Editing Integrate gvim with Visual Studio

{{TipImported
|id=683
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|created=2004
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|author=Jon Heiner
|version=6.0
|rating=46/23
|category1=Compiler
|category2=Windows
}}
On Windows systems, there are several ways to integrate Vim with Microsoft Visual Studio.

==Integration of Vim with Visual Studio 2003 and later==
===Control Visual Studio from Vim===
Script {{script|id=864|text=visual_studio.vim}}{{anchor|MetaCosm VisVim Disinterest}} includes features:
*Compatible with Visual Studio 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2010
*Control Visual Studio from within Vim.
*Load the current Visual Studio file into Vim.
*Load the current Vim file into Visual Studio.
*Compile the current file (C/C++) within Vim.
*Build the current project (C/C++/C#) within Vim.
*Load results from Visual Studio into the Vim quickfix file.

'''IF YOU GET ERRORS''', especially E887, you may need to copy some pywin32 files around to allow your system to find them. See http://code.google.com/p/vim-visual-studio/issues/detail?id=2 and http://stackoverflow.com/a/20017920/1390430.

===Making Visual Studio's editor work like Vim===
[http://www.viemu.com/ ViEmu for Visual Studio] is commercial software that emulates Vim editing commands within Visual Studio (Vim is not used).

[http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/59ca71b3-a4a3-46ca-8fe1-0e90e3f79329 VsVim] is an open source Vim emulator (code at https://github.com/jaredpar/VsVim ). It is only available for all editions of Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015 excluding Express Edition, and as with viemu does not use Vim.

===Vim as an external tool===
If you like Vim and use MS Visual Studio .NET for debugging and want a lightweight way to open the file you're currently debugging in VS in Vim, you can add Vim as an external tool. This will let you use a single keystroke to open the current VS file in vim with the cursor at the same line and even at the same column.

'''The Tool:''' In Visual Studio, Tools > External Tools > Add:
*''Title:'' <code>&Vim</code>
*''Command:'' <code>C:\Vim\vim73\gvim.exe</code>
*''Arguments:''
<pre>--servername gVimStudio --remote-silent +"execute 'normal! $(CurLine)G$(CurCol)|'" "$(ItemFileName)$(ItemExt)"</pre>
<pre>NOTE: for visual Studio 2017 I needed to use:

</pre>
 --servername gVimStudio --remote-silent +"execute 'normal! $(CurLine)G$(CurCol)|'" "$(ItemPath)" 
*''Initial directory:'' <code>$(ItemDir)</code>

Note that, if you are using tabs for indenting, this will only place the cursor on the correct column if you have tabs set to display as the same width in both Vim and Visual Studio.

If you have other settings you'd like to apply (like ''normal zz'' to centre the cursor or updating ''path'' for '':[[Project_browsing_using_find|find]]'', then you can put them in ''$HOME/vimfiles/visualstudioinvoke.vim'' and add ''+"runtime visualstudioinvoke.vim"'' before ''$(ItemFileName)''. <code>$HOME</code> is either the %HOME% environment variable if one is defined, or Vim determines an appropriate directory which you can see by doing <code>:echo $HOME</code> within Vim.

'''The Shortcut:''' In Visual Studio, Tools -> Options -> Keyboard:
*''Command:'' ExternalCommand1 (it's easiest if you move your Vim external tool to be the first, otherwise use the correct index).
*''Shortcut key:'' F1

This will allow you to use your key combination to open the current file at the current line and cursor in a new vim browser. The browser will start at the directory of that file, so ':e .' will edit the directory of that file.

Remove the <code>--servername VimStudio</code> part if you want it to open a new instance of Vim each time.

'''Preventing Nagging:''' In order to effectively use the two together and make sure .NET does not complain about its files changing, goto Tools > Options > Environment > Documents and ensure these two options are checked:
*Detect when file is changed outside the environment.
*Auto-load changes (if not currently modified inside the environment).

In your visualstudioinvoke.vim, enable autoread so vim will update files when they're modified in Visual Studio:
 set autoread

See [[Use Vim like an IDE]] for some useful plugins to help you stay in Vim longer.

====Using old versions of Vim====
'''Note:''' Only old versions of Vim include sendtovim.exe.

'''The Tool:''' In Visual Studio, Tools > Customize > Tools:
*''Title:'' <code>&Vim</code>
*''Command:'' <code>C:\Vim\vim51\sendtovim.exe</code>
*''Arguments:'' <code><c-z>:cd $(FileDir)<CR>:e $(FilePath)<CR>:$(CurLine)<CR></code>
*''Initial directory:'' <code>$(FileDir)</code>

Note: <c-z> brings gvim to foreground - on win2k, gvim gets focus but won't bring itself to foreground otherwise. You can remove it if you don't have this bring-to-foreground problem.

====Visual Studio 2010====
These arguments work better as for some reason the above ones break.
*''Arguments:'' <code>--remote-silent +"call cursor($(CurLine),$(CurCol))" $(ItemFileName)$(ItemExt)</code>

===Opening Vim file in Visual Studio===
Much like Vim's <code>--remote</code>, you can run devenv with the edit parameter to open a file in an existing Visual Studio. This command abbreviation opens the file you are currently editing, but doesn't transfer line or column postition.
<pre>
:cabbrev vsedit :!start "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\ide\devenv.exe" /edit "%"
</pre>

''See also [[Using DDE to open the current Vim file in Visual Studio]].''

==Use Vim instead of Visual Studio's editor==
''This is not the same as [[Embedding vim in Visual Studio]].''

*Open a solution in VS.Net.
*In the solution explorer (View->Solution or Ctrl + R), you should see a list of files (click on the "Solution Explorer" tab if you do not see the file list).
*Right click on any of the files and choose "Open With...", this brings up the Open With dialog.
*Click on "Add..." this brings up the Add Program dialog.
*Click on "Browse..." and point the Browse dialog to your gvim location.
*You have now added gvim to the list of editors, you may also select gvim to be the default editor for that file type.

You may need to do this for all file types you wish to edit with gvim. And yes you still have VS.Net open the file in its own editor.

Of course if you want to reverse changes simply remove gvim from the list of editors; but why would you want to do that?

===Window size===
VS.net opens the window in the middle of the screen and at the location and size of the its "source pane". How can I adjust where and of what size is the vim window when it opens? You can control your window size in your vimrc:
<pre>
gui
winpos 33 0
set lines=100
</pre>

You can restrict this to files of a certain type by adding the above lines to a .vim file in your ftplugin directory. (For example in ~/.vim/ftplugin/cpp.vim for c++ files in visual studio.)

===Editing in a single Vim===
If VS.Net insists on opening each file in a new vim window, you may be able to force it to open each file in the same window by using a batch file instead of gvim to use vim's server-client functionality. Try this:
<pre>
pathtovim\gvim.exe --servername VimStudio --remote-silent %*
</pre>

==Integration of Vim with pre-2003 versions of Visual Studio==
*[[VisVim for Visual Studio]]
*[[Using DDE to open the current Vim file in Visual Studio]]
*[[Embedding vim in Visual Studio]]

==Compiling from Vim==
If you use nmake, you can use <code>compiler msvc</code> to set Vim's <code>errorformat</code> and <code>makeprg</code> for Visual C++. Use <code>compiler cs</code> for C#.

==See also==
*[[Use Vim like an IDE]]
*[[VimTip345|345 Quickfix and Visual Studio and cygwin]]
*[[VimTip719|719 Use Python to build project in Visual Studio]]

==References==
*{{help|--servername}}
*{{help|--remote}}
*[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ekbzk5f8(v=VS.100).aspx Visual Studio: Arguments for External Tools]

==Comments==
A note: On VS 2015, the definition of External tool didn't work for me using the recommended ItemFileName, had to use instead ItemPath