On Jan 12, 1:17 pm, Marc Weber <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Are you sure its the best way ? Do you have python syntax highlighting
> in .vim? Do you have python completion support in .vim?
> More important: Do you have python syntax checking in .vim files?
>
> Don't you think a
> vim.load_py_file('foo.py') makes more sense for those reasons?
>
> [snip]
>
> There should be a vim.set_option(path, p) like API (for both: VimL and
> all language interfaces)
>

Yes, by all means, we should improve the APIs to allow easy operations
in Vim. Loading new files, passing variables back and forth, setting
options...all should be supported with a very easy interface. I
understand all of these areas are lacking, but that isn't a good
reason to abandon VimL, it's a good reason to improve the interfaces
with the various scripting languages.

> If you write C/C++ mainly and learn JS, then you can also write client
> side code for browsers.

I'm pretty sure any javascript interface for controlling the Vim
editor will be vastly different from the APIs and interfaces you would
use to control a web browser. Not to mention, when writing good
javascript, you need to take into account, probe, and/or work around
the various quirks and limitations of a wide range of browsers.
Learning the basic syntax needed to run the Vim editor will make it
only a tiny bit easier to write good client-side browser code.

Just because you know how to use an oven to bake a cake, doesn't mean
you know how to use it to make filet mignon. I exaggerate in my
metaphor, but my point is controlling a text editor and scripting a
browser page are two entirely different skills.

I personally like VimL, and find it very well suited to controlling
Vim. If I were to see a new language be used for most of Vim's
scripting, I'd like to see a good solid general-purpose language in
wide use, like Perl or Python. I gather from this discussion that it
is possible, but I've never heard before of anyone using Javascript
for general-use purposes.

Python in particular has the added benefit, that Vim's "official"
repository is hosted with Mercurial, so Vim power-users would also be
more inclined to tinker with the Hg source code.

I'd prefer to keep VimL around and improve it as needed. But if there
is to be a new "standard" language, even a de facto standard used by
most Vim plugins, I guess I prefer it NOT be Javascript. I simply have
no use for the language. If I must learn a new language to hack Vim,
beyond VimL which I feel even in the expression syntax grows fairly
naturally from basic editor use (maybe I'm just weird), I'd like to be
able to use it immediately on a wide variety of platforms for a wide
variety of purposes.

By the way, I think the best idea I've seen out of this entire
discussion, is for someone to make a focused effort to provide Vim
wrappers for commonly-used libraries for the various scripting
languages supported by Vim. Or a plugin for loading arbitrary
libraries in one of the supported languages.

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