2.5. Vim Plugins

Supertab

maketecheasier

Github repo

Using Supertab

The SuperTab plugin can be used to avoid needing to press Ctrl-X then Ctrl-O to invoke the popup completion menu. With SuperTab installed, the following setting means you can just press Tab instead.

let g:SuperTabDefaultCompletionType = "<C-X><C-O>"

You may also try the context value, which lets SuperTab decide which completion mode to use and should play well with OmniCompletion:

let g:SuperTabDefaultCompletionType = "context"

Surround

Github repo

Press cs"' inside

"Hello world!"

to change it to

'Hello world!'

Now press cs'<q> to change it to

<q>Hello world!</q>

To go full circle, press cst" to get

"Hello world!"

To remove the delimiters entirely, press ds".

Hello world!

Now with the cursor on "Hello", press ysiw] (iw is a text object).

[Hello] world!

Let's make that braces and add some space (use } instead of { for no space): cs]{

{ Hello } world!

Now wrap the entire line in parentheses with yssb or yss).

({ Hello } world!)

Revert to the original text: ds{ds)

Hello world!

Emphasize hello: ysiw<em>

<em>Hello</em> world!

Finally, let's try out visual mode. Press a capital V (for linewise visual mode) followed by S<p class="important">.

<p class="important">
  <em>Hello</em> world!
</p>

This plugin is very powerful for HTML and XML editing, a niche which currently seems underfilled in Vim land. (As opposed to HTML/XML inserting, for which many plugins are available). Adding, changing, and removing pairs of tags simultaneously is a breeze.

The . command will work with ds, cs, and yss if you install repeat.vim.

Vim-dict

Github repo

Usage

To lookup a word (or words) in the dictionary use Dict command:

:Dict hello
:Dict start up

The Dict command uses hosts and databases defined in the g:dict_hosts global list. By default it is set to [["dict.org", ["all"]]] (the format will be explained a bit later).

Dict command can use a word under the cursor. Just move the cursor to a word and type in the command line:

:Dict

The same works on selection - just select multiple words in the Visual mode.

The :Dict command will open a preview window. To close that window you may run :pc, or just hit q if the Dict window is the active one.

Configuration

There are just a few global variables (options) you may set in the .vimrc file.

• g:dict_hosts

The most important one is a list g:dict_hosts mentioned earlier. It combines hosts/databases used by vim-dict. The list entries are lists themselves and share the following format:

["host_name", ["database1", "database2", ...]]

The sample extract from someone's ~/.vimrc file could look like this:

let g:dict_hosts = [
\["dict.org", ["all"]],
\["dict.mova.org", ["slovnyk_en-pl", "slovnyk_pl-en"]]
\]

Moreover vim-dict can help you figure out what databases are available on your servers. There is a special command for this:

:DictShowDb

You can even open your .vimrc and provide some host urls only:

let g:dict_hosts = [
  \["dict.org", []],
    \["dict.mova.org", []]
\]

Then save and reload .vimrc, perform DictShowDb and yank-paste the databases you want :).

The list of DICT servers can be found on the Internet, e.g.here.

notes.vim

peterodding

Github repo

My notes on notes.vim

TwitVim

Githup repo

Use TinyURL for URL shortner. My notes on TwitVim

## Using Vim-pathogen for vim-plugins

I am using Neobundle now.

Vim-pathogen

Installing a plugin

cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone git://github.com/username/plugin-name.git

Once you installed run the following to install help tags. This will generate documentation on every directory in 'runtimepath'.

# you can check your runtimepath
:set runtimepath?

# Install doc
:Helptags

If this doesn't work then add the following to your .vimrc

set runtimepath^=~/.vim/bundle/newpluginname

Then run this in vim

:helptags ~/.vim/bundle/newpluginname/doc

ctrlp.vim

ctrlp.vim

Read this installation guide

This is similar to NERDTree but it opens multiple files at once and create new files and directories as well.

# Using ctrlp
^p # ctrl + p and type 
# to create a file
crtl+p 
../newdir/newfile.md
ctrl+y
# more details check help
:h ctrlp-input-format
# and read f)