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README.md
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@ -2,20 +2,20 @@
###Introduction
Vim is a powerful text editor with a big, increasing community. Even though it
is more than 20 years old, people still extend and improve it, mostly using
vimscript or one of the supported scripting languages.
Vim is a powerful text editor with a big community that is constantly growing.
Even though the editor is over two decades old, people still extend and improve
it, mostly using vimscript or one of the supported scripting languages.
###Problem
Over its 20 years of life, vim has accumulated about 300k lines of scary C89
code that very few people understand or have the guts to mess with.
Over its more than 20 years of life, vim has accumulated about 300k lines of
scary C89 code that very few people understand or have the guts to mess with.
Another issue, is that as the only person responsible for maintaing vim's big
codebase, Bram Moolenaar has to be extra-careful before accepting patches,
because once merged, the new code will be his responsibility.
These problems make it pretty hard to have new features and bug fixes merged
These problems make it very difficult to have new features and bug fixes merged
into the core. Vim just cant keep up with the development speed of its plugin
echosystem.
@ -26,41 +26,62 @@ the following goals:
- Simplify maintenance to improve the speed that bug fixes and
features get merged.
- Split the responsibility between multiple developers.
- Split the maintainance work between multiple developers.
- Enable the implementation of new/modern user interfaces without any modifications
to the core source.
- Improve the extensibility power with a new plugin architecture based on
external processes. Plugins will be written in any programming language
without any explicit support from the editor. This can be saw as a better
implementation of the [job control patch](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vim_dev/QF7Bzh1YABU)
without any explicit support from the editor.
Those goals should be achieved with little impact on vim's editing model or
vimscript in general. Most vimscript plugins should continue to work normally.
A consequence of achieving those goals is that new developers will join the
community, consequently improving the editor for all users.
The following topics summarizes the major changes that will be performed:
It is important to empathise that this is not a project to rewrite vim from the
scratch or transform it into an IDE(though the new features provided will make
it possible to build IDE-like distributions of the editor). The changes
implemented here should have little impact on vim's editing model or vimscript
in general. Most vimscript plugins should continue to work normally.
Each of the following topics will briefly explain the major changes that will
be performed in the first iterations:
* <a href="#build"><b>Migrate to a cmake-based build</b></a>
* <a href="#legacy"><b>Legacy support and compile-time features</b></a>
* <a href="#platform"><b>Platform-specific code </b></a>
* <a href="#plugins"><b>New plugin architecture</b></a>
* <a href="#gui"><b>New GUI architecture</b></a>
* <a href="#split"><b>Split into many repositories</b></a>
<a name="build"></a>
##### Migrate to a cmake-based build
The source tree has dozens(if not hundreds) of files dedicated to building vim
with on various platforms with different configurations, and many of these files
look abandoned or outdated. Most users dont care about selecting individual
features and just compile using '--with-features=huge', which still generates an
executable that is small enough even for lightweight systems(by today's
standards).
All those files will be removed and vim will be built using
[cmake](www.cmake.org), a modern build system that generates build scripts for
the most relevant platforms.
<a name="legacy"></a>
##### Legacy support and compile-time features
Vim has a significant amount of code dedicated to supporting legacy systems and
compilers. All that code increases the maintainance burden and will be removed.
Most optional features will no longer be optional, with the exception of some
broken and useless fetures(eg: netbeans integration, sun workshop) which will be
removed permanently. Vi emulation will also be removed(probably leave the 'set
nocompatible' command as a no-op).
Most optional features will no longer be optional(see above), with the exception
of some broken and useless fetures(eg: netbeans integration, sun workshop) which
will be removed permanently. Vi emulation will also be removed(probably leave
the 'set nocompatible' command as a no-op).
These changes wont affect most users. Those that only have a C89 compiler
installed or develop on legacy systems such as Amiga, BeOS or MSDOS have two
choices:
installed or use vim on legacy systems such as Amiga, BeOS or MSDOS have two
options:
- Upgrade their software.
- Upgrade their software
- Continue using vim
<a name="platform"></a>
@ -68,8 +89,11 @@ choices:
Most of the platform-specific code will be removed and
[libuv](https://github.com/joyent/libuv) will be used to handle system
differences. libuv has support for most unixes and windows, so the vast
majority of vim's community will be supported.
differences.
libuv is a modern multi-platform library with functions to perform
common system tasks, and supports most unixes and windows, so the vast majority
of vim's community will be covered.
<a name="plugins"></a>
##### New plugin architecture
@ -78,8 +102,9 @@ All code supporting embedded scripting language interpreters will be replaced
by a new plugin system that will support extensions written in any programming
language.
Compatibility layers will be provided for easily porting vim plugins written in some
of the currently supported scripting languages such as python or ruby.
Compatibility layers will be provided for vim plugins written in some of the
currently supported scripting languages such as python or ruby. Most plugins
should work on neovim with little modifications, if any.
This is how the new plugin system will work:
@ -90,26 +115,29 @@ This is how the new plugin system will work:
- Plugins will be able to listen to events and send commands to vim
asynchronously.
Here's a sample plugin session using [json-rpc](http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) (jsonrpc version omitted):
This system will be built on top of a job control mechanism similar to the one
provided by the [job control patch](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vim_dev/QF7Bzh1YABU)
Here's an idea of how a plugin session will work using [json-rpc](http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) (jsonrpc version omitted):
```js
plugin -> vim: {"id": 1, "method": "listenEvent", "params": {"eventName": "keyPressed"}}
vim -> plugin: {"id": 1, "result": true}
vim -> plugin: {"method": "event", "params": {"name": "keyPressed", "eventArgs": {"keys": ["C"]}}}
vim -> plugin: {"method": "event", "params": {"name": "keyPressed", "eventArgs": {"keys": ["Ctrl", "Space"]}}}
plugin -> vim: {"id": 2, "method": "showPopup", "params": {"size": {"width": 10, "height": 2} "position": {"column": 2, "line": 3}, "items": ["Completion1", "Completion2"]}}
plugin -> vim: {"id": 2, "result": true}}
plugin -> neovim: {"id": 1, "method": "listenEvent", "params": {"eventName": "keyPressed"}}
neovim -> plugin: {"id": 1, "result": true}
neovim -> plugin: {"method": "event", "params": {"name": "keyPressed", "eventArgs": {"keys": ["C"]}}}
neovim -> plugin: {"method": "event", "params": {"name": "keyPressed", "eventArgs": {"keys": ["Ctrl", "Space"]}}}
plugin -> neovim: {"id": 2, "method": "showPopup", "params": {"size": {"width": 10, "height": 2} "position": {"column": 2, "line": 3}, "items": ["Completion1", "Completion2"]}}
plugin -> neovim: {"id": 2, "result": true}}
```
That shows the conversation between vim and an hypotetical completion plugin
that popups completions when the user presses Ctrl+Space. The above scheme gives
neovim near limitless extensibility and also improves stability as plugins will
be automatically sandboxed from the main executable.
That shows an hypothetical conversation between neovim and completion plugin
that displays completions when the user presses Ctrl+Space. The above scheme
gives neovim near limitless extensibility and also improves stability as plugins
will automatically be isolated from the main executable.
This system can also easily emulate scripting languages interfaces to vim. A
plugin could, for example, emulate the current python interface by discovering
python scripts in vim's runtime dir and exposing a 'vim' module with an API
matching the current one. Calls to the API would simply be translated to
This system can also easily emulate the current scripting languages interfaces
to vim. For example, a plugin can emulate the python interface by running python
scripts sent by vim in its own context and by exposing a 'vim' module with an
API matching the current one. Calls to the API would simply be translated to
json-rpc messages sent to vim.
@ -118,7 +146,7 @@ json-rpc messages sent to vim.
Another contributing factor to vim's huge codebase is the explicit support for
dozens of widget toolkits for GUI interfaces. Like the legacy code support, gui
handling code will be removed from neovim's core.
handling code will be removed from the core.
Neovim will handle GUIs similarly to how it will handle plugins:
@ -128,8 +156,8 @@ Neovim will handle GUIs similarly to how it will handle plugins:
using json-rpc or msgpack-rpc.
The difference between plugins and GUIs is that plugins will be started by
neovim, where GUIs will start neovim(or perhaps attach to a running session).
Here's a sample diagram of the process tree:
neovim, where neovim will be started by programs running the GUI. Here's a sample
diagram of the process tree:
```
GUI program
@ -143,7 +171,7 @@ GUI program
---> Plugin 3
```
Sample:
Hypothetical GUI session:
```js
gui -> vim: {"id": 1, "method": "initClient", "params": {"size": {"rows": 20, "columns": 25}}}
@ -157,23 +185,62 @@ This new GUI architecture creates many interesting possibilities:
- Modern GUIs written in high-level programming languages that integrate better
with the operating system. We can have GUIs written using C#/WPF on
Windows or Ruby/Cocoa on Mac.
Windows or Ruby/Cocoa on Mac, for example.
- Plugins will be able emit custom events that may be handled directly by GUIs.
This will enable the implementaton of advanced features such as sublime's
minimap.
- A multiplexing daemon could could keep neovim instances running in a
headless server, while multiple remote GUIs could attach/detach to share
editing sessions.
- Neovim can be easily embedded into other programs.
- A multiplexing daemon could keep neovim instances running in a headless
server, while multiple remote GUIs could attach/detach to share editing
sessions.
- Simplified headless testing.
- Embedding the editor into other programs.
<a name="split"></a>
##### Split into many repositories
Here's a diagram that illustrates how a client-server process tree might look
like:
Neovim's code will be split across many repositories in the [neovim
organization](https://github.com/neovim). There will be separate repositories
for GUIs, plugins, runtime files(official vimscript) and distributions. This
will let neovim will receive improvements much faster as the patches wont have
to pass through the approval of a single person.
```
Server daemon listening on tcp sockets <------ GUI 1 (attach/detach to running instances using tcp sockets)
| |
---> Neovim |
| GUI 2 (sharing the same session with GUI 1)
---> Plugin 1
|
---> Plugin 2
|
---> Plugin 3
```
<a name="development"></a>
##### Development
Development will happen on the [neovim organization](https://github.com/neovim),
and the code will be split across many repositories. There will be separate
repositories for GUIs, plugins, runtime files(official vimscript) and
distributions. This will let the editor receive improvements much faster as the
patches dont have to go all through a single person for approval.
Travis will also be used for continuous integration, so pull requests will be
automatically checked.
###Future
The changes described are relatively simple to integrate and will be part of the
first iteration. Here are more possibilities for the future:
- Refactor the way input is read. Heres a great simplification of how vim
currently works: `while (true) { process_input(getc()); }`, we want to remove
the `while(true)` chunks from the core and provide something like this:
`process_input(char c)`. This will help extract the editor logic into a
library.
- Remove all globals. Basically every function will receive a pointer to a
struct representing the editor and containing data currently held by global
variables. Helpful if a 'libvim' is implemented in the future.
- Replace the current vimscript C implementation by [lua](www.lua.org)
or [luajit](www.luajit.org) and compile vimscript into lua, similarly to how
coffeescript is compiled into javascript. This will greatly reduce the
maintainance burden and give vimscript a real boost in performance.
###Status
@ -188,6 +255,10 @@ Here's a list of things that have been done so far:
normalize source code formatting.
- The autotools build system was replaced by [cmake](http://www.cmake.org/)
and of what is being currently worked on:
- Port all IO to libuv
###Dependencies
For Ubuntu 12.04: