NAME Vim::X - Candy for Perl programming in Vim VERSION version 1.2.0 SYNOPSIS package Vim::X::Plugin::MostUsedVariable; use strict; use warnings; use Vim::X; sub MostUsedVariable :Vim { my %var; for my $line ( vim_lines ) { $var{$1}++ while $line =~ /[$@%](\w+)/g; } my ( $most_used ) = reverse sort { $var{$a} <=> $var{$b} } keys %var; vim_msg "variable name $most_used used $var{$most_used} times"; } and then in your ".vimrc": perl push @INC, '/path/to/plugin/lib'; perl use Vim::X::Plugin::MostUsedVariable; map m :call MostUsedVariable() DESCRIPTION *Vim::X* provides two tools to make writing Perl functions for Vim a little easier: it auto-exports functions tagged by the attribute ":Vim" in Vim-space, and it defines a slew of helper functions and objects that are a little more *Do What I Mean* than the *VIM* API module that comes with Vim itself. Obviously, for this module to work, Vim has to be compiled with Perl interpreter support. Import Perl function in Vim-space Function labeled with the ":Vim" attribute are automatically exported to Vim. The ":Vim" attribute accepts two optional parameters: "args" and "range". :Vim(args) If "args" is present, the function will be exported expecting arguments, that will be passed to the function via the usual @_ way. sub Howdie :Vim(args) { vim_msg( "Hi there, ", $_[0] ); } # and then in vim: call Howdie("buddy") :Vim(range) If "range" is present, the function will be called only once when invoked over a range, instead than once per line (which is the default behavior). sub ReverseLines :Vim(range) { my @lines = reverse map { "$_" } vim_range(); for my $line ( vim_range ) { $line <<= pop @lines; } } # and then in vim: :5,15 call ReverseLines() Loading libraries If your collection of functions is growing, "load_function_dir()" can help with their management. See that function below for more details. FUNCTIONS load_function_dir( $library_dir) Looks into the given *$library_dir* and imports the functions in all files with the extension ".pl" (non-recursively). Each file must have the name of its main function to be imported to Vim-space. To have good start-up time and to avoid loading all dependencies for all functions, the different files aren't sourced at start-up, but are rather using the "autocmd" function of Vim to trigger the loading of those files only if used. E.g., # in ~/.vim/vimx/perlweekly/PWGetInfo.pl use Vim::X; use LWP::UserAgent; use Web::Query; use Escape::Houdini; sub PWGetInfo :Vim() { ...; } # in .vimrc perl use Vim::X; autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead **/perlweekly/src/*.mkd \ perl Vim::X::load_function_dir('~/.vim/vimx/perlweekly') autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead **/perlweekly/src/*.mkd \ map pw :call PWGetInfo() source_function_dir( $library_dir ) Like "load_function_dir", but if it finds files with the exension ".pvim", it'll also source them as "vimL" files at load-time, allowing to define both the Perl bindings and the vim macros in the same file. Note that, magically, the Perl code will still only be compiled if the function is invoked. For that special type of magic to happen, the ".pvim" files must follow a certain pattern to be able to live their double-life as Perl scripts and vim file: ""; <<'finish'; " your vim code goes here finish # the Perl code goes here When sourced as a vim script, the first line is considered a comment and ignored, and the rest is read until it hits "finish", which cause Vim to stop reading the file. When read as a Perl file, the first line contains a heredoc that makes all the Vim code into an unused string, so basically ignore it in a fancy way. For example, the snippet for "load_function_dir" could be rewritten as such: # in ~/.vim/vimx/perlweekly/PWGetInfo.pvim ""; <<'finish'; map pw :call PWGetInfo() finish use Vim::X; use LWP::UserAgent; use Web::Query; use Escape::Houdini; sub PWGetInfo :Vim() { ...; } # in .vimrc perl use Vim::X; autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead **/perlweekly/src/*.mkd \ perl Vim::X::source_function_dir('~/.vim/vimx/perlweekly') load_function_file( $file_path ) Loads the code within *$file_path* under the namespace *Vim::X::Function::$name*, where name is the basename of the *$file_path*, minus the ".pl"/".pvim" extension. Not that useful by itself, but used by "load_function_dir". vim_msg( @text ) Display the strings of *@text* concatenated as a vim message. vim_msg "Hello from Perl"; vim_buffer( $i ) Returns the Vim::X::Buffer object associated with the *$i*th buffer. If *$i* is not given or set to '0', it returns the current buffer. vim_current_file($local) Returns the file associated with the current buffer as a Path::Tiny object. If $local is true the path will be relative to the directory where "vim" was launched, otherwise it'll be absolute. vim_lines( @indexes ) Returns the Vim::X::Line objects for the lines in *@indexes* of the current buffer. If no index is given, returns all the lines of the buffer. vim_line($index) Returns the Vim::X::Line object for line *$index* of the current buffer. If *$index* is not given, returns the line at the cursor. vim_append(@lines) Appends the given lines after the line under the cursor. If carriage returns are present in the lines, they will be split in consequence. vim_eval(@expressions) Evals the given @expressions and returns their results. vim_range($from, $to) vim_range($line) vim_range() Returns a Vim::X::Range object for the given lines, or single line, in the current buffer. The lines can be passed as indexes, or Vim::X::Line objects. If no line whatsoever is passed, the range will be the one on which the command has been called (i.e.: ":afirstline" and "a:lastline"). vim_command( @commands ) Run the given 'ex' commands and return their results. vim_command 'normal 10G', 'normal iHi there!'; vim_call( $function, @args ) Calls the vim-space function *$function* with the provided arguments. vim_call( 'SetVersion', '1.23' ) # equivalent of doing # :call SetVersion( '1.23' ) # in vim vim_expand( @expressions ) Returns the expansion of the passed expression(s). my $current_file = vim_expand( '%' ); my ( $local, $absolute) = vim_expand( '%', '%:p' ); vim_input( $prompt, $default, $completion_arg ) Prompts the user for some value. The arguments are the same as for vim's own "input". vim_window( $i ) Returns the Vim::X::Window associated with the *$i*th window. If *$i* is not provided or is zero, returns the object for the current window. vim_cursor Returns the Vim::X::Cursor associated with the position of the cursor in the current window. vim_delete( @lines ) Deletes the given lines from the current buffer. SEE ALSO The original blog entry: CONTRIBUTORS Hernan Lopes AUTHOR Yanick Champoux COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Yanick Champoux. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.