On Friday, October 19, 2012 6:27:26 PM UTC-7, Tony Mechelynck wrote: > On 20/10/12 02:13, Ken L wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > > > > > I'm a Vim new user, so please forgive my ignorance, but when using NETRW, > > is it possible to prevent it from displaying filepaths in the buffer list > > (:ls)? My list quickly becomes cluttered with these path names, and I'd > > rather have it display currently open buffers only. > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > > > Ken > > > > > > > There are two commands for this kind of job: :bdelete and :bwipeout > > (which can be abbreviated by removing any number of characters from the > > end, except the first two after the colon). > > > > :bdelete keeps the buffer name in memory, but :ls won't show it unless > > you use :ls! with exclamation. > > > > :bwipeout really forgets everything that Vim knew about the buffer. > > Including what you would have liked to remember later! > > > > In no case, however, are buffer numbers reallocated: if you use :bd or > > :bw, the corresponding buffer number will be "missing" from the output > > of :ls until you quit Vim. > > > > See: > > :help :bd > > :help :bw > > :help :ls > > > > The purpose of :ls displaying even buffers not currently shown in a > > window is because you may have something important to do about them. For > > instance, starting Vim as > > > > vim file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt > > > > will start Vim will three files, but only one of them will be displayed > > in a window. The other two are available though, and :next will cycle > > through them (except that you will have to save a modified file first, > > or confirm its discard). > > > > All those buffers are "open" in a sense, even those that aren't > > displayed in a window at the moment. Here is perhaps the place for a > > little boilerplate about Vim terminology: > > > > Vim has one or more buffers. Each buffer usually represents one file, > > but it may be a file which doesn't yet exist on disk, or even a file > > which will never be written to disk. A buffer can also be empty. It can > > even be a placeholder for some data which will be fetched from disk > > (from a known disk path) the next time you want it displayed in a window. > > > > Each buffer is displayed in zero or more windows. A window is a kind of > > viewport on a buffer; depending on the respective sizes of both, the > > window may contain all or part of the buffer, or even (for a small > > buffer) all the buffer with some empty space left over at the bottom. > > Editing a file normally consists of making changes to the buffer > > displayed in the current window; these changes may then be written to > > disk � or discarded. > > > > Vim has one or more tab pages; one and only one of them is visible at > > any time; if there are others, they usually have tab labels near the top > > of the Vim screen (in gvim, below the menu and toolbar). Each tab page > > contains one or more windows. If there are several windows in a single > > tab page, they may be split vertically, horizontally, or in any combination. > > > > What is called "a window" in Vim language is not the same as what your > > OS calls "a window". Every running instance of Vim handles one and only > > one "OS window" but there may be any number of "Vim (split) windows" in > > it (well, no fewer than one, and the upper limit depends on the > > available memory on your computer). (An exception to this may be MacVim: > > on the Mac, I think I've heard about the possibility of having a single > > running instance of MacVim handle several "windows" in the OS sense, but > > I'm not sure of the details � or maybe I misunderstood: I'm on Linux.) > > > > > > See > > :help windows.txt > > :help tabpage.txt > > > > > > Best regards, > > Tony. > > -- > > unix soit qui mal y pense
Hey Tony, Thanks for the in-depth response! I appreciate it very much. Yes, I have familiarized myself with the differences between buffers (including hidden), tabs, and windows, and use them quite frequently (well, only hidden buffers and split windows, since I prefer not to use tabs). I've also mapped :bnext and :bprev to tab/shift-tab in normal mode to make cycling through buffers very quick and easy. Anyway, here's what I do: I almost always use the CtrlP plugin to quickly find my files (I've mapped my most-used directories to it). But I also use NETRW to manually navigate to files located elsewhere. I use :Vexplore! to open up a righthand side vsplit, find my file, and then open it to replace the NETRW window (netrw_browse_split=0). But once I've opened my file, I'd like the filepath to disappear from the buffer list. As I mentioned before, I like to :bprev/:bnext through buffers, but continually coming across leftover directory trees from NETRW is interfering with my rhythm (I always have to stop what I'm doing to type :bd to make them vanish). Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but is constantly using :bd/:bw to remove filepaths "normal" procedure when using NETRW? I feel like I'm missing a critical piece of information in understanding how it works. Cheers, Ken -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
