering other plugins keymaps so the user has superior UX?

In which case, have you discussed monkey patching the nvim keymap functions so you catch all and any keymaps? This seems entirely relevant to: #258

[mrjones2014]

a super god like config convention that's tricky: "lol i anticipated every possible edge case, so just put yourpluginname = true"

Tells me you have not bothered reading the documentation or look at the actual implementation that was merged, so that's super cool. Only a moron could think they've anticipated every possible edge case.

registering other plugins keymaps so the user has superior UX?

Yes that's the goal.

have you discussed monkey patching the nvim keymap functions so you catch all and any keymaps

This decreases control, it doesn't tell us the source of a keymap, and it doesn't allow users to have some but not all keymaps in their legendary.nvim config. Sometimes you don't want everything in the finder, just the stuff you don't use all the time or don't always remember the keymap or command.

Finally, don't be a dick 🙂

[hinell]

Sorry for bothering, but it if ever legendary should not be responsible for configuring plugins. this should always be done at require("plugin").setup(). I just came from Telescope.nvim and can already tell you how bad it is. It would be a major design flaw.

Thanks.