misc.txt

*misc.txt*  Miscellaneous auto-load Vim scripts

===============================================================================
Contents ~

 1. Introduction                                            |misc-introduction|
 2. Installation                                            |misc-installation|
 3. Function documentation                        |misc-function-documentation|
  1. Handling of special buffers             |misc-handling-of-special-buffers|
   1. The |xolox#misc#buffer#is_empty()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#buffer#prepare()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#buffer#lock()| function
   4. The |xolox#misc#buffer#unlock()| function
  2. Tab completion for user defined commands |misc-tab-completion-for-user-defined-commands|
   1. The |xolox#misc#complete#keywords()| function
  3. String escaping functions                 |misc-string-escaping-functions|
   1. The |xolox#misc#escape#pattern()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#escape#substitute()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#escape#shell()| function
  4. Human friendly string formatting for Vim |misc-human-friendly-string-formatting-for-vim|
   1. The |xolox#misc#format#pluralize()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#format#timestamp()| function
  5. List handling functions                     |misc-list-handling-functions|
   1. The |xolox#misc#list#unique()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#list#binsert()| function
  6. Functions to interact with the user |misc-functions-to-interact-with-user|
   1. The |xolox#misc#msg#info()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#msg#warn()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#msg#debug()| function
  7. Integration between Vim and its environment |misc-integration-between-vim-its-environment|
   1. The |xolox#misc#open#file()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#open#url()| function
  8. Vim and plug-in option handling         |misc-vim-plug-in-option-handling|
   1. The |xolox#misc#option#get()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#option#split()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#option#join()| function
   4. The |xolox#misc#option#split_tags()| function
   5. The |xolox#misc#option#join_tags()| function
   6. The |xolox#misc#option#eval_tags()| function
  9. Operating system interfaces             |misc-operating-system-interfaces|
   1. The |xolox#misc#os#is_win()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#os#find_vim()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#os#exec()| function
  10. Pathname manipulation functions    |misc-pathname-manipulation-functions|
   1. The |xolox#misc#path#which()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#path#split()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#path#join()| function
   4. The |xolox#misc#path#directory_separator()| function
   5. The |xolox#misc#path#absolute()| function
   6. The |xolox#misc#path#relative()| function
   7. The |xolox#misc#path#merge()| function
   8. The |xolox#misc#path#commonprefix()| function
   9. The |xolox#misc#path#encode()| function
   10. The |xolox#misc#path#decode()| function
   11. The |xolox#misc#path#is_relative()| function
   12. The |xolox#misc#path#tempdir()| function
  11. String handling                                    |misc-string-handling|
   1. The |xolox#misc#str#compact()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#str#trim()| function
  12. Tests for my miscellaneous Vim scripts |tests-for-my-miscellaneous-vim-scripts|
   1. The |xolox#misc#tests#run_all()| function
  13. Timing of long during operations  |misc-timing-of-long-during-operations|
   1. The |xolox#misc#timer#start()| function
   2. The |xolox#misc#timer#stop()| function
   3. The |xolox#misc#timer#force()| function
 4. Contact                                                      |misc-contact|
 5. License                                                      |misc-license|
 6. References                                                |misc-references|

===============================================================================
                                                            *misc-introduction*
Introduction ~

The vim-misc plug-in contains Vim scripts that are used by most of the Vim
plug-ins I've written [1] yet don't really belong with any single one of the
plug-ins. Basically it's an extended standard library of Vim script functions
that I wrote during the development of my Vim profile and plug-ins.

In the past these scripts were bundled with each plug-in, however that turned
out to be a maintenance nightmare for me. That's why the miscellaneous scripts
are now a proper plug-in with their own page on Vim Online.

Because the miscellaneous scripts are no longer bundled with my Vim plug-ins,
users are now required to install the miscellaneous scripts separately. This is
unfortunate for users who are upgrading from a previous release that did bundle
the miscellaneous scripts, but I don't see any way around this. Sorry!

===============================================================================
                                                            *misc-installation*
Installation ~

Unzip the most recent ZIP archive [2] file inside your Vim profile directory
(usually this is '~/.vim' on UNIX and '%USERPROFILE%\vimfiles' on Windows),
restart Vim and execute the command ':helptags ~/.vim/doc' (use ':helptags
~\vimfiles\doc' instead on Windows).

If you prefer you can also use Pathogen [3], Vundle [4] or a similar tool to
install & update the plug-in using a local clone of the git repository.

===============================================================================
                                                  *misc-function-documentation*
Function documentation ~

Below is the documentation for the functions included in the miscellaneous
scripts. Anyone is free to use these functions in their own Vim profile and/or
plug-ins. I care about backwards compatibility so won't break it without a good
reason to do so.

For those who are curious: The function descriptions given below were extracted
from the source code of the miscellaneous scripts using a bit of Python code
that I haven't published yet.

Start of generated documentation

The documentation of the 44 functions below was extracted from 14 Vim scripts
on June 2, 2013 at 21:27.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             *misc-handling-of-special-buffers*
Handling of special buffers ~

The functions defined here make it easier to deal with special Vim buffers that
contain text generated by a Vim plug-in. For example my vim-notes plug-in [5]
generates several such buffers:

- :RecentNotes [6] lists recently modified notes
- :ShowTaggedNotes [7] lists notes grouped by tags
- etc.

Because the text in these buffers is generated, Vim shouldn't bother with swap
files and it should never prompt the user whether to save changes to the
generated text.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#buffer#is_empty()* function

Checks if the current buffer is an empty, unchanged buffer which can be reused.
Returns 1 if an empty buffer is found, 0 otherwise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#buffer#prepare()* function

Open a special buffer, i.e. a buffer that will hold generated contents, not
directly edited by the user. The buffer can be customized by passing a
dictionary with the following key/value pairs as the first argument:

- **name** (required): The base name of the buffer (i.e. the base name of the
  file loaded in the buffer, even though it isn't really a file and nothing
  is really 'loaded' :-)

- **path** (required): The pathname of the buffer. May be relevant if |:lcd|
  or |'autochdir'| is being used.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#buffer#lock()* function

Lock a special buffer so that its contents can no longer be edited.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#buffer#unlock()* function

Unlock a special buffer so that its content can be updated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                *misc-tab-completion-for-user-defined-commands*
Tab completion for user defined commands ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#complete#keywords()* function

This function can be used to perform keyword completion for user defined Vim
commands based on the contents of the current buffer. Here's an example of how
you would use it:
>
  :command -nargs=* -complete=customlist,xolox#misc#complete#keywords MyCmd call s:MyCmd(<f-args>)
<
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                               *misc-string-escaping-functions*
String escaping functions ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#escape#pattern()* function

Takes a single string argument and converts it into a |:substitute| /
|substitute()| pattern string that matches the given string literally.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#escape#substitute()* function

Takes a single string argument and converts it into a |:substitute| /
|substitute()| replacement string that inserts the given string literally.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#escape#shell()* function

Takes a single string argument and converts it into a quoted command line
argument.

I was going to add a long rant here about Vim's |'shellslash'| option, but
really, it won't make any difference. Let's just suffice to say that I have yet
to encounter a single person out there who uses this option for its intended
purpose (running a UNIX style shell on Microsoft Windows).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                *misc-human-friendly-string-formatting-for-vim*
Human friendly string formatting for Vim ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#format#pluralize()* function

Concatenate a counter (the first argument, expected to be an integer) with a
singular or plural label (the second and third arguments, both expected to be
strings).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#format#timestamp()* function

Format a time stamp (a string containing a formatted floating point number)
into a human friendly format, for example 70 seconds is phrased as "1 minute
and 10 seconds".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 *misc-list-handling-functions*
List handling functions ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#list#unique()* function

Remove duplicate values from the given list in-place (preserves order).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#list#binsert()* function

Performs in-place binary insertion, which depending on your use case can be
more efficient than calling Vim's |sort()| function after each insertion (in
cases where a single, final sort is not an option). Expects three arguments:

1. A list
2. A value to insert
3. 1 (true) when case should be ignored, 0 (false) otherwise

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         *misc-functions-to-interact-with-user*
Functions to interact with the user ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#msg#info()* function

Show a formatted informational message to the user.

This function has the same argument handling as Vim's |printf()| function with
one notable difference: Any arguments which are not numbers or strings are
coerced to strings using Vim's |string()| function.

In the case of |xolox#misc#msg#info()|, automatic string coercion simply makes
the function a bit easier to use.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#msg#warn()* function

Show a formatted warning message to the user.

This function has the same argument handling as the |xolox#misc#msg#info()|
function.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#msg#debug()* function

Show a formatted debugging message to the user, _if the user has enabled
increased verbosity by setting Vim's |'verbose'| option to one (1) or higher_.

This function has the same argument handling as the |xolox#misc#msg#info()|
function.

In the case of |xolox#misc#msg#debug()|, automatic string coercion provides
lazy evaluation in the sense that complex data structures are only converted to
strings when the user has enabled increased verbosity.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 *misc-integration-between-vim-its-environment*
Integration between Vim and its environment ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#open#file()* function

Given a pathname as the first argument, this opens the file with the program
associated with the file type. So for example a text file might open in Vim, an
'*.html' file would probably open in your web browser and a media file would
open in a media player.

This should work on Windows, Mac OS X and most Linux distributions. If this
fails to find a file association, you can pass one or more external commands to
try as additional arguments. For example:
>
  :call xolox#misc#open#file('/path/to/my/file', 'firefox', 'google-chrome')
<
This generally shouldn't be necessary but it might come in handy now and then.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#open#url()* function

Given a URL as the first argument, this opens the URL in your preferred or best
available web browser:

- In GUI environments a graphical web browser will open (or a new tab will be
  created in an existing window)

- In console Vim without a GUI environment, when you have any of 'lynx',
  'links' or 'w3m' installed it will launch a command line web browser in
  front of Vim (temporarily suspending Vim)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             *misc-vim-plug-in-option-handling*
Vim and plug-in option handling ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#get()* function

Expects one or two arguments: 1. The name of a variable and 2. the default
value if the variable does not exist.

Returns the value of the variable from a buffer local variable, global variable
or the default value, depending on which is defined.

This is used by some of my Vim plug-ins for option handling, so that users can
customize options for specific buffers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#split()* function

Given a multi-value Vim option like |'runtimepath'| this returns a list of
strings. For example:
>
  :echo xolox#misc#option#split(&runtimepath)
  ['/home/peter/Projects/Vim/misc',
   '/home/peter/Projects/Vim/colorscheme-switcher',
   '/home/peter/Projects/Vim/easytags',
   ...]
<
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#join()* function

Given a list of strings like the ones returned by |xolox#misc#option#split()|,
this joins the strings together into a single value that can be used to set a
Vim option.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#split_tags()* function

Customized version of |xolox#misc#option#split()| with specialized handling for
Vim's |'tags'| option.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#join_tags()* function

Customized version of |xolox#misc#option#join()| with specialized handling for
Vim's |'tags'| option.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#option#eval_tags()* function

Evaluate Vim's |'tags'| option without looking at the file system, i.e. this
will report tags files that don't exist yet. Expects the value of the |'tags'|
option as the first argument. If the optional second argument is 1 (true) only
the first match is returned, otherwise (so by default) a list with all matches
is returned.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             *misc-operating-system-interfaces*
Operating system interfaces ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#os#is_win()* function

Returns 1 (true) when on Microsoft Windows, 0 (false) otherwise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#os#find_vim()* function

Returns the program name of Vim as a string. On Windows and UNIX this simply
returns |v:progname| while on Mac OS X there is some special magic to find
MacVim's executable even though it's usually not on the executable search path.
If you want, you can override the value returned from this function by setting
the global variable 'g:xolox#misc#os#vim_progname'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#os#exec()* function

Execute an external command (hiding the console on Microsoft Windows when my
vim-shell plug-in [8] is installed).

Expects a dictionary with the following key/value pairs as the first argument:

- **command** (required): The command line to execute

- **async** (optional): set this to 1 (true) to execute the command in the
  background (asynchronously)

- **stdin** (optional): a string or list of strings with the input for the
  external command

- **check** (optional): set this to 0 (false) to disable checking of the exit
  code of the external command (by default an exception will be raised when
  the command fails)

Returns a dictionary with one or more of the following key/value pairs:

- **command** (always available): the generated command line that was used to
  run the external command

- **exit_code** (only in synchronous mode): the exit status of the external
  command (an integer, zero on success)

- **stdout** (only in synchronous mode): the output of the command on the
  standard output stream (a list of strings, one for each line)

- **stderr** (only in synchronous mode): the output of the command on the
  standard error stream (as a list of strings, one for each line)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         *misc-pathname-manipulation-functions*
Pathname manipulation functions ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#which()* function

Scan the executable search path ('$PATH') for one or more external programs.
Expects one or more string arguments with program names. Returns a list with
the absolute pathnames of all found programs. Here's an example:
>
  :echo xolox#misc#path#which('gvim', 'vim')
  ['/usr/local/bin/gvim',
   '/usr/bin/gvim',
   '/usr/local/bin/vim',
   '/usr/bin/vim']
<
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#split()* function

Split a pathname (the first and only argument) into a list of pathname
components.

On Windows, pathnames starting with two slashes or backslashes are UNC paths
where the leading slashes are significant... In this case we split like this:

- Input: "'//server/share/directory'"
- Result: "['//server', 'share', 'directory']"

Everything except Windows is treated like UNIX until someone has a better
suggestion :-). In this case we split like this:

- Input: "'/foo/bar/baz'"
- Result: "['/', 'foo', 'bar', 'baz']"

To join a list of pathname components back into a single pathname string, use
the |xolox#misc#path#join()| function.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#join()* function

Join a list of pathname components (the first and only argument) into a single
pathname string. This is the counterpart to the |xolox#misc#path#split()|
function and it expects a list of pathname components as returned by
|xolox#misc#path#split()|.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#directory_separator()* function

Find the preferred directory separator for the platform and settings.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#absolute()* function

Canonicalize and resolve a pathname, _regardless of whether it exists_. This is
intended to support string comparison to determine whether two pathnames point
to the same directory or file.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#relative()* function

Make an absolute pathname (the first argument) relative to a directory (the
second argument).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#merge()* function

Join a directory pathname and filename into a single pathname.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#commonprefix()* function

Find the common prefix of path components in a list of pathnames.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#encode()* function

Encode a pathname so it can be used as a filename. This uses URL encoding to
encode special characters.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#decode()* function

Decode a pathname previously encoded with |xolox#misc#path#encode()|.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#is_relative()* function

Returns true (1) when the pathname given as the first argument is relative,
false (0) otherwise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#path#tempdir()* function

Create a temporary directory and return the pathname of the directory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                         *misc-string-handling*
String handling ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#str#compact()* function

Compact whitespace in the string given as the first argument.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#str#trim()* function

Trim all whitespace from the start and end of the string given as the first
argument.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                       *tests-for-my-miscellaneous-vim-scripts*
Tests for my miscellaneous Vim scripts ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#tests#run_all()* function

Run the automated tests of the miscellaneous functions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        *misc-timing-of-long-during-operations*
Timing of long during operations ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#timer#start()* function

Start a timer. This returns a list which can later be passed to
|xolox#misc#timer#stop()|.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#timer#stop()* function

Show a formatted debugging message to the user, if the user has enabled
increased verbosity by setting Vim's |'verbose'| option to one (1) or higher.

This function has the same argument handling as Vim's |printf()| function with
one difference: At the point where you want the elapsed time to be embedded,
you write '%s' and you pass the list returned by |xolox#misc#timer#start()| as
an argument.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The *xolox#misc#timer#force()* function

Show a formatted message to the user. This function has the same argument
handling as Vim's |printf()| function with one difference: At the point where
you want the elapsed time to be embedded, you write '%s' and you pass the list
returned by |xolox#misc#timer#start()| as an argument.

End of generated documentation

===============================================================================
                                                                 *misc-contact*
Contact ~

If you have questions, bug reports, suggestions, etc. the author can be
contacted at peter@peterodding.com. The latest version is available at
http://peterodding.com/code/vim/misc and http://github.com/xolox/vim-misc. If
you like the script please vote for it on Vim Online [9].

===============================================================================
                                                                 *misc-license*
License ~

This software is licensed under the MIT license [10]. © 2013 Peter Odding
<peter@peterodding.com>.

===============================================================================
                                                              *misc-references*
References ~

[1] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/
[2] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/downloads/misc.zip
[3] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2332
[4] https://github.com/gmarik/vundle
[5] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/notes/
[6] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/notes/#recentnotes_command
[7] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/notes/#showtaggednotes_command
[8] http://peterodding.com/code/vim/shell/
[9] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=4597
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License

vim: ft=help