History/MRU picker

[kristijanhusak]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I switched from fzf, and one source that I miss the most is :History, which lists oldfiles + buffers (sorted by MRU).

Describe the solution you'd like
I'd like to have a separate picker that holds these.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I didn't find a solution for this so I implemented it myself in a same way fzf does it. Here are part of codes:

• Saving buffers: https://github.com/kristijanhusak/neovim-config/blob/bleeding-edge/nvim/lua/partials/telescope.lua#L12-L27
• Picker: https://github.com/kristijanhusak/neovim-config/blob/bleeding-edge/nvim/lua/partials/telescope.lua#L47-L83

I wanted to check if you would be interested in adding this here, and if yes, I could make a PR with the implementation.

[Conni2461]

Thanks for the request.

@sunjon was working on a "smart" MRU based on that article which should be almost done.
He can tell you more :)

[kristijanhusak]

Oh, nice :)
Is there a related issue/PR that I can track? I wasn't able to find anything related to MRU.
I guess I'll just stick with my version until smarter one is finished :)

[sunjon]

Hi. It's WIP (as in not usable yet), but I've put the repo up here.
The todo's are listed in the readme, and I'll move the project to the 'nvim-lua' namespace when it's complete.

Hope to have it in a testable order in the next couple of days.

[sunjon]

Closing this as the frecency MRU finder has been released.
Hope it satisfies your requirements!

[kristijanhusak]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[kristijanhusak]

I gave this a test, it is working fine, but it doesn't work exactly how I'm used to it. If I open a file that I never opened before, I expect it to be first in the list when I open up the picker, which is not the case with this one. Of course, that's how it works by design, so no complains there :) I'll stick with my implementation. If someone shows interest in using my implementation I'll make a separate package for that.
Thanks anyway.

[jesseleite]

Hey @kristijanhusak, seconded, and thank you for sharing this! @Conni2461 @sunjon, I think the frecency thing is really cool, but it's different than MRU...

Frecency = Frequency + Recency
MRU = Recency only

PS. @kristijanhusak curious though regarding your save_buf() + remove_buf() + autocommand buffer tracking...

1. Regarding the use of remove_buf(), I always found fzf's remove buffer functionality within :History confusing. Whether or not I close a buffer, I would still expect it to show in :History, since I did in fact open it. If I restart Vim, it would be in the oldfiles list, so why not leave it in the list, even after closing buffers?

2. Why not instead parse :buffers! t (the ! bang will show unlisted/deleted buffers, and the t flag sorts buffers by time last used), and then filter the results by filereadable()? I'm curious if there is a reason why you're manually tracking buffers to a variable in memory?

[kristijanhusak]

@jesseleite I mostly copied how FZF works, but you have the point.
I'm not sure if there is a way to list buffers as :buffers! t through code. It's really hard and nasty to read output of the command line.

[jesseleite]

@kristijanhusak ^ Check the PR there when you have a chance! I'm parsing :buffers! t output fairly easily. Works just like fzf's :History now, but without the awkward remove-buffer functionality.

[kristijanhusak]

@jesseleite Awesome! I'll gladly replace my custom functionality for this.