Add section on how to spawn vim from a ratatui application

[kdheepak]

• You need to disable_raw_mode and exit alternate screen
• You need to pause the event loop (if you have one) that handles any key or mouse events
• You can then spawn vim
• Once vim returns after wait(), you'll need to resume the event loop (if you have one)
• You'll need to enable_raw_mode and enter alternate screen again.

Example of how to do this with an async event loop:

https://github.com/ratatui-org/templates/blob/b75771463c00088b75e90986979c60720d024bbf/component/template/src/tui.rs#L171-L198

[Valentin271]

I believe this should be about the same for any other TUI: lazygit, yazi, even bash.

Also one important thing to note, this is about spawning a program and gaining back control. Which is different (and somewhat harder) than spawning a program on end.

Otherwise +1 for this.

[kdheepak]

Related: https://github.com/kdheepak/taskwarrior-tui/issues/46

[deepanchal]

I got it to launch vim on newly generated test app (cargo generate ratatui-org/templates) with component template with the following changes

diff --git a/src/action.rs b/src/action.rs
index f422a62..ee157c2 100644
--- a/src/action.rs
+++ b/src/action.rs
@@ -17,4 +17,5 @@ pub enum Action {
   Refresh,
   Error(String),
   Help,
+  EditFile,
 }
diff --git a/src/app.rs b/src/app.rs
index e528d05..c378c00 100644
--- a/src/app.rs
+++ b/src/app.rs
@@ -126,6 +126,17 @@ impl App {
               }
             })?;
           },
+          Action::EditFile => {
+            tui.exit()?;
+            let status = std::process::Command::new("vim").arg("/tmp/a.txt").status()?;
+            if status.success() {
+              log::info!("Successfully launched vim");
+            } else {
+              log::error!("Failed to launch vim");
+            }
+            tui = tui::Tui::new()?.tick_rate(self.tick_rate).frame_rate(self.frame_rate);
+            tui.enter()?;
+          },
           _ => {},
         }
         for component in self.components.iter_mut() {
diff --git a/src/components/home.rs b/src/components/home.rs
index a1e9cc6..f1fd170 100644
--- a/src/components/home.rs
+++ b/src/components/home.rs
@@ -35,6 +35,13 @@ impl Component for Home {
     Ok(())
   }

+  fn handle_key_events(&mut self, key: KeyEvent) -> Result<Option<Action>> {
+    match key.code {
+      KeyCode::Char('v') => Ok(Some(Action::EditFile)),
+      _ => Ok(None),
+    }
+  }
+
   fn update(&mut self, action: Action) -> Result<Option<Action>> {
     match action {
       Action::Tick => {
@@ -45,7 +52,7 @@ impl Component for Home {
   }

   fn draw(&mut self, f: &mut Frame<'_>, area: Rect) -> Result<()> {
-    f.render_widget(Paragraph::new("hello world"), area);
+    f.render_widget(Paragraph::new("Hello! Press 'v' to launch vim"), area);
     Ok(())
   }
 }

[deepanchal]

I would like to contribute by adding this example (how-to-spawn-vim) to the repo. I will open a PR soon

[deepanchal]

I have created a PR with basic example on how to spawn vim here https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui-website/pull/651