What vim plugins are available for Eclipse?

Question

I have found three and would like to know if there are others and what their advantages or disadvantages might be:

• Vimplugin
• Vrapper
• Eclim

I've included Eclim, but it differs from the other two options in that it makes Eclipse functionality available in vim and what I'm really after is vim functionality within the Eclipse environment.

Solution 1

Eclim

Eclim is not the correct approach in my opinion. You want to retain the flexibility and functionality of the IDE while gaining the editing power of Vim.

viPlugin

I used viPlugin when I was working with Eclipse. However it is not free (unlike the IntelliJ Idea Vim plugin). It also is not as thorough as the Visual Studio Vim plugin. You'll find that certain functionality is missing. Things like Ctrl+] to "go to definition" or Ctrl+o for "go back" don't work. Macros don't work either however it does have marks. It provides the core functionality of Vim text editing. If I recall correctly you can even have a simple vimrc configuration file. You can do a free trial to test it out.

Vrapper

Apparently Vrapper has macros and marks, as well as the following commands:

Motions

h j k l w W e E b B f F t T ; , ^ $ 0 % G H M L gg ge gE

Operators

y Y d D c C s S p P r J x X i I a A o O . < > gc gu gU

Search

/ ? n N * #

Text Objects (only in normal mode)

ib i( i) i[ i] iB i{ i} i i" i' i` iw iW ab a( a) a[ a] aB a{ a} a a" a' a` aw aW

Counts

You can use the number keys to specify counts in front of other commands. Other Commands

v V u <C-R> <C-F> <C-B> ~ q @ zo zR zc zM zz gt gT

Plus it's free, so I'd go with that one.

Solution 2

I have tried Viable and it's my top pick out of them all. It's got pretty much all the features of Vrapper, but some additional features that none of the others have like window splitting, command history, and external filters and commands.

It is pay, but it's free to try. It does lack some of the basics like Pierre mentioned, no support for Ctrl+] for example, however the development is active so chances are it will be implemented.

Solution 3

I used viplugin for quite a while, but now that I've built up a pretty customized vim environment I've switched to eclim. Vim already gives you most of what you need - tags, file navigation, and project view. Eclim gives you a way to plug into eclipse and gets you the completion and refactoring tools. You use vim for what it's best at and eclipse for what it's best at.

Really, I think trying to reimplement vim within the eclipse environment is just a losing proposition. If all you care about are the basic movement and navigation functions, one of the plugins will work just fine. But if you've invested time in getting vim to work the way you want it to, eclim is a painless way to easily hook into eclipse.

Solution 4

Sadly, viplugin is the best one.

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Comments

[Pierre-Antoine LaFayette]

Rather than asking for the best plugin, which is highly subjective, you should ask what are the advantages and features that distinguish each option.

[DrAl]

There's also viplugin: www.viplugin.com/ (different to vimplugin).

[John Lehmann]

Related question: stackoverflow.com/questions/1766067/…

[simplfuzz]

Vrapper is the best simply because it doesn't NAG like Vimplugin.

[Steve Vermeulen]

I know you said you want to take vim to eclipse, but another simple option is to just to run gvim alongside it and send any files opened by eclipse to it: stackoverflow.com/a/4088507/23213

[hyperslug]

Tried Vimplugin but couldn't get it to work. I was hesitant to try Vrapper b/c it looks too young (v0.14) but it seems to work decently. At least I can navigate faster.

[Steven Rosato]

just started to use it and it seems flawless for a plugin that was just released. Was waiting for a vi plugin for years for eclipse. Now I can use my two favorites IDE with full vi support: Netbans and Eclipse

[Jeb]

I've used it for a few months now and, while I like it, development seems pretty stalled on viable. Still a decent plugin, but not something I'd pay $15 for unless it looked active.

[AmigoNico]

Jeb, thanks for pointing that out. Since what appears to be the last release of Viable on 2011-10-22, there have been 9 releases of viPlugin. Hmmm.

[Steve Vermeulen]

I tried both viPlugin and vrapper for awhile, and came to the same conclusion eventually. I don't consider myself a vim power user but I still constantly ran into limitations or inconsistencies or annoyances

[Nylon Smile]

I am using Vrapper and I am very happy with it.I had really missed hjkl navigation and shortcuts like di( (delete inside parentheses) yi{ (copy contents of current block) etc.

[Carlo]

Also since Vrapper 0.34.0, there is an optional plugin that allows you to use splits.

[Alex Cory]

I think to keep your vim skills sharp, and for productivity purposes, it's great to have the viplugin installed. Just saying! :)

[Leopd]

Sadly Viable seems to have died. The website is gone, and the app in the marketplace doesn't seem to work in Juno+.

[Neaţu Ovidiu Gabriel]

viplugin shows annoying popup which tells you to buy the product if you don't want the popup to appear. Switched also to Vrapper.

[yesennes]

As far as I can tell, eclim doesn't move over debugging, a almost necessary feature for large projects.

[Tango Bravo]

Also, depending on how strict your filters are at work, the link that Viable now points to has a woman without clothes, but covering herself. Just a heads up, so you won't have to take an unexpected trip to HR.

[ATOzTOA]

Vrapper... finally I am back in zone :)