Awk-ward is a Neovim plugin, and as such we want to use Neovim's features, such as the API and job control. Variables floating around should be avoided as much as possible, and when there is need for variables prefer one dictionary with many entries over multiple individual variables.
When Awk-ward has been set up for a program buffer all its settings are stored inside the b:awk_ward dictionary. Its entries are as follows:
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| progbuf | Buffer ID containing the program |
| progfile | File path (relative) to temporary file to write the program to |
| outbuf | Buffer ID of the output buffer |
| infile | File path (relative) to input (possibly temporary) file |
| inbuf | Buffer ID of the input buffer |
| command | Shell command (as a list) to launch Awk |
| job | Job ID of the running Awk process |
The inbuf is optional. If it exists, then infile the path to a temporary file where to input will be copied to. The b:awk_ward dictionary does not need to carry any Awk arguments, those are baked into the command entry already.
When running Awk the contents of the program buffer and input buffer get written to a temporary file first. Maybe this isn't necessary. If we can send the program as a command-line argument to Awk it might also improve performance to not have to do file I/O. On the other hand, sending large programs as arguments might worsen performance.