Vim IS a capable IDE [was Re: Vim capable IDE?]

[Chris Lambacher]

Most of this stuff can be done in Vim or Emacs.  I only know the details for
Vim, see below.  I don't know why people are insistant on claiming that Vim
and Emacs can't do these kinds of things.  They are, it just may take a bit
more work to set up.  The advantage to this extra work is that you can make it
work the way you want it to.

Both Emacs and Vim have powerful languages for defining extensions to them.
In the case of Vim you can use its own language or one of Python, Perl, Ruby,
Tcl (perhapse more?).

-Chris

On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 12:28:17PM -0700, Chris Lasher wrote:
> Thanks again for your responses, guys. To answer the question,the
> features I'd love to see in a Python IDE are:
> 
> * First and foremost, Vim editing behavior. Let me keep my fingers on
> the homerow. I'm lazy. Point and click and CTRL + SHIFT has its
> moments, but text editing is not one of them.
> 
> * Graphical symbolic debugger: the course I'm auditing, Software
> Carpentry, by Greg Wilson of University of Toronto, devoted a whole
> lecture to debuggers. See
> http://www.third-bit.com/swc/www/debugging.html . So now I want to try
> this crazy thing. I love the idea of being able to watch the values of
> variables change in "realtime" as the program runs, from the
> convenience of a little side window. I also love the concept of not
> having to insert debugging code into the production code--just a click
> in the left column and you set the debugging command. Keep the
> production code clean by putting the debugging commands outside the
> program.
There are several Debugger plugins for VIm:
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script_search_results.php?keywords=debugger&script_type=&order_by=rating&direction=descending&search=search

They may all be for GDB, but if you can do it for GDB, you can do it with VIm.
Also, since you can embed the python interpreter in VIm, you should be able to
have even tighter control on a python debugger than a GDB debugger.

> 
> * Source browser: the ability to jump back and forth between specific
> blocks of code very quickly, and to see the overall layout of the file
> in terms of classes, methods, functions, etc. I want the big picture in
> a side window to keep me on task and remind me of how far I've come
> when I start feeling bogged down in details.

There are a million and one plugins to do this, search on vim.org

> 
> * Autocompletion: PythonWin by ActiveState has nice autocompletion.
> When I import a module, it can dive down into those namespaces and
> allow autocompletion on them. That's a nice, productive feature.
> 
Default part of VIm
:help ctags
:help completion

> * Usage tips/tooltips: Also something I found in PythonWin. During the
> writing of the method, a little tip box pops up advising me what the
> inputs are for a method or an instance construction for a class. Very
> nice, very productive.
VIm 7 may support that out of the box since there were a lot of supporter
votes for it:
http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php

I think there are some plugins that will do this for you by updating the
status area.


> 
> * Linux compatibility: Nothing against Microsoft, or Apple, I just like
> to use a Linux box more.
> 
> It seems like the IDEs I've looked at have most of the features, but
> none do Vim. Crazy.
> 
> I agree that you can do all your coding using just Vim. That's how I've
> been doing it. But following along with Greg Wilson's Software
> Carpentry has made me realize that I could be more productive using the
> additional, apparently now-standard tools of a good IDE. I just don't
> want to sacrifice productivity in in keystrokes. It just seems like a
> compromise programmers shouldn't have to make.
> 
> the other Chris
> 
> Chris Lambacher wrote:
> > I would second that.  I use Vim for editing.  I find I don't need an IDE (not
> > even for C/C++).  Vim does everything I need.  If I want a debugger I will use
> > the shell debugger.  Most other things can be added to Vim, though I tend to
> > run with very few plugins.
> >
> > -Chris
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 05:12:30PM +0000, Ron Adam wrote:
> > > What features are you looking for.  I think most Vim users just add what
> > > they want to Vim.
> > >
> 
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