This repository aims to provide a basic .vimrc file and instructions to set up Vim as a productive environment to develop programs esp. using the Go Programming Language. It leverages the great plugin Vim-Go developed by @fatih.
It also includes additional plugins that I often use to make Vim yet more productive. Please see list below.
This material is provided for free. These plugins and configurations work for me but there's no guarantee they will work for you. Use at your own risk!! You can also use the provided .vimrc file as a starting point and make changes according to your preferences.
The following plugins are used:
- Vim-Go : Go (golang) support for vim
- Completor: Keyboard completion support for Vim8
- Neocomplete: Keyboard completion support for Vim
- TagBar: Outline tree for Vim
- Neosnippet: Code snippets support for Vim
- vim-airline: Status line plugin with support for a variety of features
- Fugitive: Best Git wrapper plugin for Vim
- Vim-gitgutter: Enables git diff status on the gutter (side column)
- Ctrl-p: Fuzzy file finder for Vim
- Nerdcommenter: Easy code commenter plugin
- Vim-autopairs: Insert or delete brackets, parens, quotes in pair.
- Numbers: Quickly switch line numbers on/off or set relative numbers
- Surround: Quickly add/delete/change surrounding brackets, quotes, tags, etc.
- NERDTree: Filesystem tree for Vim
This repository assumes you're using either Linux or Mac OSX with Go and Git already installed.
In order to use this repository, follow the instructions to install the plugins and use the provided .vimrc file to start. You can clone this repository and link or copy the provided .vimrc file to your home directory.
TODO: Windows instructions
The Vim provided by Apple is the old 7.4 version and does not support features like Lua which would be required by the completion plugin. For this guide we will use Vim 8 which you can install using Homebrew. If you don't want to use Homebrew, you can always download and compile Vim from source.
Assuming Homebrew is installed, run the following command to install Vim 8:
brew update
brew install vim
Note:This command will install Vim8 but it will not overwrite the default Vim. I don't like to overwrite the default one so I add an alias to the new installed version of Vim in the .bash_profile file, like this:
### Replacing default vim/vi
alias vim='/usr/local/bin/vim'
alias vi='/usr/local/bin/vim'
For Ubuntu, I recommend using vim-nox which comes with support to several additional features, including Lua required by Neocomplete. Installing using the command below will install Vim 7.4 and the required pre-requisites:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vim-nox
Pathogen is a simple and easy to use plugin manager for Vim. Pathogen allows plugin installation directly under the .vim directory by copying the plugin to the bundle directory.
To install Pathogen, use the following commands:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/bundle/
mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload/
curl -LSso ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim https://tpo.pe/pathogen.vim
Use the provided .vimrc file or add the following lines at the top of your .vimrc file:
execute pathogen#infect()
syntax on
filetype plugin indent onClone vim-go
git clone https://github.com/fatih/vim-go.git ~/.vim/bundle/vim-go
Start Vim and run the commands:
:Helptags
:GoInstallBinariesThe :Helptags command creates the help page for the plugin.
The :GoInstallBinaries command downloads and installs the Go utilities used by Vim-Go such as gocode, golint, etc.
I use the modified version of molokai fatih/molokai as color schema.
To use it, download the file molokai.vim from the link above and copy it to the ~/.vim/colors/ directory.
If you are not using the provided .vimrc file, add the following line to your .vimrc to enable the color schema:
colo molokaiThe provided .vimrc file is configured to run Gometalinter automatically when saving the file. Gometalinter streamlines the process of executing static error checks for Go source code. With this configuration, it will execute the go vet and golint tools which are fast and should not add a delay when saving the file. You can always add more checks if you want.
If Gometalinter is not installed you will see an error message. To install it execute the following command:
go get -u github.com/alecthomas/gometalinter
Now, install all known linters like this:
gometalinter --install
If not using the provided .vimrc file, add the following lines to your configuration file to enable it on save:
" Enabling GoMetaLinter on save
let g:go_metalinter_autosave = 1
let g:go_metalinter_autosave_enabled = ['vet', 'golint']
let g:go_metalinter_deadline = "5s"You can also comment these lines out if you don't want to run Gometalinter on save.
Automatic Keyboard completion (or context based suggestions) is one of the major features of an IDE. Vim provides autocompletion by pressing <C-x><C-o> keys but some plugins make the experience more real time and closer to the feeling of an IDE.
For autocomplete there are two options:
- For Vim 8, I recommend the Completor plugin which works async and it's fast.
- For Vim 7, Neocomplete works well for me.
Clone the Completor plugin:
git clone https://github.com/maralla/completor.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/completor/
Completor should just work for Go completion based on gocode. For other languages, please check their Github for further instructions.
Neocomplete requires Vim compiled with the Lua option so you may need to reinstal Vim to enable it. If you are running Ubuntu and installed Vim according to the procedure above you're good to go. For other versions of Vim, please check their Github for details.
Clone the plugin:
git clone https://github.com/Shougo/neocomplete.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/neocomplete/
Add the following line to the .vimrc file to enable Neocomplete automatically (or uncomment it in the provided .vimrc):
let g:neocomplete#enable_at_startup = 1- TagBar:
Tagbar leverages the ctags command to create the tags required to display the outline tree. It has to be installed before using TagBar.
For Mac OSX, using Homebrew:
brew update
brew install ctags
For Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ctags
Install TagBar:
git clone https://github.com/majutsushi/tagbar.git ~/.vim/bundle/tagbar/
Add the following line to .vimrc:
nnoremap <silent> <F9> :TagbarToggle<CR>
- Neosnippet
Install neopsnippet:
git clone https://github.com/Shougo/neosnippet.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/neosnippet/
Install default snippets:
git clone https://github.com/Shougo/neosnippet-snippets.git ~/.vim/bundle/neosnippet-snippets/
Add to .vimrc:
let g:go_snippet_engine = "neosnippet"
let g:neosnippet#snippets_directory='~/.vim/bundle/neosnippet-snippets/neosnippets'
" Plugin key-mappings.
imap <C-k> <Plug>(neosnippet_expand_or_jump)
smap <C-k> <Plug>(neosnippet_expand_or_jump)
xmap <C-k> <Plug>(neosnippet_expand_target)
"
" SuperTab like snippets behavior.
"imap <expr><TAB>
" \ pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" :
" \ neosnippet#expandable_or_jumpable() ?
" \ "\<Plug>(neosnippet_expand_or_jump)" : "\<TAB>"
smap <expr><TAB> neosnippet#expandable_or_jumpable() ?
\ "\<Plug>(neosnippet_expand_or_jump)" : "\<TAB>"
"
" For conceal markers.
if has('conceal')
set conceallevel=2 concealcursor=niv
endif- vim-airline
Install vim-airline:
git clone https://github.com/vim-airline/vim-airline ~/.vim/bundle/vim-airline
Add to .vimrc:
set laststatus=2
- Fugitive
Install Fugitive:
git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive.git ~/.vim/bundle/vim-fugitive/
Execute the following command to generate the help for Fugitive:
vim -u NONE -c "helptags vim-fugitive/doc" -c q
- Nerd Commenter
git clone https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdcommenter.git ~/.vim/bundle/nerdcommenter/
- Vim-gitgutter
git clone git://github.com/airblade/vim-gitgutter.git ~/.vim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/
- Ctrl-p
git clone https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim ~/.vim/bundle/ctrlp/
- Vim-autopairs
git clone git://github.com/jiangmiao/auto-pairs.git ~/.vim/bundle/auto-pairs
- Numbers plugin
git clone https://github.com/myusuf3/numbers.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/numbers
Add to .vimrc:
nnoremap <F3> :NumbersToggle<CR>
nnoremap <F4> :NumbersOnOff<CR>- Surround:
git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-surround.git ~/.vim/bundle/vim-surround/
- NERDTree
git clone https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree.git ~/.vim/bundle/nerdtree