vim: A Vim Script repository from songcser

Introduction
Features
For whom?
Install
Customize
How to use
Update
Contributions
Acknowledgements
Articles

Introduction

space-vim is a vim distribution for vim plugins and resources, compatible with Vim and NeoVim.

It is inspired by spacemacs and mimics spacemacs in a high level, especially in the whole architecture, key bindings and GUI. if have ever tried spacemacs, you will find space-vim is very similar to it in user experience.

Elegance here means pleasing, graceful as well as simple. If you are unfamiliar with spacemacs, you can visit spacemacs.org for more about the priciple behind that, which is also what space-vim seeks.

The distribution is completely customizable using .spacevim, which is equivalent to .spacemacs in spacemacs.

(Terminal vim with space-vim-dark theme)

Features

Beautiful interface: I have written a vim colorscheme space-vim-dark based on spacemacs-dark theme. You could also try spacemacs-theme.vim.

(Terminal vim with set termguicolors)
Mnemonic key bindings: commands have mnemonic prefixes like SPC b for all the buffer commands.

Meanwhile, the whole key bindings have been well adapted for vim for the lack of great plugins similar to which-key in emacs. Most key bindings are limited to no more than two keystrokes without counting <Leader> or <LocalLeader> in, e.g. SPC x d to delete trailing whitespaces.

For different language layers, <LocalLeader>, , as default in space-vim, can be seen as the major-mode prefix in spacemacs.
Lean and mean: no nonsense wrappers, free from being bloated.

For whom?

the novice vim users
the vimmers who pursuit a beautiful appearance
the users using both vim and spacemacs

If you have been a vimmer for quite a while, just pick out the part you are interested in. space-vim is well-organized due to the layers concept, you can easily find what you want. Since some guys are interested in the statusline part of space-vim, this section has been extracted as eleline.vim.

Install

You have to satisfy some prerequisites at first:

vim with +python or +python3 feature.

If :echo has('python') or :echo has('python3') returns 1, then you are done. What's more, the most recent vim version is recommended.
git.

❗ ~~When layers enabled at the first time, you need to run :PlugInstall to install relevant plugins~~.

Linux and macOS

curl

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liuchengxu/space-vim/master/install.sh)"

wget

sh -c "$(wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liuchengxu/space-vim/master/install.sh)"

⚠️ For neovim, after the quick installer is done, you still need to create a symlink:

ln -s ~/.space-vim/init.vim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

Windows

Download git
Download Vim and Python

Download vim-plug:

windows (PowerShell)

md ~\.vim\autoload
$uri = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($uri, $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath("~\.vim\autoload\plug.vim"))

Enter your home directory, Open Git Bash by right-clicking and choosing the option Git Bash Here. Run the following commands to download space-vim and make a symlink.
```
git clone https://github.com/liuchengxu/space-vim.git ~/.space-vim
ln -s ~/.space-vim/init.vim ~/.vimrc
```

Create .spacevim in home directory.

function! Layers()
    Layer 'fzf'
    Layer 'unite'
    Layer 'better-defaults'
    " For chinese users
    Layer 'chinese'
endfunction

function! UserInit()
endfunction

function! UserConfig()
endfunction

Open vim, run :PlugInstall.

Manual (Linux and macOS)

Clone space-vim

git clone https://github.com/liuchengxu/space-vim.git ~/.space-vim

Install vim-plug, refer to vim-plug installation section for more information.

Create a symlink.

# for vim
ln -s ~/.space-vim/init.vim ~/.vimrc

# for neovim
ln -s ~/.space-vim/init.vim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

Open vim, then space-vim will automatically install the missing plugins in enabled layers. If auto-installation fails unexpectly, please try running :PlugInstall manually.

Customize

You can use .spacevim in your home directory to customize space-vim, where you can enable the existing layers, add your extra plugins and private configurations.

If .spacevim does not exist, vanilla vim will be loaded! Refer to .spacevim.template as an example.

Presetting

" Let vim and neovim share the same plugin directory
let g:spacevim_plug_home = '~/.vim/plugged'

" Change the background color of theme space-vim-dark (default 235)
let g:space_vim_dark_background = 234

`Layers()`

Please refer to LAYERS to take a look at the whole shipped layers.

" You can enable the existing layers in space-vim and
" exclude the partial plugins in a certain layer.
" The command Layer is vaild in the function Layers().
" Use exclude option if you don't want the full Layer,
" e.g., Layer 'better-defaults', { 'exclude': 'itchyny/vim-cursorword' }
function! Layers()

    " Default layers, recommended!
    Layer 'fzf'
    Layer 'unite'
    Layer 'better-defaults'

endfunction

`UserInit()`

" Put your private plugins here, e.g., change the colorscheme.
function! UserInit()

    " Space has been set as the default leader key,
    " Comma has been set at the default localleader key.
    " If you want to change it, uncomment and set it here.
    " let g:spacevim_leader = "your leader key"
    " let g:spacevim_localleader = 'your localleader key'

    " Install private plugins
    Plug 'morhetz/gruvbox'

endfunction

`UserConfig()`

" Override the existing configurations and add extras here.
function! UserConfig()

    " color gruvbox

endfunction

If have a heavy customized configuration, you can organize them in private directory with packages.vim and config.vim too, which will be loaded on startup. The private directory can be considered as either a single layer, i.e., in which you can put packages.vim and config.vim, or a set of multiple layers.

How to use

First of all, I recommend you to look through the existing key bindings via SPC ?. What's more, you definitely can not miss reading the README of better-defaults layer, which is of great importance for you to get started quickly.

For detailed instruction, please refer to the README under the certain layer enabled, or you can see config.vim and packages.vim directly.

If the README is not elaborate, sorry for that, space-vim now is in the early stages and a ton of stuff are waiting to be done.

Bootstrap

The modular design is originally from spacemacs. The implementation of logic in space-vim is similar to vim-plug.

If you want to know more about the bootstrap of space-vim, please see bootstrap in wiki.

Commands

Command	Description
`LayerStatus`	Check the status of layers
`LayerUpdate`	Update the structure of layers directory

Tips

For the sake of a better user experience, some extra settings should be done.

Enable GUI color in terminal vim

echo has('termguicolors'), if 1, then you can enable GUI color in terminal vim, add this to UserConfig():

set termguicolors

" If you use vim inside tmux, see https://github.com/vim/vim/issues/993
" set Vim-specific sequences for RGB colors
let &t_8f = "\<Esc>[38;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"
let &t_8b = "\<Esc>[48;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"

For more details about true colour, please see the gist TrueColour.md.

Font

Install the Source Code Pro or Powerline font, especially for airline Layer.

If you are running in terminal you'll need to change font settings of your terminal as well.

Update

The simplest way to update is to reinstall it completely by rerunning the installer above. It will non-destructively upgrade to the latest version.

Alternatively, you can manually perform the following steps. If anything has changed with the structure of the configuration, you will have to create the appropriate symlinks.

cd path/to/space-vim/
git pull origin master

Contributions

If you encounter any problem or have any suggestions, please open an issue or send a PR.

Space-vim is still in beta. If you are interested, contributions are highly welcome.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the many people who have helped and contributed to this project. What's more, space-vim would never have become what it is now, without the help of these projects!

songcser/vim

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