Editing Optionally open matching or selected tag in full height vertical window

{{review}}
{{TipImported
|id=1004
|previous=1003
|next=1005
|created=September 26, 2005
|complexity=intermediate
|author=Michael Watkins
|version=6.0
|rating=1/1
|category1=Navigation
|category2=
}}
I prefer the tags to have a full height window off to the right, most of the time. This script and mappings give both.

<pre>
" preview window... to get it to open vert right, or horiz as desired
function PreviewTag(top)
  "by MW
  set previewheight=25
  exe "silent! pclose"
  if &amp;previewwindow " don't do this in the preview window
    return
  endif
  let w = expand("&lt;cword&gt;") " get the word under cursor
  exe "ptjump " . w
  " if any non False arg, open in simple horiz window so simply return
  if a:top
    return
  endif
  " otherwise, make it vertical
  exe "silent! wincmd P"
  if &amp;previewwindow " if we really get there...
    if has("folding")
      silent! .foldopen " don't want a closed fold
    endif
    wincmd L " move preview window to the left
    wincmd p " back to caller
    if !&amp;previewwindow " got back
      wincmd _
      " make caller full size (I use minibufexplorer and for some reason
      " the window is altered by the preview window split and manipulation
      " so wincmd _ sets it back... your mileage may vary
    endif
  endif
endfunction

" right hand window full height preview window
inoremap &lt;C-]&gt; &lt;ESC&gt;:call PreviewTag(0)&lt;CR&gt;
nnoremap &lt;C-]&gt; :call PreviewTag(0)&lt;CR&gt;
" simple "above the caller" preview window,
nnoremap &lt;M-]&gt; :call PreviewTag(1)&lt;CR&gt;
inoremap &lt;M-]&gt; &lt;ESC&gt;:call PreviewTag(1)&lt;CR&gt;
" close preview
noremap &lt;M-[&gt; &lt;ESC&gt;:pc&lt;CR&gt;
</pre>

Here's what I use for Python and Quixote (python web framework) exctags generation (FreeBSD user here) - ptl files are Quixote Python Template Language files, essentially Python, and this exctags cmd line builds an appropriate tags file:

<pre>
function WritePythonTags()
  let foo = system("/usr/bin/ctags --langmap=python:.py.ptl *.py *.ptl")
endfunction

" attempt to write / update tags file on every save...
" better way? not sure I care, its fast enuf.
au BufWritePost *.py,*.ptl call WritePythonTags()
</pre>

==Comments==
See {{script|id=1343}} to automatically update tags files upon saving.

----