Is there any plugin/way to manage multiple projects in Vim? [closed]

Question

Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.

---

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.

Closed 1 year ago.

Improve this question

I always work on multiple projects at the same time. The breakdown of the number of files I have is as follows

  Project   |   Files
--------------------------
  Thesis         20
  Simulator      50
  Plots          30
  Graphs         30
  Website        500+

Having all of these files in one window is cumbersome. There are several options, and I will discuss their drawbracks, or dare I say their Achilles Heel.

1. Split Windows I could split vim into 5 windows, one for each project, but I might as well be coding through a pinhole. I have actually never been a fan of split windows, except for cases where you are constantly comparing and editing two related files. Also I don't find navigating in two dimensions as seamless as in the horizontal direction only.

2. Tabs Tabs, or rather viewports foolishly called tabs, seem to be exactly for this kind of problem, but they don't provide restrictions for buffers to use. For example, if I'm in my Thesis tab, I want to navigate only those 20 buffers, not all 500+ website related buffers as well. As I am saving these as sessions, it could potentially lead to problems if I accidentally switch to a website buffer in my Thesis tab, exit, then upon entering I have two website tabs. This is further problematic because I have set local directories (:lcd) for each tab.

3. Terminal Tabs Using the Terminal tabs ensures that that buffers in each tab remain independent. However, each vim session can no longer share information. I can't yank text from one terminal to the other (I suppose I could yank into the + register). I also can no longer use :buffdo on all the buffers. Also, I like the fact that I can save all of my vim tabs to a single session.

I know SO is anathema to public discussion, so I will instead ask if there exists a way to achieve the functionality I am striving for.

EDIT A good way to summarize what I need is to say that I want "sub buffers".

EDIT What I want to get out of the tabs in vim is the ability to more effectively use them as what they really are: viewports. I want to be able to have one tab exclusively for my Thesis section. In this section I will change the local directory to reflect it. Furthermore, I want to filter out the buffers in that table to only be a subset of all the buffers. Similarly in the Simulator tab I want to use it exclusively for my Simulator files.

Essentially what I want is the ability, through tabs, to run multiple independent sessions of vim, but still with some of the added perks (ie. sharing registers to be able to yank)

Answer 1

I found out a way to do this. The vim tabs are near useless. Instead I used the Gnome Terminal Tabs.

1. global registers To simulate using global registers, so as to be able to copy paste across different instances of vim, 'pipe' the system clipboard and the unnamed register together by adding the line set clipboard=unnamedplus to your .vimrc file. This has the effect of all yank/delete... operations being copied to the system clipboard. From there, other instances of vim will have access to it. Similarly, any copy pasting you do outside of vim, will now be stored in the unnamed register.

2. Gnome Terminal Tab Shortcuts The default shortcuts for going to the next and previous tabs are Ctrl Pg Up and Ctrl Pg Dn. Since I use Shift k and Shift j for my next and previous buffers, I mapped Ctrl k and Ctrl j to go to my next and previous tabs. Simply go to the Gnome Terminal > Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

3. Gnome Terminal Tabs Write a shell script to launch each vim instance as a new terminal tab. See here for instructions

4. Vim Instances Finally, for each vim instance save a session file :mksession fileName

It's not perfect (for example, named registers can not be copied across terminals) but it is, in my opinion, much more representative of what a viewport (here called 'tabs') should do.

---

EDIT I have actually gone back to using vim tabs. I learned vim script, and mapped my keys so ShiftJ and ShiftK map to previous/next buffers and CtrlJ and CtrlK map to previous/next tabs. Then I downloaded the tabname script so I could set meaningful tab names, then modified the making of vim sessions to save tab names (see here), then switched from gVim back to Vim so I could use the full screen mode. It was a long arduous journey, but I'd like to think it was worth it.

Answer 2

I have this same issue for a long time, working the same time with several projects.

To solve partially this frustration, I have used this this plugin https://github.com/xolox/vim-session.

vim-session make easier the navigation between sessions and in each session we have a project. After using this some weeks, I became frustrated because it needs each time you need to switch, all the changes of the current session's files need to be saved.

The best solution for me now is Spacemacs with Vim mode. I really like the editing spirit that Vim offer and the experience is the same with Spacemacs + better project handling + better git integration.

Answer 3

I agree with ehamberg.

Vim's buffers are global so any grouping or splitting will only appear to work for a few minutes and actually break at the first occasion.

Instead use one Vim instance for each project. If you really need to share something you can always use the system clipboard. Try set clipboard+=unnamedplus to synchronise Vim's default register with the system clipboard.

But I'm wondering if your way of managing projects is rational:

• In point 3 you write "I also can no longer use :buffdo on all the buffers.". Why would you use a command that works on all the open buffers across multiple different projects?

• Do you seriously have 500+ buffers open at the same time? I know Vim can probably handle it but why do you open that many buffers? I do web development for a living and I rarely work on more than a dozen files in a given day, even on "large" projects.

Answer 4

BufExplorer plugin can group buffers by tab. CtrlP plugin can reuse buffer from another tab.

Answer 5

I was using multiple vim instances for working simultaneously with different projects but it was not satisfatory. I ended up having to many open tabs in my terminal.

I've been using vim-rooter, which is a simple plugin that will automatically change the working directory to the project root of the buffer you open, provided there is a .git dir at project root. It will only be triggered only by opening files with certain extensions, but that list can be customized. Works with ctrlp and any other plugin.