(Ishfaque, resending this to the list with my subscribed e-mail address. Please reply to this one if you do.)
On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 01:52:35AM -0800, Ishfaque Jahan Rafee wrote:
I don't know if I am in the correct position to evaluate or say this, because I am using Vim for less than a year now. I would love criticism, but please try to avoid harsh comment as much as possible. 1. Drop support for anything except Python (including vimscript) Reason: Take it from me, nobody wants to start using an editor & wants to know that, due to some compile time events, they can't use this plugin. I wanted to install Command-T plugin & came to know that, I can't install it, because I don't have +ruby in my vim. It sucks. Dropping Vimscript support may be the toughest job, but think of it. Do you feel in your heart that, there's anyone on earth, who honestly want to program in vimscript? Is there anything, that can be done in vimscript, but can't be done in python? By loosing vimscript, you will be losing many years of plugin development. But look at the bright side. I feel a little bit frustrated, when I see the plugin I am going to use, was last developed 3 years before(Though it works better than anything else I have used). Losing vimscript, you are bringing a revolution in development. If you are thinking no plugin will be developed, take a look at sublime text & see how fast it has caught up with emacs & vim.
IMHO this is unjust reasoning. I feel in my heart that there are many people on earth and wherever else[1] who honestly do NOT want to program in Python. I believe this is true for any language[2]. Take it this way, Vim is at least respecting people's faith by giving the option to choose your religion. The world of an editor is much like the world itself. Heterogeneous with respect to beliefs, thoughts and choices. Upstream still chooses a way and go with it. (read vimscript) To make everyone happy you give everyone the option to choose whatever way they demand to choose to follow you. (read python, ruby) And even the choice to get rid of you and walk another way. (read forking) Now, compare the availability and feasibility of these options between emacs, vim and sublime. You get the idea?
2. Improved plugin management like pip. Reason: I am a big fan of Vundle. It is simple & does what it supposed to do. It downloads all the files from a git repository & adds them to the path. But think about a complicated plugin, plugins that are to be compiled before use(e.g. YouCompleteMe), or plugins like powerline, which takes quite a bit of setup before use. These scenarios can be vastly simplified by using things like pip. Lets think for a second, if you could just "pip install powerline" or "pip install youcompleteme" & get the desired result, wouldn't it be awesome? In this way setting up a new system might be as easy as, "pip freeze" & "pip install -r requirements.txt". In this way, one can mark another plugin as dependency for his own one in a convenient way.
I'd like this to happen. (Still there are many number of options to choose from and none of us should be forced into pip. But you said 'like pip' not 'use pip' so I'll stop.)
3. Embedded shell support like screen.vim. Reason: Screen.vim is awesome. I agree to the fullest. But it uses an external program & the support it provides is not native. Now a days Vim is becoming a de-facto standard for interpreted language development in UNIX. In interpreted language development, having a shell with your editor is pretty much a requirement. Please don't let these people run to something like Sublime Text or Emacs for this. Embedded shell support would greatly help debugging of compiled language development too.
You are confusing apples with oranges. Vim is neither a de-facto standard, nor an operating system. It is an editor with a religious background. If you are looking for an IDE, I know one with all the support you want built-in. It is called UNIX (Bonus: 99% of the time you get vi installed by default.)
4. (This one is GVim specific, because I don't think its possible on Terminal vim). I am a big fan of preview-mode for latex in emacs. But nothing like that exists on vim.
I don't know what preview-mode is.
5. Documentation support at point. Plugin's like YouCompleteMe provides language documentation. But it opens a window at top, rather than at the place where I am typing. The author of the plugin said its a Vim limitation. So I would urge people to take a notice here.
I am inclined to think this is not really a priority. Personally I wouldn't want documentation stuck into my nose and would rather read it at the top. (This is just an opinion.) [1]: Counting on the fact that some aliens might just not like the five surviving Pythons [2]: http://blog.aegisub.org/2008/12/if-programming-languages-were-religions.html -- Ali Polatel
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