vim-anywhere

Sometimes, you edit text outside of Vim. These are sad times. Enter vim-anywhere!

Once invoked, vim-anywhere will open a buffer. Close it and its contents are copied to your clipboard and your previous application is refocused.

Installation

Requirements

OSX:

MacVim (brew install macvim)

Linux:

Gnome (or a derivative)
gVim

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/cknadler/vim-anywhere/master/install | bash

OSX caveat: key binding is unbound by default. See keybinding for details.

Update

~/.vim-anywhere/update

Uninstall

~/.vim-anywhere/uninstall

Keybinding

OSX: ( default = unbound, suggested = ctrl+cmd+v )

The keyboard shortcut for invoking vim-anywhere is unbound by default on OSX. The installation script will automatically open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Fill in the following:

Linux: ( default = ctrl+alt+v )

Gnome

$ gconftool -t str --set /desktop/gnome/keybindings/vim-anywhere/binding <custom binding>

I3WM

$ echo "bindsym $mod+Alt+v exec ~/.vim-anywhere/bin/run" >> ~/.i3/config # remember to reload your config after

Adjust in case $mod is not set to ctrl.

History

vim-anywhere creates a temporary file in /tmp/vim-anywhere when invoked. These files stick around until you restart your system, giving you a temporary history.

View your history:

$ ls /tmp/vim-anywhere

Reopen your most recent file:

$ vim $( ls /tmp/vim-anywhere | sort -r | head -n 1 )

Why?

I use Vim for almost everything. I wish I didn't have to say almost. My usual workflow is to open Vim, write, copy the text out of my current buffer and paste it into whatever application I was just using. vim-anywhere attempts to automate this process as much as possible, reducing the friction of using Vim to do more than just edit code.

Contributing

Love vim-anywhere? Hate it? Want to change it completely? Email me or open an issue and lets talk. Pull requests, suggestions and issues of any kind are welcome with open arms.

License

MIT.

jgrasser/vim-anywhere