Now, before we dive into the most used and popular Vim plugins, let us first understand what Vim really is. Basically, Vim is just another text editor that we can use to write and edit the text, just like Sublime Text, which we commonly use for Windows or Mac, or even Notepad that we use for Windows. Vim allows efficient text editing, and it is sometimes even considered as an entire IDE for programmers. Editing existing code for software engineers becomes very time-consuming and mundane. Since Vim is all about efficiency, it allows us to handle repetitive tasks using existing keyboard shortcuts or even customize and create our own.
Popular Vim Plugins
Vim is one of the oldest text editors, yet it is still going strong! It is full-grown, steady, and expandable, with all the ground-breaking plugins accessible everywhere throughout the web. What a Vim plugin does is that it helps to extend the functionality of Vim by supercharging our workflow with it.
A vim plugin is basically a plethora of Vimscript records spread out in a specific catalog structure. Vim plugins were typically circulated as tarballs before the plugin managers got famous among people.
Vim plugins incorporate additional features in Vim – those that are not native to the editor. On account of Vim, there are various plugins accessible for a wide range of purposes. Truth be told, plugins are perhaps the most grounded purpose of Vim.
01. Nerd-tree
Thus, using this plugin, you can perform basic file system operations, easily browse through complex catalog chains of importance and even peruse and alter documents at whatever point you need by rapidly opening those records.
With a brisk keystroke, an explorer window opens in a vertical split, and you can, without much of a stretch, peruse to the record you need and open it. It is an absolute necessity for huge assortments of code. And then again, also for those individuals who find it hard to remember filenames.
02. MatchIt
MatchIt vim plugin expands this usefulness. It adds support to the cycle between if, else if, else, endif catchphrases in different programming dialects. Another improvement it has made is the capacity to discover sets of HTML labels, for example, <p> … </p>.
03. Tag list
04. Vim rainbow
Here comes the Vim Rainbow plugin to the rescue as it gives each pair of brackets a different shade of color, thereby making it super easy and fun to handle. Hence, it is anything but difficult to recognize which brackets belong to one another. It’s exceptionally helpful and extremely vivid, as well.
05. Nerd commenter
06. Gitgutter
Moreover, Gitgutter also allows users to jump quickly between blocks of changed lines called “hunks”. We can also display stage, as well as undo singular hunks, and stage partial hunks. The module additionally gives a hunk content item and consistently guarantees the signs are forward-thinking.
07. Lightline
This particular Vim plugin provides light as well as a configurable status line (also called tab line) for Vim. Not only does it lay out several color schemes to match the editor color scheme, but it also replaces vim’s dull and monotonous retro-looking status bar with a much prettier and colorful one.
08. Auto pairs
It is very helpful for programmers to use Auto Pairs during coding as most of the programming languages use several pairs of characters in their syntax, for instance, parentheses for function calls or quotation marks for string definitions. Also, auto pairs place the corresponding closing character when we type an opening character.
09. Ack
Ack is one of the popular Vim plugins used by programmers all over the world. This specific plugin basically acts as a search tool for programmers while coding in Vim. Every now and then, we would like to search for a particular file containing a specific line or even just a word, and ack is just the right plugin for Vim users.
Not only does it allow us to search files within Vim, but it also displays results in a separate and split window for our betterment. Above all, it also shows the line number of the occurrence, once for each occurrence.
10. Vim fugitive
Some of the commands of Fugitive are:
- :Gstatus – Bring up an improvised version of git status.
- :Gwrite – Stages the present record to the file.
- :Gremove – Deletes the current file and the corresponding Vim buff
- :Gread – Reverts current file to last checked.
- :Gmove – Renames the present record and the relating Vim buff
11. Fzf
It depends on the users what commands they want to enter with it. It is one of the best plugins to use because it is Portable, with no dependencies. Then again, it is blazingly quick. Fzf has one of the most comprehensive features set with a Flexible layout, and there are batteries included.
12. ALE
ALE can convey required help for fixing code writings with order line instruments utilizing a non-blocking way with the: ALEFix feature. It is likewise ready to help devices in numerous dialects, similar to model: prettier, autopep8, eslint, and some more.
13. Vim surround
This plugin is very useful for editing HTML and XML. Using this plugin, the task of adding, changing, and removing pairs of tags simultaneously is very comfortable and lenient.
Example: If we Press ‘cs’, it will be able to transform the text,
From,
” Vim Plugin!”
To,
‘ Vim Plugin!’
14. Vim-multiple-cursors
For an existing Vim user, no plugin has so far been a trusted port other than Vim-Multiple-cursors, as it is quite easy to use yet powerful and also intuitive enough. It even works on Mac OS, where it is known as MacVim.
15. Solarized
Some highlight groups are seen slightly differently due to various text colors. One of the latest solarized plugins for Vim is Solarized 8: True colors. This is a Solarized topic for Vim, set somewhere between the first Solarized and the Flattened variation module.
Final Thoughts
The ultra-stable feature of Vim plugins is probably the best part of the Vim plugin feature. With each new plugin coming out every other day, you can improve your experience using Vim tremendously. Not only has a vim plugin made our jobs easier while working on Vim, but it has also made things very interesting and appealing.
These were only some of our picks of the various vim plugins available out there. We hope that it was helpful to you in some way. Please do not forget to share our article and help others with this knowledge.
Great List, Thanks