readme.md

NOTE : This is no longer under development.

vim-vs

Vim-vs is a vim plugin to make it easier to build Visual Studio's C/C++ solutions.

Vim-vs only targets Windows and Visual Studio, since the target audience is programmers that need to use Windows and Visual Studio but prefer to use Vim for editing.

Supported features:

• Build/Rebuild/Clean the entire solution
• Compile a single file
• Provides compile parameters to YouCompleteMe, making it extremely easy to setup YouCompleteMe for a project
• Support for Visual Studio 2013/2015/2017 solutions/projects
  • Might work with earlier Visual Studio solutions
  • No support for custom build commands (As-in: A file is compiled with something else other than CL.exe)
• Build is done asynchronously with output showing in the quickfix window

Requirements to use:

• VIM >=8.0 with Python 2
• AsyncRun plugin [https://github.com/skywind3000/asyncrun.vim]
  • This is required so that vim-vs doesn't block VIM while building
• Visual Studio >=2013

Installation

• Download the latest release ZIP from [https://github.com/ruifig/vim-vs/releases] .
  • If you are using Pathogen, create a vim-vs folder in your vimfiles/bundle folder, and extract the contents of the zip there
  • If not using any plugin manager, extract the contents to your vimfiles folder
• Install the AsyncRun plugin [https://github.com/skywind3000/asyncrun.vim]
• If you wish to use vim-vs to provide compile flags for YouCompleteMe, add this to your vimrc file:
  • let g:ycm_extra_conf_vim_data = ['g:vimvs_exe']
  • If you already have that variable specified, append the g:vimvs_exe

If you wish to build from the latest source code, you need Cmake and Visual Studio 2015 (Or higher if you modify the script). Run "make_release.bat", and it will build and create a folder "release" with everything you need to install.

How to use

Create a .vimvs.ini file at the root of your project with the following contents:

[General]
solution=<Path to your sln file>
common_ycm_params=-std=c++14|-Wall|-Wextra|-fexceptions|-Wno-microsoft|

Tweak common_ycm_params as required for your project if necessary. Individual parameters should be seperated by | Take a look at vim-vs's own .vimvs.ini for a working example.

Commands

• :VimvsRoot
  • Display the directory where .vimvs.ini is found
• :VimvsUpdateDB
  • This will perform a fake build (by replacing the CL/LIB/LINKER tools) to build the database vim-vs requires for any other commands.
  • You need to run this when you feel vim-vs is not up to date, such as when you add/remove files, or add/remove #include statements. For example, if you add a new source file to a project, you won't be able to compile that file (aka: Ctr-F7 in Visual Studio) until you run this command.
• :VimvsActiveConfig
  • Displays what Configuration|Platform is active.
• :VimvsSetConfiguration <Configuration>
  • Set the configuration to use. E.g: :VimvsSetConfiguration Release
  • Default is Debug
• :VimvsSetPlatform <Platform>
  • Set the platform to use. E.g: :VimvsSetPlatform x86
  • Default is x64
• :VimvsBuild
  • Perform a build
• :VimvsRebuild
  • Perform a rebuild
• :VimvsClean
  • Perform a rebuild
• :VimvsCompile
  • Compile only the current file
• :VimvsOpenAlt
  • Swaps between a header/source file

Commands that involve building anything will show current progress in the quickfix list. Once the command finishes, the quickfix list is reset to show any errors/warnings.

Using with YouCompleteMe

To have vim-vs provide compile flags for YouCompleteMe, copy the provided plugin\.ycm_extra_conf.py to your project root. That is just the barebones to query vim-vs for compile flags for a file, and should be adequate for most projects.

Setting shortcuts similar to Visual Studio

I recommend you create some shortcuts to emulate Visual Studio. Example:

noremap <silent> <F7> :VimvsBuild<CR>
noremap <silent> <C-F7> :VimvsCompile<CR>
noremap <silent> <C-A-F7> :VimvsRebuild<CR>
noremap <silent> <A-o> :VimvsOpenAlt<CR>