vim command palette, similar to sublime text

In sublime text, we can press ⌘⇧P to bring up the command palette. Are there any similar tools for vim?

I’ve been trying vim-ctrlp-cmdpalette, and although it works relatively well (there are some small issues), it depends on ctrlp (not a huge problem), and it looks like it won’t see much development (it has 14 commits over the course of 3 days, 5 months ago, for an “Initial experimental version”), so I was wondering if there are any known alternatives, since searching for “vim command palette” is a bit limiting; maybe there are some other terms more appropriate for this.

user137369

Posted 2013-11-08T00:55:02.667

Reputation: 916

Answers

The Command Palette holds infrequently used functionality, like sorting, changing the syntax and changing the indentation settings. With just a few keystrokes, you can search for what you want, without ever having to navigate through the menus or remember obscure key bindings.

This is exactly what Vim's command-line is for. The only difference is that you don't get the cool but ultimately unnecessary fuzzy search you get in ST.

:e<C-d>
:e<Tab>

In combination with wildmenu, your favorite wildoptions and a touch of wildignore and wildignorecase you have got a pretty useful mechanism, there.

If you want to go down the plugin road, it's probable that you'll find what you want for unite or you could try Paradigm's SkyBison.

But my advice is to stick with the normal command-line.

romainl

Posted 2013-11-08T00:55:02.667

Reputation: 19 227

3“cool but ultimately unnecessary fuzzy search”; that’s where our opinions differ. Many times I only remember part of a command, and not the start, so fuzzy searching is not useless to me. Also, in addition to the fuzzy search, it also gives a short command descriptions, which is very useful to understand new plugin options. – user137369 – 2013-11-08T16:40:48.270

Hmm. New plugins options are explained in the plugin's documentation. Also I said "unnecessary", not "useless". There's no direct equivalent of that command palette in vim. You'll have to adapt or convince ctrlp's developer to add the features you want. – romainl – 2013-11-08T17:50:37.567

“Also I said "unnecessary", not "useless"”. You’re correct, and I apologise, my mistake. – user137369 – 2013-11-08T18:18:02.020

It would help if you elaborated on what you meant by a command palette. I am guessing you mean this:

http://www.pixhost.org/show/3984/19384689_vi_history.jpeg

In order to access this you press

q:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Using_command-line_history

cokedude

Posted 2013-11-08T00:55:02.667

Reputation: 349