nvim

A Notational Velocity inspired mode for vim.

Requirements

This should work on any recent vim compiled with +python. You will also need the xapian library and python bindings. Note that xapian does not currently work with python3.

Installation

Easiest way is to use pathogen:

cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone git://github.com/cwoac/nvim.git

Or if you manage things yourself, copy nvim.vim into your ~/.vim/plugins directory.

Script

NVim is not intended to be used in every vim session you open; to this end it will not be activated until you :Nvim

There is a supplied script nvim which will open vim and call this to drop you directly into nvim mode; simply copy it to somewhere on your path

Usage

I've made a quick screencast here outlining basic usage.

nvim stores its notes and database within a single directory. Either:

• export NVIM_HOME=path/to/directory and run nvim.
• run nvim path/to/directory or
• run nvim from within that directory.

You will then be presented with two windows - on the right is the main pane where the note is displayed; on the left the list of search results. The first line of the search box is the current search term.

Use [[ to trigger vim's auto-complete with the list of available titles.

nvim binds several keys, all combos are started with the user's defined <leader> key. If you haven't changed this, then it is \ by default.

• \<F5> Invoke NVIM on the current directory. This is the only key bound until NVIM has been invoked once. Hitting it a second time will do nothing.
• \<cr> This will follow a '[[...]]' link from within a note.
• \l Move the cursor to the search area ready for changes.
• \i As \l, but clears the current search term first (equivalent to <esc> on NV as remapping escape in vim is... unwise)
• \d Delete a note. warning This will delete the note pointed to by the search bar. Under normal usage this should be correct. It does not currently ask confirmation.
• \r Rename a note. This will not update any links in other notes.

Note that if you try an load a note that does not exist, the system will create a new one.

The full range of vim commands are available to you, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind:

• Autosave is turned on
• You can create new windows via splits or whatever as you wish - when a note is loaded from the search results it will be loaded into the most recently used window.
• If you close the results window (or all windows apart from the results window) you will need to close and reopen vim.
• If you delete a note or alter the contents of notes outside of nvim, then you can refresh the database as under importing below.

Configuration

Most of the configuration is handled at the top of nvim.vim. These are:

• NVIM_extension - the extension to use for files, and hence vim filetype detection. nvim will ignore any files in the directory that do not end with this.
• NVIM_language - the language stemmer to use when parsing notes (requires xapian 1.1+). The list of availiable languages/stemmers depends on your version of xapian, but the normal set is listed here.
• NVIM_side - which side of the screen the sidebar should be on. Defaults to the left.
• NVIM_database - the name for the directory used to store note metadata. You probably shouldn't change this unless you are fairly sure you know what you are doing.
• NVIM_interactive - Whether to map the leader based commands in interactive mode.

If you use vim under a different name (e.g. mvim for macvim) then you can still use the nvim script by setting the NVIM_EDITOR environment variable.

by default nvim allows multiple note directories. The downside to this is it requires being run from the directory containing all your notes. If you would rather have a single note directory, then you can shorthand this by setting the NVIM_HOME environment variable and using the nvim script.

Importing

If you have a bunch of notes already, then execute the following command to import them :python nvimdb.rebuild_database().

Contributing

Contributions are welcome; just submit a normal pull request. By doing so you assert that these changes are yours to submit and that you are providing these changes 'as-is' and that I may do whatever I wish with them.

Contributors

Thanks to:

@Nixon @AzizLight @Keithbsmiley @colons @shoaibkamil @eklenske

Nixos

I have added a default.nix for development under nixos. To use, switch to the src directory and run nix-shell --pure

TODO

Quite a few things, although the code is quite usable as-is.

• Allow hiding/reshowing the search results
• Some proper documentation (screencasts!)