Viable – Vim emulation for Eclipse

Its been longer than I had hoped, but I’ve found time to take a look at improving some of Viable. This release I’ve implemented the requested features I got from feedback from users on the forums and by email.

These are the changes:

• Added the command :set vimwordbound or :set vwb which adds support for usage of vim-like word boundaries (\<\>) in regular expressions.
• When recording macros, there is now a clear indicator at the bottom of the editor that a macro is being recorded.
• Added the command :set wrapscan which behaves like vim’s wrapscan, for short use :set ws
• Fixed a bug where error text produced by incorrect commands would disappear immediately, should display longer now.
• Added ranges ^,$,[a-zA-z],. that can be prefixed to commands to affect the range that the command is applied to. The breakdown of each is ^ means the beginning of the file, $ means end of file, [a-zA-Z] is any character a-z or A-Z which refers to a mark location, and . means current line.
• Implemented horizontal splits with :sp
• Fixed a bug in :vsp where it would always create splits relative to the farthest bottom right window. The behavior should be closer to vim’s now.
• Can now switch horizontally and vertically between editor splits using ctrl-w-h,j,k,l or equivalently ctrl-w-UP,DOWN,RIGHT,LEFT
• Added behavior to Viable to allow moving of editors between splits (the eclipse term is moving an editor between editor stacks/ workbooks.) This can be done with the key sequence ctrl-w-m-h,k,l,j or the equivalent arrow keys. This allows moving editors that opened in the incorrect split to the correct split.
• Added behavior to Viable to allow copying of editors between splits using ctrl-w-n-h,j,k,l or the equivalent arrow key. This is the same as moving an editor between splits, but instead copies it to the destination split and keeps the original.

Remember that if you want to permanently define a behavior for Viable, add it to the configure file, whose location can be found with the command :source. Also remember that keybindings in Viable that use the ctrl key require that no keybinding in eclipse conflicts with it, otherwise they won’t work!

I am pleased to announce that my work with eclipse’s CDT parser has finally come to some form of fruition. I’ve marked this release as a major version 1.31.0 (both the Viable Core and Viable CDT features) to celebrate this work.

It is now possible for users of CDT to leverage it to introduce additional text objects in Viable that are not available in Vim. Currently, v1.31.0 implements one trivial example. In the future I hope to introduce many more text objects and motions that use CDT, JDT and possibly PDT (python.)

Viable introduces the text object for function parameters both in function calls and in function declarations. The default binding for this text object is ic. I illustrate its use with an example, suppose you have the C code

/*
 * main.cpp
 *
 *  Created on: 2011-07-04
 *      Author: matt
 */
#include <stdlib.h>

int func1(int v1, int v2)
{
	/*no-op*/
}

int main(int argc, char **argv ){

	func1( func1(1,2), func1( 1+2/3, (4+5)/(4-6)  ) );

	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

and suppose that you wish to change func1( 1+2/3, (4+5)/(4-6) ) to func1( (4+5)/(4-6), (4+5)/(4-6) ). Let | denote the cursor position, then you can place the cursor func1( 1+2/3, (|4+5)/(4-6) ) and type yic which will yank the parameter (4+5)/(4-6), then you can place the cursor func1( 1|+2/3, (4+5)/(4-6) ) and type vicp which will visual select the first parameter and paste over it giving you the result. This text object also works for function declarations.

Suppose now you wish to change func1( func1(1,2), func1( 1+2/3, (4+5)/(4-6) ) ); to func1( func1(1,2), 0 );. Placing the cursor func1( func1(1,2), fu|nc1( 1+2/3, (4+5)/(4-6) ) ); and typing cic0 gives the desired result. Similarly, so does vicdi0 which is rather longer but does the same thing with a visual selection.

Rolling another update with the following fixes and new features:

• Fixed bug where external filters act only on current line even with a selection(yikes!)
• Now searching with n, N, #, *, /, ? is supported in visual modes
• Refactoring a class name in JDT no longer causes viable to stop working in that editor
• Can now yank from read only editors (such as .class file editors in JDT)
• All jumps in viable are now synchronized with the eclipse navigation history, meaning that running /keyword on a file with the text “keyword” in it and then using C-o or Alt-left will return you to the original location after the search jump. This is very useful.

A new wiki that will document Viable has been started here. I will be adding more sections to the documentation soon; currently its pretty bare. Thanks to Ryan for the idea