Agda for neovim

Installation

This plugin requires Neovim (0.5) to work. One could probably force earlier versions to work as well, but this is non-trivial.

1. Install lua-utf8 library on your system.

2. Use a plugin manager such as paq and pass the name of this repository:

   paq 'ashinkarov/nvim-agda'

   Alternatively, you can install the plugin manually as follows:

   $ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/git-plugins/start
   $ git clone https://github.com/ashinkarov/nvim-agda.git --depth=1 ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/git-plugins/start/nvim-agda

Configuration

The plugin can be configured by defining a global variable named g:nvim_agda_settings of type dictionary. So far the following options are supported (I use lua syntax, but you can define this in vimscript too).

{
  agda : "/usr/local/bin/agda",            -- Location of Agda binary
  agda_args : { "--arg1", "--arg2"  },     -- Default arguments to Agda binary
  debug_p : true                           -- Turn debug prints on or off
}

All the fields of the dictionary may be omitted, as well as the definition of g:nvim_agda_settings. In this case hard-coded defaults would be used.

Details

NeoVim comes with built-in Lua support which dramatically simplifies development of complex plugins. This plugin is written almost entirely in Lua, which handles asynchronous interaction and editor state manipulation.

Design principles

• Use asynchronous communication so that we can use the editor when Agda is working.
• Avoid goal commands when the file has not been typechecked.
• Use popup windows to show location-specific information.
• Don't treat Agda as a black box; change the way it interacts in case it makses sense.
• Try to be efficient.

Status

Minimal functionality including communication with Agda process, basic utf8 input, and basic commands are implemented. Goal specific information such as context, goal type, etc. is shown in a popup window appearing at the goal location. The goal content is edited in a separate window, so that it does not alter the state of the file. Goal actions on a modified file reload the file and synchronise the goal list. Both ? and {! !} goals are supported, however the latter is discouraged, as every edit would modify the file and trigger file reload.

Implemented commands and shortcuts.

Mostly we implement the same commands as agda-mode in emacs. Several new commands have to do with management of the popups and goal editing.

Within the goal-edit window, q is mapped to close the window. The regular :q command would work as well.

Todo

• Implement remaining commands from the original agda-mode
• Goal actions on a modified buffer reload the file and postpone the action via continuation. Ensure that this is "thread safe" (does not have race conditions).
• Asynchronous communication quirks:
  • Highlighting information uses offsets (number of characters from the beginning of file), whereas nvim interface expects line and byte-offset in that line to set the hilighting. This is important as this conversion is expensive and it pulls lua-utf8 as a dependency.
  • Errors are printed on stdout (not stderr)
• If highlighting information arrives, and the file is modified --- should we attempt to colorise all but modified pieces? This is a typical case whe happening big files. Agda is very slow, and it is tempting to edit a few things before the colors arrive.
• Utf-8 input is happening via defining insert mode shortcuts, so there is no visual response when one is typing things like \alpha. Should we implement a which-key for the insert mode?

Done

• Support working with multiple files. Currently we assume a single file per vim instance. See issue #1 for more details.

Credit

• https://github.com/coot/vim-agda-integration
• https://github.com/derekelkins/agda-vim