acme.vim

Bringing the spirit of Plan 9 acme to vim.

• Open files, directories and other things with the right mouse button:

  Most of the time a simple right-click on some text opens the item under the cursor. If this does not work (e.g. a filename containing spaces) the item has to be selected more carefully by either dragging the mouse while holding down the right button or by selecting the item and then right-clicking the selection.

  Right-clicking a file name followed by a line number or a search string goes to the specified position in the file. This is useful for error messages and other grep-like output.

  Items can also be opened with the O command.

• Execute external commands with the middle mouse button:

  A simple middle-click executes cWORD. The command can be selected more carefully by dragging the mouse while holding down the middle button or by selecting it and then middle-clicking the selection.

  Commands are run in the directory containing the current file (useful for guide files).

  By default the output of commands is put into a +Errors buffer. Each directory has its own such buffer.

  Commands are associated with their output buffer and are listed in the status lines of the buffer's windows. The commands of a buffer are killed when the last of its windows is closed.

  Commands can have the same IO prefixes as in Plan 9 acme (<, >, |). They work across windows: It is possible to select text in one window and format it by middle-clicking |fmt in another window.

  The selected text is given as an argument to the command if it has no IO prefix and visual mode is active before middle-clicking it.

  Additionally acme.vim supports the new prefix ^: The output of the command goes to a new scratch window.

  Commands can also be started with the R command. All commands of the current buffer or the ones matching a given pattern can be killed with the K command.

• Manage windows with the mouse:

  A window can be closed by middle-clicking its layout box at the beginning of its status bar. The space of the closed window is put into the focused one if they are in the same column.

  A window can be moved by dragging its status bar while holding down the right mouse button. The window is moved above or below the one over which the button is released if both of them are in the same column. Otherwise the dragged window is re-opened as a new split of the window under the mouse.

  Right-clicking a status bar resizes the windows above it. The available space is distributed equally among them. But each window is limited to the number of lines in its buffer and any saved space is given to the windows above.

  A window can be moved to a new column by right-clicking its layout box.

• Send text to commands:

  Middle-clicking in scratch windows sends the text to the command running in the window instead of executing it. Middle-clicking anywhere in a scratch window from another window in visual mode sends that window's selection. This is useful for evaluating part of a buffer in a REPL.

• Commands open files in the vim instance they are running in:

  This makes it possible to run git commit and edit the commit message in a new window.

  This works by setting the $EDITOR environment variable. The editor run by the command will exit once all of its given files are no longer visible in any windows.

  This needs an optional helper program to be compiled. Please see the installation instructions below on how to do this.

Installation

You can install acme.vim with your favorite package manager or with vim's builtin package support:

git clone https://github.com/xyb3rt/acme.vim.git \
	~/.vim/pack/xyb3rt/start/acme.vim

If you want external commands to open files in the vim instance they are running in, then compile the avim helper program written in C:

make -C ~/.vim/pack/xyb3rt/start/acme.vim/bin avim

Configuration

acme.vim supports rudimentary plumbing via the global g:acme_plumbing variable. Here is an example to get right-clickable URLs, man pages, git refs/ranges and scripts in $PATH, that you can add to your ~/.vimrc:

let g:acme_plumbing = [
	\ ['<https?\:\/\/(\f|[-.~!*;:@&=+$,/?#%])+', {m ->
		\ AcmePlumb('', 'setsid xdg-open', m[0])}],
	\ ['(\f{-1,})\s*\((\d\a*)\)', {m ->
		\ AcmePlumb(m[1].'('.m[2].')', 'man', m[2], m[1])}],
	\ ['(\f|[@{}~^])*\.\.\.?(\f|[@{}~^])*', {m ->
		\ AcmePlumb('git:'.m[0], 'git log -s --left-right', m[0])}],
	\ ['(\f|[@{}~^])+', {m ->
		\ AcmePlumb('git:'.m[0], 'git show --format=fuller -p --stat '.
			\ '--decorate', m[0])}],
	\ ['\f+', {m -> m[0] !~ '/' && AcmeOpen(exepath(m[0]), '')}]]

To get simple right-clickable directory listings you have to disable vim's builtin netrw plugin by adding the following line to your ~/.vimrc:

let g:loaded_netrwPlugin=1