vital.vim

A comprehensive Vim utility functions for Vim plugins.

Requirements

Modules in vital.vim basically support Vim 8.2 or later. We guarantee that the following versions of Vim are supported:

• The latest major version (9.0.*)
• The previous major version (8.2.*)

And some modules have stricter requirements and additional dependencies. Please read the docs of each module before using them.

Handling libraries in Vim WAS hard

Since Vim script has no built-in module system, using external libraries had been troublesome.

• If you decide to include the libraries in your plugin repository by copy&paste manually: You are responsible for updating the libraries by yourself. sigh You have to find backward-incompatible changes that can break your plugin from every changes between the previous version you installed in the past. super tedious
• If you want the plugin users to install the dependent libraries: The users will receive additional steps to get it working with your plugin. not easy Even worse, they may fail to install the dependencies properly. a bad dream

What vital.vim does for the problems

vital.vim will embed libraries into your plugin repository and thus your plugin users don't need to install them separately. Additionally, vital.vim can also resolve the dependencies according to the declaration on vital modules.

Concretely, vital.vim resolves the dependencies among vital modules by the module bundler called vitalizer. vitalizer can bundle only necessary modules and can update an existing bundle. On updating the modules, vitalizer shows any breaking changes to help you migrate to the new version of vital modules.

What vital.vim provides

... and you can also create your own vital modules. Please see External vital modules for more information.

Let's get started

Install modules for your own plugin

Use :Vitalize to install modules. Assuming your Vim plugin name is your_plugin_name and plugin directory is your_plugin_dir. Please see the help for more details.

:Vitalize --name=your_plugin_name $HOME/.vim/bundle/your_plugin_dir/

You can also install only specified modules; recommended for making your repository size small, assuming you are going to upload it to a remote repository

:Vitalize --name=your_plugin_name $HOME/.vim/bundle/your_plugin_dir/ Data.String Data.List

Use vital functions

Assuming your Vim plugin name is your_plugin_name. You can define your utility function set your_plugin_name#util just by

let s:Process = vital#your_plugin_name#import('System.Process')

function! your_plugin_name#util#system(...)
  return s:Process.execute(a:000)
endfunction
" run
" echo your_plugin_name#util#system('echo','abc')
" -> $ echo abc

and then you can call functions by your_plugin_name#util#system(), without taking care of vital.vim itself. It's all hidden.

Vital has module system. The below is an example to import/load a module Math and to call a function lcm() of the module.

" Recommended way
let s:M = vital#your_plugin_name#import('Math')
call s:M.lcm([2, 3, 4])
" -> 12

or

" Alternative way
let s:V = vital#your_plugin_name#new()
let s:M = s:V.import('Math')
call s:M.lcm([2, 3, 4])
" -> 12

or

" Alternative way only if you rarely use the module
let s:V = vital#your_plugin_name#new()
call s:V.load('Math')
call s:V.Math.lcm([2, 3, 4])
" -> 12

or

" Available, but we don't recommend this very much
let s:V = vital#your_plugin_name#new()
call s:V.import('Math', s:)
call s:lcm([2, 3, 4])
" -> 12

We recommend you to use a capital letter for a Vital module dictionary to assign.

Plugins Using vital.vim

A lot of vim plugins are using vital.vim

• wiki
• google search

Badges

It is not necessary but we recommend adding a badge to your project README to make the vital.vim developers happy ;-) The following is a markdown snippet.

[![Powered by vital.vim](https://img.shields.io/badge/powered%20by-vital.vim-80273f.svg)](https://github.com/vim-jp/vital.vim)

The badge uses Shields.io so you can customize the looks as like:

• (Default)
• by adding ?style=plastic
• by adding ?style=flat
• by adding ?style=flat-square

If you want to become a vital developer

Become a vital.vim Developer

References

• Delegation in Vim script
• Core concept of vital (in Japanese)
• How to make a vital module (in Japanese)
• API Reference (in Japanese)
• Let's use vital.vim (in Japanese)

License

NYSL

Japanese original text: http://www.kmonos.net/nysl/

What's NYSL? and Why did we chose it?

NYSL is a very loose license like a Beer License, or more like WTFPL. See NYSL for details. (English and Japanese)

First, vital.vim is a bundling (static) library. We think everyone should be able to use it easily, without worrying about licensing stuff too much.

Second, In Japan, Strict Public Domain might be invalid. You outside Japan may interpret simply the license as Public Domain.

That's why we chose NYSL.

(See https://github.com/vim-jp/vital.vim/issues/26 about the discussion.)