Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The almighty vim

I started using vim about two years ago, around the time I started using linux not only on the servers i connected to, but also on my box at home. It takes a little to get used to, but after a while you learn to appreciate having the editor available imediatly on almost any linux/unix/mac os x installation.

Yesterday I found out about the code completion feature, and that just blew my mind! I didn't know that was possible, but apparently since vim 7.0 you can edit a file, say index.php, and press CTRL+X CTRL+O and you'll see a list of available commands for the given programming language, selecting one will also give you the syntax.

One less reason to use an IDE, like Eclipse which just doesn't really work for PHP development on remote systems. That's a different story though. (You can use remote system explorer to connect eclipse via FTP to a different host and use pdt for syntax highlighting, BUT: everytime you connect, the whole project is scanned for code used in code completion or something...)

1 comment:

Hugh said...

Vim is very good, everyone should learn it.

Have you tried Komodo IDE? I find it much more usable than Eclipse, and you can add remote files to your projects.