/nim-atom

Nim for Atom

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

Nim for Atom

This is an Atom package for the Nim language that integrates with the Nim compiler and Nimsuggest.

Status

I no longer use Atom, but I will accept pull requests. It should be basically working as of April 2018.

Features:

  • Autocomplete
  • Linting/Error Checking (on file save or on-the-fly)
  • Jump-to-definition
  • Syntax highlighting

Installation

  1. Install Nim or build Nim from source
  2. Install this package in Atom: File -> Settings (or Edit -> Preferences) -> Install, then search for nim

Configuration

  1. Go to the package settings in Atom: File -> Settings (or Edit -> Preferences) -> Packages -> nim
  2. If nim is not in your PATH, then set the path for it.
  3. (Optional) Set up the Run Command for your OS (at the bottom of the nim package settings, see instructions there).

Important input

  1. Ctrl-Shift-Click -> Jump to definition under cursor
  2. Ctrl-Shift-B -> Build current file or the project it belongs to
  3. F5 -> Build and Run current file or the project it belongs to

How Projects Work

Use File -> Open Folder to open the root folder for a Nim project. You should have a main project .nim file, which is autodetected using the following steps:

  1. Check for a .nimble file in the root folder. If found, use the bin and (optionally) srcDir keys to determine the project file (only the first bin key will be used if multiple exist).
  2. Find the first .nim file with a corresponding .nimcfg, .nim.cfg, or .nims file in the root folder.

If you have a main project, it will speed up autocompletions and jump-to-definition. However, keep in mind that a file must be included or imported either directly or indirectly by the main project file to be error checked.

Autocomplete

Now works for all symbols, not just after you press dot. Supports fuzzy matching by using fuzzaldrin. Doc strings are truncated to fit into one line, mouseover to read the whole thing. Can be configured in settings to be on all the time, only after you press dot, or never.

Linting/Error Checking

By default, it will check files when you save them. You can also use on-the-fly checking by changing the value in settings. This will slow things down.

Note that if you have a main project file, error checking only occurs for files directly or indirectly imported or included by the main project file. So, if you don't see any errors and they should be there, be sure the file has been imported/included.

If there are a lot of errors/warnings when linting, Atom will slow down a lot. This is because it creates every error/warning box instead of reusing them. There is a pending issue for this in the Atom Linter package.

Jump To Definition

Use Ctrl + Shift + Left Click to jump to the definition under the mouse cursor.

Build and Run

Use Ctrl-Shift-B to build, which compiles the current file or its project. If there are errors, they will show up normally. These may be different that the linting errors (and probably are more accurate). The status bar in the lower right will show if it was successful or failed.

Use F5 to build and run the current file or its project. If the build fails, it will not try to run anything. Be sure you set up the Run Command first!

These commands can work on individual files or projects. If you are editing a file that's not in a project, these commands will just build/run that file. If it is part of a project, these commands will build/run the project root file.

Update 4/10/18: Atom has updated the UI for its linter, and it's terrible. Template trace messages sometimes appear out of order now, not sure exactly what's going on.

Notes

Sometimes the nim compiler or nimsuggest crashes, and you'll see the error notification. It's not a big deal, and nimsuggest will auto-restart. You can view full error dumps in the developer tools console (Ctrl-Alt-i or Ctrl-Shift-i). This can be annoying when doing on-the-fly error checking, so it is disabled by default.

Development

If you want to hack on this package, just:

  1. Be sure you have node.js installed (I think Atom installs this, not sure)
  2. Clone this repo
  3. Be sure this package is not installed in Atom (uninstall if necessary)
  4. apm install in repo root
  5. apm link in repo root

Now you can edit the source directly in your repo clone and it will update any time you restart Atom.

Credit

This originally started as a fork of https://github.com/zah/nim.atom/, but it has changed so much that I just created a new project.