From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-08-21T07:50:17+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Vim Question

On Mon, 21 Aug 2006, Tim Pease wrote:

> This is for all the Rubyists out there who can really rock the Vim.
> How do you invoke a shell command and pass arguments to said command?
>
> function Put(computer)
> !rsync -v -rulptzCF string(getcwd()) . "/" string(a:computer) . ":"
> . string(getcwd()) . "/"
> endfunction
>
> The idea here is that I want a Put function that takes a computer name
> as an argument. This function will use rsync to copy all modified
> files from the current working directory to the same directory on the
> remote computer.
>
> The reason for this is that I'm developing on Windows :( but my code
> needs to run on Linux and Solaris.  Pushing code to the machines where
> autotest will run it is the desired outcome.  I don't want to have to
> drop out of vim and into a shell prompt each time I do this.
>
> The function I gave above is total crap, but hopefully it conveys the
> idea I want to accomplish.  Any help or thoughts?  A simple example,
> maybe?
>
> TwP

here i type

   :r !echo arg1 arg2

which says

   read in the output of 'echo arg1 arg2'

yielding

   arg1 arg2

into my file.  if you don't want output you can do things like

   :! cp % %.bak

which makes a backup of the current file

lastly, you can write nifty 'filters' that read stdin.  my favourite is this
one

   harp:~ > cat ~/bin/columnize

   #!/usr/bin/env ruby
   n = Integer((ARGV.shift || 1))
   while((line = STDIN.gets))
     line.strip!
     fields = line.split(%r/\s+/)

     rows = []
     while not fields.empty?
       rows << (row = [])
       n.times do
         field = fields.shift
         row << field if field
       end
     end
     rows.each{|row| puts row.join(' ')}
   end

now, given a bunch of words like these

   foo bar foobar barfoo a b c

i can highlight them using 'shift-v movement keys (hjkl)', which hightlights
by line.  then, while highlighted, i type ':!columnize' which turns the words
into this

   foo
   bar
   foobar
   barfoo
   a
   b
   c

if, instead, i type, ':!columnize 2', the output is

   foo bar
   foobar barfoo
   a b
   c

hope that gives you some ideas.  btw.  there is probably a way to do all that
in vim, writing little ruby scripts let's me use them from the shell too, as
in

   cat list | columnize 3

and it's easy to do anyhow.

cheers.

-a
-- 
to foster inner awareness, introspection, and reasoning is more efficient than
meditation and prayer.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama