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altfile : easy switching between related files

 script karma  Rating 1/1, Downloaded by 2585  Comments, bugs, improvements  Vim wiki

created by
Alex Kunin
 
script type
utility
 
description
Screenshot: http://altfile.googlecode.com/files/shot1.png
Project site: http://code.google.com/p/altfile/

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Suppose we have a project which resides in a "proj" directory. Content of that directory might look like this:

  proj/classes/Class1.php
  proj/classes/Class2.php
  proj/classes/Namespace/Class3.php
  proj/tpl/Class1.html
  proj/tpl/Class2.html
  proj/tpl/Namespace/Class3.html
  proj/tests/Class1.phpt
  proj/tests/Class2.phpt
  proj/tests/Namespace/Class3.phpt

Create "proj/.altfile" and put these lines inside:

  class: classes/{MATCH}.php
  template: tpl/{MATCH}.html
  test: tests/{MATCH}.phpt

Now load "proj/classes/Class1.php" and hit the hot key. Menu will
appear:

  class  [template]  test

Now you can use it as any other wild menu: cursor keys, <CR>, <Esc>.

By default previously active item is highilighted (works like Alt-Tab for Windows or Cmd-Tab for Mac OS X). So, to quickly switch between two files all you have to do is <M-Tab><CR>.

Now load "proj/tpl/Class4.html" - it does not exist, and you'll get empty window. Hit <M-Tab>, select "class" and hit <CR> - VIM will create new buffer for (still non-existing) "proj/classes/Class4.php". Ta-dah! Actually, this is my main reason for creating this plugin.

Note that it DOES NOT matter what is your current directory: you can cd to whatever place you want. But it DOES matter where ".altfile" is, becase patterns inside it are relative to its placement.

To show visual file selector hit <F3>. Use movement/cursor keys to highlight a file; <CR> loads file; <Tab> switches between labels.
 
install details
Copy this file to your ~/.vim/plugin/ folder. Bind some key to AltFile_ShowMenu() and AltFile_ShowSelector():

    nmap <expr> <M-Tab> AltFile_ShowMenu()
    nmap <F3> :call AltFile_ShowSelector()<CR>

Make sure that wildmenu is enabled:

    set wildmenu
 

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script versions (upload new version)

Click on the package to download.

package script version date Vim version user release notes
altfile-0.2a.zip 0.2a 2008-03-01 7.0 Alex Kunin No more ":drop" (i.e. no more GUI dependency). File load/activation code is smarter now. Uncommented forgotten try...catch block. Removed all inline docs, added link to the project site.
altfile-0.2.zip 0.2 2008-02-26 7.0 Alex Kunin Added visual file selector (resembles BufExplorer; also, some tricks were borrowed from source code of that really nice script).
altfile.vim 0.1e 2008-02-22 7.0 Alex Kunin Autoload support and "write-plugin" guidelines (thanks to Thomas Link for advices). Couple of minor bugs fixed.
altfile.vim 0.1d 2008-02-19 7.0 Alex Kunin Now wildmenu is used as "engine", so look & feel are much better now. No more numeric shortcats, however. Lots of code cleanup.
altfile.vim 0.1c 2008-02-18 7.0 Alex Kunin Default choice now mimics Alt-Tab (Cmd-Tab for Mac users), i.e. hitting the hot key and then <CR> will cycle between last two files. Visual adjustments: current file is square brakets, and asterisk indicates default choice.
altfile.vim 0.1b 2008-02-18 7.0 Alex Kunin If selected file is already visible in some window, the script will activate it.
altfile.vim 0.1a 2008-02-16 7.0 Alex Kunin When GUI is available, dialog forced to be console-friendly, i.e. no GUI window is poping up.
altfile.vim 0.1 2008-02-16 7.0 Alex Kunin Initial upload
ip used for rating: 3.235.246.51

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