Use Vim like an IDE

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created 2006 · complexity intermediate · author Matt Zyzik · version 6.0

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I use Vim for all text editing, even software development. At one point I stopped using IDEs. One major reason is that Vim can do all the major things I need from IDEs (tabs, file trees, greping, syntax highlighting, indentation, completion, "quickfix"ing, etc).

Vim Plugins

Still Vim needs plugins to do some IDE-like things that aren't built in. Here are some Vim scripts that make Vim more like an IDE.

Note: You can use pathogen to isolate your plugins and make it easier to experiment with new plugins.

Project/Filetree Browsing

• NERDTree is a tree explorer plugin for navigating the filesystem.
• vtreeexplorer is a tree based file explorer.
• project gives you a "project" view of files, rather than a straight file system view
• ide Tracks files status (open/edited/closed/read only) within a project with icons; automatically builds and updates syntax highlight rules based on the project files (C/C++/Java); avoids buffer duplication; see demo.
• :help netrw for information about the explorer distributed with Vim. It does not display files in a tree by default, but can by using the g:netrw_liststyle option. It also offers useful file-sorting options (by date, size, name).

Buffer/File Browsing

• bufexplorer lets you navigate through open buffers
• minibufexpl Elegant buffer explorer; takes very little screen space.
• lookupfile Lookup files using Vim7 ins-completion
• Command-T plugin, inspired by the "Go to File" window bound to Command-T in TextMate
• MRU access recently opened files.
• ctrlp Fuzzy file, buffer, mru, tag, ... finder with regexp support. Writen in vim language. Access all the functions with ctrl-p
• FuzzyFinder same as previous.

Code Browsing

• taglist gives you an outline of the source you're viewing
• Tagbar similar to taglist but can order tags by scope. Recommend for programming languages with classes, e.g. C++, Java, Python.
• Indexer generates tags for all files in project automatically and keeps tags up-to-date. Using ctags. Works well with project plugin or independently.
• CCTree is a Call-Tree Explorer, Cscope based source-code browser, and code flow analyzer.
• exUtility global search, symbol search, tag track...(Like IDE/Source Insight).
• ShowMarks visually shows the location of marks.

See also Browsing programs with tags and Cscope.

Writing Code

• A plethora of code snippet/template plugins are available, many offering TextMate-like snippet features.
• AutoComplPop gives you code completion as you type.
• CRefVim A C-reference manual especially designed for Vim.

See also Omni completion and Make Vim completion popup menu work just like in an IDE.

Vim Functionality

• matchit improves % matching
• bufkill allows you to delete a buffer without actually closing the window.
• undotree or gundo visualizes your undo tree, see Using undo branches.
• surround makes it easier to delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags/much more.

IDE integration

You may want to use your IDE for some tasks like debugging, so some integration between Vim and the IDE can be helpful.

• Integrate gvim with Visual Studio
• Eclim brings Eclipse functionality to the Vim editor.

Source Control Integration

There are many Vim plugins for different source control management systems. Here are a few.

• vcscommand.vim - CVS/SVN/SVK/git/hg/bzr integration plugin
• fugitive - git integration
• perforce - perforce integration
• lawrencium - mercurial integration

See also Category:VersionControl

Debugging

There are several projects to add debugging functionality to vim

• Clewn implements full gdb support in the vim editor: breakpoints, watch variables, gdb command completion, assembly windows, etc.
• vim-debug, which creates an integrated debugging environment in VIM.
• gdbvim plugin: Watch in vim what you debug in gdb. And more.

Refactoring

• Vim as a refactoring tool and some examples in C sharp
• refactor plugin
• renamec plugin

Comments

When using Visual Studio, see ViEmu.

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Code navigation in vi offers much more than a standard IDE, because of the ability to execute the desired combination of commands. Generate an index much more rapidly than an IDE with a heavy GUI interface:

For example, one can take advantage of the tag stack:

For C++, follow the instructions: on using OmniCpp Define a custom .ctags file

--c++-kinds=+p

--fields=+iaS

--extra=+q

--language-force=C++

From a console (the exclude options may vary) generate the tags file as follows:

ctags --exclude=.svn --exclude=target -R .