Wow, Bill. You have some great ideas, and some of them I haven't thought of before. Here are some of my thoughts on how they might be included in the wiki:
On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Bill Odom <[email protected]> wrote: > * Multiple full-page Vim help topics, each in their own > conveniently-labeled tab page. > > * Reference material (API docs, framework source code, project notes, > etc.) that I need to refer to often, but don't necessarily want taking > up screen real estate adjacent to whatever I'm working on. > These both fall into the "full-page window that doesn't mess with your window layout" category. I think they would both be great, briefly mentioned in an "Intro to tap pages" tip. > * At-a-glance summaries: I sometimes work in a buffer with most or all > folds open, and keep a second tab page buffer with all folds closed. > The folded version serves as an overview of the entire file, usually > visible on a single screen. > This is a very interesting idea which I hadn't thought of and may use myself. It could lead to other use cases; for example, rapidly finding a place in a file, setting a mark (local to the buffer), and jumping to it in another window/tab. I'm not sure where to put it. It seems a little small for a tip by itself. It would probably be OK in the intro to tab-pages tip, or perhaps a folding tip. It potentially could be included with your "X-Ray tab" tip below. > * Quick Vim environment modifications: I'm always tweaking my Vim > settings, but I don't want to disrupt whatever I'm (supposed to be) > working on just to update my .vimrc. I have a key map that opens > $MYVIMRC and $MYGVIMRC in new tabs, so I can jump in and make whatever > changes are necessary, then close them and immediately go back to what > I was doing. > Another good "quick full-page window" tip, good for brief mention in the intro tip. > * "X-ray" buffers: I'll sometimes keep an alternate representation of > a buffer in a separate tab page, with useful but visually-noisy > options like 'list', 'cursorcolumn', 'cursorline', and 'number' all > turned on, several :match patterns active, etc. This way, I can keep > my regular working view clean and uncluttered, but quickly flip over > to the information-overload version (the "x-ray") when I need it. (You > don't have to get this crazy with it, of course; the idea works for > pretty much any setting in `:help option-summary` labeled 'local to > window'.) > I really like this one. The idea is very basic, but perhaps with some expansion--some pre-made commands, etc.--it could make a tip on its own. I think it deserves more than a short section in an "intro to tabs" tip. Of course, it could be done in the same window with the ability to restore the window-local settings, or a split window, so these techniques should be mentioned as well. But I like that the tab page doesn't take up additional screen real estate, and you don't need to worry about restoring the state of the window when you're done. > * Scratchpads: Tab pages are good for throwaway buffers, where I work > with random chunks of text before (possibly) incorporating them into a > file I plan to keep around. > I think this is another great "basic use" example for an intro tip. > * Redirected Ex command output: I often want to use the output from an > Ex command (vs. just viewing it in the status area), so I have a > routine that runs a command, captures the output, then opens a new tab > page containing the captured text. As with most of these techniques, > this could also be done with a new window, or even within the current > window, but I find using a new tab page less disruptive. > I thought we already had a tip on this, but I couldn't find it. John, do you remember the tip? I actually do this myself from time to time with a :tabnew | r !command. I, too, don't usually like to mess up my screen layout with a buffer I'm just going to throw away shortly anyway. At other times, the output of the command determines which files I'm going to be opening next, and I like to be able to collect all those files and the command output driving them in their own tab page, like your "mini sessions" below. > * Mini-sessions: If you remove 'tabpages' from 'sessionoptions', > :mksession will only pay attention to the current tab page. This makes > it easy to use tab pages as a lightweight project-organization tool -- > just open a set of files in whatever window layout you like, then run > `:mksession some-random-project.vim` to save the current tab page as a > session. To work on that set of files again, open a new tab page and > :source the appropriate session file. > I also really like this very simple idea. Somehow I never thought of this one either. I don't often use sessions currently, because it just wasn't that useful for me. I often had a bunch of tabs open when I'm just interested in restoring the state of one or two of them. I will certainly use this one! I think this should go in its own section, in a basic tip about using sessions. I'm not sure if we have one yet, though, so for now it can be its own tip. Unless John knows of a good generic "using sessions" tip. Thanks for your contributions! I think we have the start to at least a couple new tips. I look forward to seeing more! _______________________________________________ Vim-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/vim-l
