Module vpe

Enhanced module for using Python 3 in Vim.

This provides the Vim class, which is a wrapper around Vim’s built-in vim module. It is intended that a Vim instance can be uses as a replacement for the vim module. For example:

from vpe import vim
# Now use 'vim' as an extended version of the *vim* module.
# ...

The VPE module uses certain global Vim variables for its own internal purposes. The names are chosen to be suitably obscure, but obviously associated with VPE.

_vpe_args_

This is a dictionary that is used by a Vim function to pass information to Python callback functions. Predefined entries are:

‘uid’: The unique ID for the callback function to be invoked.
‘args’: A sequence of any unnamed arguments passed to the Vim function.

Attributes

vpe.VIM_DEFAULT

Special value representing default Vim value for an option.

vpe.VI_DEFAULT

Special value representing default Vi value for an option.

vpe.commands

An object providing Vim commands as methods.

This is an instance of the Commands class.

vpe.log

The Vpe log support object.

This is an instance of the Log class.

vpe.vim

A replacement for (and wrapper around) the python-vim module.

This is in instance of the Vim class.

AutoCmdGroup

class vpe.AutoCmdGroup(name)

A Pythonic way to define auto commands.

This is a context manager that supports definition of autocommands that:

Are always in a given group.
Invoke Python code when triggered.

It is intended to be used as:

with AutoCmdGroup('mygroup') as g:
    g.delete_all()
    g.add('BufWritePre', handle_bufwrite, ...)
    g.add('BufDelete', handle_bufdelete, ...)

...

# Add more autocommands to the same group.
with AutoCmdGroup('mygroup') as g:
    g.delete_all()
    g.add('BufWritePre', handle_bufwrite, ...)

Parameters

name: The name of the group.

Static methods

static add(...)
add(
        event,
        func,
        pat: str | wrappers.Buffer = '<buffer>',
        once: bool = False,
        nested: bool = False,
        inc_event: bool = False,
Add a new auto command to the group.

Parameters

event
The name of the event.

func
The Python function to invoke. Plain functions and instance methods are supported.

pat: str | vpe.wrappers.Buffer
The file pattern to match. If not supplied then the special ‘<buffer>’ pattern is used. If the argument is a Buffer then the special pattern ‘<buffer=N> is used.

once: bool
The standard ‘:autocmd’ options.

nested: bool
The standard ‘:autocmd’ options.

inc_event: bool
Include event='event-name' in the callback invocation.

kwargs
Additional keyword arguments to be passed in the callback invocation.
static delete_all()

Delete all entries in the group.

BufEventHandler

class vpe.BufEventHandler

Mix-in to support mapping events to methods for buffers.

This ties mapped events to the buffer. This mixin is used by the ManagedIOBuffer and may also be used for for classes derived from ScratchBuffer.

Methods

auto_define_event_handlers(group_name: str, delete_all=False)

Set up mappings for event handling methods.

This appends _<self.number> to the provided group_name and then invokes EventHandler.auto_define_event_handlers.

Parameters

group_name: str
A string that is uses to generate a (hopefully) unique autocmd group name.

delete_all
If set then all previous auto commands in the group are deleted.

BufListener

class vpe.BufListener(func, buf, ops: bool = True, raw_changes: bool = False)

An extension of Callback for Vim’s buffer change callbacks.

One of these is created by Buffer.add_listener. Direct instantiation of this class is not recommended or supported.

Parameters

func: The Python function or method to be called back.
buf: The Buffer instance.
ops: Include the diffs.Operation changes as an additional argument:
raw_changes: Include the raw changes as an additional argument:

Attributes

buf

The Buffer instance.

listen_id

The unique ID from a listener_add invocation.

ops

Include the diffs.Operation changes as an additional argument:

raw_changes

Include the raw changes as an additional argument:

Methods

stop_listening()

Stop listening for changes.

This permanently disables this listener.

Buffer

class vpe.Buffer(buffer)

Wrapper around a python-buffer.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

A number of extensions to the standard python-buffer are provided.

The vars property provides access to the buffer’s variables.
The list context manager provides a clean, and often more efficient, way to access the buffer’s content.
The temp_options context manager provides a clean way to work with a buffer with some of its options temporarily modified.
Buffer specific meta-data can be attached using the store.
The values provided by getbufinfo() are effectively available as properties of this class.

Properties

property bufnr → int

The same as the number attribute.

This exists as a side effect of providing getbufinfo() values as properties. It is more efficient to use the number attribute.

property changed → int

Modified flag; 0=unchanged, 1=changed.

property changedtick → int

Same as changetick.

property hidden → int

Hidden flag; 0=buffer visible in a window, 1=buffer hidden.

property lastused → int

Time (in seconds) when buffer was last used.

This is a time in seconds as returned by localtime().

property linecount → int

The number of lines in the buffer.

property lnum → int

The current line number for the buffer.

property loaded → int

Buffer loaded flag; 0=not loaded, 1=buffer loaded.

property location → str

The location of the file loaded in this buffer.

Returns:

If the buffer is not associated with a file then an empty string. Otherwise the absolute directory part of the file’s name.

property long_display_name → str

A long-form name for display purposes.

property number

The number of this buffer.

property popups → list[int]

A list of window IDs for popups that are displaying this buffer.

Each entry is a window-ID.

property short_description → str

A short description for the buffer.

Returns:

For a quickfix window this is the title string. For a terminal this is the buffer’s name. For other types that are associated with a file the location property is provided.

property short_display_name → str

A short-form name for display purposes.

property type → str

The type name of this buffer.

This is similar to the ‘buftype’ option, but normal buffers have the type ‘normal’.

property valid → bool

Test of this buffer is valid.

A buffer can become invalid if, for example, the underlying Vim buffer has been wiped out.

property variables → Variables

The same as the vars attribute.

This exists as a side effect of providing getbufinfo() values as properties. It is more efficient to use the vars attribute.

property vars → Variables

The buffer vars wrapped as a Variables instance.

property windows → list[int]

A list of window IDs for windows that are displaying this buffer.

Each entry is a window-ID.

Methods

__getattr__(name)

Make the values from getbufinfo() available as attributes.

This extends the base class implementation.
add_listener(...)
add_listener(
        func: ListenerCallbackFunc | ListenerCallbackMethod,
        ops: bool = True,
        raw_changes: bool = False
Add a callback for changes to this buffer.

This is implemented using listener_add()

Parameters

func: Union
The callback function which is invoked with the following arguments:

buf:

The buffer that was changed.

start:

Start of the range of modified lines (zero based).

end:

End of the range of modified lines.

added:

Number of lines added, negative if lines were deleted.

ops: bool
True by default. Include a list of the individual operations to the callback as the ops keyword argument. A list of diffs.Operation instances with details about the changes.

raw_changes: bool
False by default. Include the unmodified changes as the raw_changes keyword argument (see listener_add for details).

Return value

A BufListener object.
append(line_or_lines, nr=None)

Append one or more lines to the buffer.

This is the same as using the append method of python-buffer.

Parameters

line_or_lines
The line or lines to append.

nr
If present then append after this line number.

clear_props()

Remove all properties from all lines in this buffer.

find_active_windows(all_tabpages=False) → list['Window']

Find windows where this buffer is active.

The list windows returned is prioritised as a result of searching in the following order. The current window, windows in the current tab page, all windows in all tab pages.

Parameters

all_tabpages
If True then all tab pages are searched. Otherwise only the current tab page is searched.

Return value

A list of the windows found.

find_best_active_window(all_tabpages=False) → Window | None

Find the best choice for a window where this buffer is active.

This returns the first entry found by find_active_windows.

Parameters

all_tabpages
If True (the default) all tab pages are searched. Otherwise only the current tab page is searched.

Return value

The window or None.

goto_active_window(all_tabpages=False) → Window | None

Goto the best choice window where this buffer is active.

This goes to the first entry found by find_active_windows.

Parameters

all_tabpages
If True (the default) all tab pages are searched. Otherwise only the current tab page is searched.

Return value

The window that was chosen or None.

is_active()

Test whether the current window is showing this buffer.
list()
A sequence context for efficient buffer modification.

As an example:
with vim.current.buffer.list() as lines:
    # Now lines is a copy of the buffers lines.
    lines[2:4] = ['one']  # Update lines in-place.

# The vim.current.buffer has now been updated with modified lines.
Although this involves taking a copy of the buffer’s lines and then completely replacing the buffer’s set of lines, this is a much more efficient way to make non-trivial modifications to a buffer’s contents.

This will update the buffer, even if ‘modifiable’ is not set.
range(a: int, b: int) → Range

Get a Range for the buffer.

This is like getting a python-range object, except that it is wrapped in a Range instance.

Parameters

a: int
The start line number of the range.

b: int
The end line number of the range. Note that this line is included in the range; i.e. the range is inclusive, unlike Python ranges.

retrieve_store(key: Any) → Struct | None

Retrieve a given buffer store if it exists.

This is similar to store, but no new store is created.

Return value

The requested store Struct or None if it does not exist.
set_line_prop(...)
set_line_prop(
        lidx: int,
        start_cidx: int,
        end_cidx: int,
        hl_group: str,
Set a highlighting property on a single line.

The name of the text property is formed from the ‘name’ if provided and the ‘hl_group’ otherwise, by prefixing ‘vpe:hl:’. For example if hl_group='Label' and ‘name’ is not provided then the property is called ‘vpe:hl:Label’.

The buffer specific text property is created if it does not already exist. Apart from the bufnr option, default values are used for the property’s options.

Parameters

lidx: int
The index of the line to hold the property.

start_cidx: int
The index within the line where the property starts.

end_cidx: int
The index within the line where the property ends.

hl_group: str
The name of the highlight group to use.

name: str
An optional name for the property.
set_rich_like_lines(lines: list[str]) → None

Set highlighted buffer contents from Rich-like markup text.

This method is useful for non-edit buffers, such as obtained using get_display_buffer.

The entire contents of the buffer is updated.

Each line is parsed for mark up that looks like ‘[Macro]’ and ‘[]’. Names within ‘[’ and ‘]’ define highlight groups that are used to set text properties using set_line_prop. An empty ‘[]’ reverts to unmarked text. Use ‘[’ to insert a literal ‘[‘.

The markup style is modelled on (https://github.com/Textualize/rich) (Rich). It is not compatible, but might possibly be extended to support some subset of Rich markup in the future.
store(key: Any) → Struct
Provide a Struct for a given key.

This provides a mechanism to store arbitrary data associated with a given buffer. A new Struct is created the first time a given key is used. An example of how this can be used:
vim.current.buffer.store['my-store'].processed = True
...
for buf in vim.buffers:
    if buf.store['my-store'].processed:
        # Treat already processed buffers differently.
        ...
The vpe package arranges to return the same Buffer instance for a given python-buffer so this effectively allows you to associated meta-data with individual Vim buffers.
temp_options(**presets) → TemporaryOptions
Context used to temporarily change options.

This makes it easy, for example, to use a normally unmodifiable buffer to display information in a buffer. To update the displayed buffer’s contents do something like:
with disp_buf.temp_options(modifiable=True):
    disp.buf.append('Another line')
When the context ends, the modifiable option is reset to its original value. An alternative approach is:
with disp_buf.temp_options as opt:
    opt.modifiable = True
    disp.buf.append('Another line')
Only options set using presets or the context object are restored when the context exits.

Parameters

presets
One or more options values may be defined using keyword arguments. The values are applied when the context is entered.

Class methods

classmethod get_known(buffer: Any) → Buffer | None

Get the Buffer instance for a given vim.buffer.

This is only intended for internal use.

Parameters

buffer: Any
A standard python-buffer.

Static methods

static escape_rich_like(text: str) → str

Escape rich-like markup in a string.

Use this for text that should not be interpreted when passed to the set_rich_like_lines method. This replaces all ‘[’ characters with ‘[‘.
static markup_text(...)
markup_text(
        text: str,
        pat: str,
        markup: str,
        rep_all: bool = True
Find pat in text and apply richlike markup.

For exmaple if text is ‘Press Q to quit’, pat is ‘Q` and markup is ‘Keyword’ then this returns ‘Press [Keyword]Q[] to quit’.

This is function is provide as a convenience for simple cases of rich-like markup.

Return value

The marked up string.

Buffers

class vpe.Buffers(obj=None)

Wrapper around the built-in vim.buffers.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

Callback

class vpe.Callback(...)

Callback(
        func: Callable[[...], None],
        py_args: tuple[Any, ...] = (),
        py_kwargs: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
        vim_exprs: tuple[Any, ...] = (),
        pass_bytes: bool = False,
        once: bool = False,
        cleanup: Callable[[], None] | None = None,
        meta: Any | None = None,

Wrapper for a function to be called from Vim.

This encapsulates the mechanism used to arrange for a Python function to be invoked in response to an event in the ‘Vim World’. A Callback stores the Python function together with an ID that is uniquely associated with the function (the UID). If, for example this wraps function ‘spam’ giving it UID=42 then the Vim script code:

:call VPE_Call(42, 'hello', 123)

will result in the Python function ‘spam’ being invoked as:

spam('hello', 123)

The way this works is that the VPE_Call function first stores the UID and arguments in the global Vim variable _vpe_args_ in a dictionary as:

{
    'uid': 42,
    'args': ['hello', 123]
}

Then it calls this class’s invoke classmethod:

return py3eval('vpe.Callback.invoke()')

The invoke class method extracts the UID and uses it to find the Callback instance.

Note that a strong reference to each Callback instance is automatically stored, but only while a strong reference to the function exists.

@callbacks A class level mapping from uid to Callback instance. This: is used to lookup the correct function during the execution of VPE_Call.

Parameters

func: The Python function or method to be called back.
py_args: Addition positional arguments to be passed to func.
py_kwargs: Additional keyword arguments to be passed to func.
vim_exprs: Expressions used as positional arguments for the VPE_Call helper function.
pass_bytes: If true then vim byte-strings will not be decoded to Python strings.
once: If True then the callback will only ever be invoked once.
cleanup: If supplied then this is callable taking no arguments. It is invoked to perform any special clean up actions when the function is no longer referenced.
meta: Arbitrary meta-data to be stored in the Callback’s meta attribute.
kwargs: Additional info to store with the callback. This is used by subclasses - see ‘MapCallback’ for an example.

Attributes

call_count

The number of times the wrapped function or method has been invoked.

meta

Arbitrary meta-data to be stored in the Callback’s meta attribute.

once

If True then the callback will only ever be invoked once.

pass_bytes

If true then vim byte-strings will not be decoded to Python strings.

py_args

Addition positional arguments to be passed to func.

py_kwargs

Additional keyword arguments to be passed to func.

uid

The unique ID for this wrapping. It is the string form of an integer.

vim_exprs

Expressions used as positional arguments for the VPE_Call helper function.

Methods

as_call()

Format a command of the form ‘call VPE_Call(“42”, …)’.

The result can be used as a colon prompt command.

as_invocation()

Format an expression of the form ‘VPE_Call(“42”, …)’.

The result is a valid Vim script expression.

as_vim_function()

Create a vim.Function that will route to this callback.

format_call_fail_message()

Generate a message to give details of a failed callback invocation.

This is used when the Callback instance exists, but the call raised an exception.

get_call_args(_vpe_args: Dict[str, Any])

Get the Python positional and keyword arguments.

This may be over-ridden by subclasses.

Class methods

classmethod invoke() → Any

Invoke a particular callback function instance.

This is invoked from the ‘Vim World’ by VPE_Call. The global Vim dictionary variable _vpe_args_ will have been set up to contain ‘uid’ and ‘args’ entries. The ‘uid’ is used to find the actual Callback instance and the ‘args’ is a sequence of Vim values, which are passed to the callback as positional arguments.

The details are store in the Vim global variable _vpe_args_, which is a dictionary containing:

uid
The unique ID that is used to find the correct Callback instance.

args
Any additional arguments passed to the callback by Vim.

It is possible that there is no instance for the given uid. In that case a message is logged, but no other action taken.

Return value

Normally the return value of the invoked function. If the callback is dead then the value is zero and if an exception is raised then the value is -1.

CommandHandler

class vpe.CommandHandler

Mix-in to support mapping user commands to methods.

To use this do the following:

Make your class inherit from this class.
Decorate methods that implement commands using the command class method. A decorated method expect to be invoked with multiple positional parameters, one per command line argument.
In your init function, invoke self.auto_define_commands().

Your code should only create a single instance of the class.

Methods

auto_define_commands()

Set up mappings for command methods.

Static methods

static command(name: str, **kwargs) → Callable[[Callable], Callable]

Decorator to make a user command invoke a method.

Parameters

name: str
The name of the user defined command.

kwargs
See vpe.define_command for the supported values.

CommandInfo

class vpe.CommandInfo(...)

CommandInfo(
        line1: int,
        line2: int,
        range: int,
        count: int,
        bang: bool,
        mods: str,

Information passed to a user command callback handler.

Attributes

bang

True if the command was invoked with a ‘!’.

count

Any count value supplied (see command-count).

line1

The start line of the command range.

line2

The end line of the command range.

mods

The command modifiers (see :command-modifiers).

range

The number of items in the command range: 0, 1 or 2 Requires at least vim 8.0.1089; for earlier versions this is fixed as -1.

reg

The optional register, if provided.

Current

class vpe.Current(obj=None): Wrapper around the built-in vim.current attribute.

EventHandler

class vpe.EventHandler

Mix-in to support mapping events to methods.

This provides a convenient alternative to direct use of AutoCmdGroup. The default pattern (see autocmd-patterns) is ‘*’ unless explicitly set by the handle decorator.

Methods

auto_define_event_handlers(group_name: str, delete_all=False)

Set up mappings for event handling methods.

Parameters

group_name: str
The name for the auto command group (see augrp). This will be converted to a valid Vim identifier.

delete_all
If set then all previous auto commands in the group are deleted.

Static methods

static handle(name: str, **kwargs) → Callable[[Callable], Callable]

Decorator to make an event invoke a method.

Parameters

name: str
The name of the event (see autocmd-events.

kwargs
See AutoCmdGroup.add for the supported arguments. Note that the pat argument defaults to ‘*’, not ‘<buffer>’.

Finish

class vpe.Finish(reason: str)

Used by plugin’s to abort installation.

This is intended to play a similar role to the :finish command, as used in plug-ins that may not be able to complete initialisation.

Parameters

reason: A string providing the reason for aborting.

GlobalOptions

class vpe.GlobalOptions(vim_options)

Wrapper for vim.options, etc.

This extends the behaviour so that options appear as attributes. The standard dictionary style access still works.

KeyHandler

class vpe.KeyHandler

Mix-in to support mapping key sequences to methods.

This can be used as a simple base class, but also as a mix-in. For example:

class MyScratchBuffer(ScratchBuffer, KeyHandler):
    def __init__(*args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.auto_map_keys()
        ...

The mapped static method is used to decorate the methods that you wish to handle mappings. Some examples:

@KeyHandler.mapped('<C-F1>')
def show_general_help(self) -> None:
    ...

@KeyHandler.mapped('<Leader>h')
def show_help_for_word_under_cursor(self) -> None:
    ...

# This mapping is forced to be global by the ``buffer=False`` argument.
@KeyHandler.mapped('<F12>', buffer=False)
def list_buffers(self) -> None:
    ...

The auto_map_keys method must be called to set up the mappings, typically within the class __init__ method. If the main class is a subclass of Buffer (such as MyScratchBuffer above) then the mappings are set up just for that buffer, unless buffer argument was specified for the mapped method. Otherwise the mappings default to global.

Methods

auto_map_keys(pass_info: bool = False) → None

Set up mappings for methods.

Parameters

pass_info: bool
If set then each key handler method will be invoked with a MappingInfo object. This is useful if you want a single method to handle several mappings, but behave differently depening on which mapping was triggered.

Static methods

static mapped(...)
mapped(
        mode: Union[str, Iterable[str]],
        keyseq: Union[str, Iterable[str]],
        **kwargs
Decorator to make a keyboard mapping invoke a method.

This decorator supports the ‘<Leader>’ prefix in key sequences, in much the same way as describled in mapleader. For example if g:mapleader is set to ‘,’ then the key sequence ‘<Leader>q’ is equivalent to ‘,q’. If g:mapleader is unset or blank then ‘' is used.

The interpretation of <Leader> occurs at the time of decoration, so changing g:mapleader after plugin loading will typicallhave no effect.

Parameters

mode: Union
The mode in which the mapping applies, one of normal, op-pending, visual or insert. Or an iterable sequence of modes.

keyseq: Union
A key sequence string or sequence thereof, as used by map.

kwargs
See map for the supported values.

Log

class vpe.Log(name: str, maxlen: int = 500, timestamps: bool = True)

Support for logging to a display buffer.

An instance of this class provides a mechanism to support logging that can be viewed within a buffer. Instances of this class act as a simple print function.:

info = Log('my_info')
info("Created log", info)
info("Starting process")

The output is stored in a Python FIFO structure, up to a maximum number of lines; the default is 500, change this with set_maxlen. No actual Vim buffer is created until required, which is when show is first invoked.:

info.show()   # Make the log visible.

The vpe module provides a predefined log, called ‘VPE’. This is available for general use. VPE also uses it to log significant occurrences - mainly error conditions.

Parameters

name: A name that maps to the corresponding display buffer.
maxlen: The maximum number of lines to store.
timestamps: Set this to False to prevent the addition of timestamps.

Attributes

buf

The corresponding Vim buffer. This will be None if the show method has never been invoked.

name

A name that maps to the corresponding display buffer.

Properties

property lines → list[str]

The lines currently in the log.

This is used by the VPE test suite. It is not really intended to general use and unlikely to be generally useful. Note that each access to this property creates a new list.

property maxlen → int

The current maximum length.

Methods

__call__(*args)

Write to the log.

The arguments are formatted using print and then appended to the log buffer, with a time stamp.

Parameters

args
The same as for Python’s print function.

clear() → None

Clear all lines from the log.

The FIFO is cleared and the corresponding buffer updated.

flush()

File like I/O support.

hide() → None

Hide the log buffer, if showing.

redirect()

Redirect stdout/stderr to the log.

set_maxlen(maxlen: int) → None

Set the maximum length of the log’s FIFO.

This will discard older lines if necessary.

Parameters

maxlen: int
How many lines to store in the FIFO.

show() → None

Make sure the buffer is visible.

If there is no buffer currently displayed the log then this will:

Split the current window.

Create a buffer and show it in the new split.

unredirect()

Disable stdout/stderr redirection.

unredirected()

Context manager that temporarily disables log rediection.

write(s)

Write a string to the log buffer.

Parameters

s
The string to write.

ManagedIOBuffer

class vpe.ManagedIOBuffer(name, buffer, simple_name=None)

A buffer that does not map directly to a file.

DO NOT DIRECTLY INSTANTIATE THIS CLASS.

Use get_managed_io_buffer, which creates a buffer with suitably formatted names and, critically, ensures that it is added into the vim.buffers objects.

This is useful when you neeed to control how the contents of an editable buffer a read and written. An example of this might be if you were writing a clone of the :vim:’pi_netrw’ plugin, where the buffer’s name does not corresond to a name of a file on your computer’s storage.

To use this class you will typically need to subclass it and then override the load_contents and save_contents methods. To create an instance of your subclass you should use get_managed_io_buffer, passing your subclass as the buf_class argument.

The underlying Vim buffer is configured with the following key option values:

buftype = acwrite
swapfile = False
bufhidden = hide
buflisted = True

Methods

load_contents() → None

Load the buffer’s contents.

This will typically be overridden in your subclass. It can provide the contents of the buffer by whatever means required. The buffer’s modified option is cleared once this returns.

on_first_showing()

Invoked when the buffer is first, successfully displayed.

Subclasses can implement this as required.

save_contents() → bool

Save the buffer’s contents.

This will typically be overridden in your subclass. It can store the contents of the buffer by whatever means required.

Note: the buffer’s contents must not be modified by this method.

Return value

True to indicate that the contents have been successully stored, in which case the buffer’s modified option is reset.

OneShotTimer

class vpe.OneShotTimer(ms: int, func: Callable[[...], None])

A version of Timer that can be used ‘set-and-forget’.

This version makes sure that a reference to the function and the OneShotTimer instance is saved until the timer fires. This means that this type of code will work:

def one_shot_example():
    def fire():
        print('Bang!')
    OneShotTimer(1000, fire)

The callback function is invoked without arguments.

Options

class vpe.Options(vim_options)

Wrapper for buffer.options, etc.

This extends the behaviour so that options appear as attributes. The standard dictionary style access still works.

Popup

class vpe.Popup(...)

Popup(
        content: str | list[str] | list[dict],
        name: str = '',
        rich: bool = False,

A Pythonic way to use Vim’s popup windows.

This can be used as instead of the individual functions popup_create, popup_hide, popup_show, popup_settext, popup_close).

Creation of a Popup uses vim.popup_create to create the actual popup window. Control of the popup windows is achieved using the methods hide, show and settext. You can subclass this in order to override the on_close or on_key methods.

The subclasses PopupAtCursor, PopupBeval, PopupNotification, PopupDialog and PopupMenu, provide similar convenient alternatives to popup_atcursor, popup_beval, popup_notification, popup_dialog and popup_menu.

The windows options (line, col, pos, etc.) are made avaiable as properties of the same name. For example, to change the first displayed line:

p = vpe.Popup(my_text)
...
p.firstline += 3

The close option must be accessed as close_control, because close is a Popup method. There is no filter or callback property.

Parameters

content: The content for the window.
name: An optional name for the Popup. If provided then a named ScratchBuffer is used for the content rather than letting Vim create one.
p_options: Vim popup_create() options can be provided as keyword arguments. The exceptions are filter and callback. Over ride the on_key and on_close methods instead.

Properties

property buffer → wrappers.Buffer | None

The buffer holding the window’s content.

Returns:

A Buffer or None.

property id → int

The ID of the Vim popup window.

Methods

close(result: int = 0) → None

Close the popup.

Parameters

result: int
The result value that will be forwarded to on_close.

hide() → None

Hide the popup.

move(**p_options) → None

Set a number of move options at once.

An efficient way to set multiple options that affect the popup’s position.

on_close(result: int) → None

Invoked when the popup is closed.

The default implementation does nothing, it is intended that this be over-ridden in subclasses.

Parameters

result: int
The value passed to close. This will be -1 if the user forcefully closed the popup.

on_key(key: str | bytes, byte_seq: bytes) → bool

Invoked when the popup receives a keypress.

The default implementation does nothing, it is intended that this be over-ridden in subclasses. The keystream is preprocessed before this method is invoked as follows:

Merged key sequences are split, so that this is always invoked with the sequence for just a single key.

Anything that does not convert to a special name is decoded to a Python string, if possible.

Special key sequences are converted to the standard Vim symbolic names such as <Up>, <LeftMouse>, <F11>, etc. Modifiers are also handled where possible - the modified symbolic names known to be available are:

<S-Up> <S-Down> <S-Left> <S-Right> <S-Home> <S-End> <S-Insert>

<C-F1> <C-F2>, etc.

<C-A> <M-A> <S-M-A> <C-M-A>, <C-B> … <C-M-Z>

Parameters

key: str | bytes
The pressed key. This is typically a single character string such as ‘a’ or a symbolic Vim keyname, such as ‘<F1>’. However, it can also be a 3 byte sequence starting b’ý’, which occurs when Vim converts internal events into special key sequences.

byte_seq: bytes
The unmodified byte sequence, as would be received for a filter callback using Vimscript.

Return value

True if the key should be considered consumed.

setoptions(**p_options) → None

Set a number of options at once.

This is useful to set certain groups of options that cannot be separately set. For example ‘textpropid’ cannot be set unless ‘textprop’ is set in the same popup_setoptions call.

settext(content) → None

Set the text of the popup.

show() → None

Show the popup.

Class methods

classmethod clear(force: bool) → None

Clear all popups from display.

Use this in preference to vim.popup_clear, to ensure that VPE cleans up its underlying administrative structures.

Parameters

force: bool
If true then if the current window is a popup, it will also be closed.

PopupAtCursor

class vpe.PopupAtCursor(...)

PopupAtCursor(
        content: str | list[str] | list[dict],
        name: str = '',
        rich: bool = False,

Popup configured to appear near the cursor.

This creates the popup using popup_atcursor().

PopupBeval

class vpe.PopupBeval(...)

PopupBeval(
        content: str | list[str] | list[dict],
        name: str = '',
        rich: bool = False,

Popup configured to appear near (v:beval_line, v:beval_col).

This creates the popup using popup_beval().

PopupDialog

class vpe.PopupDialog(...)

PopupDialog(
        content: str | list[str] | list[dict],
        name: str = '',
        rich: bool = False,

Popup configured as a dialogue.

This creates the popup using popup_dialog(). It also provides a default PopupDialog.on_key implementation that invokes popup_filter_yesno.

Methods

on_key(key, byte_seq)

Invoke popup_filter_yesno to handle keys for this popup.

PopupMenu

class vpe.PopupMenu(...)

PopupMenu(
        content: str | list[str] | list[dict],
        name: str = '',
        rich: bool = False,

Popup configured as a menu.

This creates the popup using popup_menu(). It also provides a default PopupMenu.on_key implementation that invokes popup_filter_menu.

Methods

on_key(key, byte_seq)

Invoke popup_filter_menu to handle keys for this popup.

PopupNotification

class vpe.PopupNotification(content, name: str = '', **p_options)

Popup configured as a short lived notification (default 3s).

This creates the popup in a similar manner to popup_notification.

Note that popup_notification cannot be used because because callback invocation fails rather wierdly if the popup closes due to a timeout. The main Popup class provides its own timeout mechanism., which does not suffer from this problem.

Range

class vpe.Range(obj=None)

Wrapper around the built-in vim.Range type.

User code should not directly instantiate this class.

Methods

append(line_or_lines, nr=None)

Append one or more lines to the range.

This is the same as using the append method of python-range.

Parameters

line_or_lines
The line or lines to append.

nr
If present then append after this line number.

Registers

class vpe.Registers

Dictionary like access to the Vim registers.

This allows Vim’s registers to be read and modified. This is typically via the Vim.registers attribute.:

vim.registers['a'] = 'A line of text'
prev_copy = vim.registers[1]

This uses eval’ to read registers and :vim:`setreg to write them. Keys are converted to strings before performing the register lookup. When the key is the special ‘=’ value, the un-evaluated contents of the register is returned.

Methods

__getitem__(reg_name: str | int) → Any

Allow reading registers as dictionary entries.

The reg_name may also be an integer value in the range 0-9.

__setitem__(reg_name: str | int, value: Any)

Allow setting registers as dictionary entries.

The reg_name may also be an integer value in the range 0-9.

ScratchBuffer

class vpe.ScratchBuffer(name, buffer, simple_name=None)

A scratch buffer.

DO NOT DIRECTLY INSTANTIATE THIS CLASS.

Use get_display_buffer, which creates a buffer with suitably formatted names and, critically, ensures that it is added into the vim.buffers objects.

A scratch buffer has no associated file, has no swap file, never gets written and never appears to be modified. The content of such a buffer is typically under the control of plugin code. Direct editing is disabled.

Parameters

name: The name for the buffer.
buffer: The python-buffer that this wraps.
simple_name: An alternative simple name. This is used in the generation of the syntax_prefix and auto_grp_name property values. If this is not set then is is the same a the name parameter. If this is not a valid identifier then it is converted to one by replacing invalid characters with ‘x’.

Attributes

simple_name

An alternative simple name. This is used in the generation of the syntax_prefix and auto_grp_name property values. If this is not set then is is the same a the name parameter. If this is not a valid identifier then it is converted to one by replacing invalid characters with ‘x’.

Properties

property auto_grp_name

A suitable name for auto commands for this buffer.

property syntax_prefix

A suitable prefix for syntax items in this buffer.

Methods

init_options()

Initialise the scratch buffer specific options.

This gets invoked via call_soon because option setting can otherwise silently fail for subclasses.

Subclasses may over-ride this.

modifiable() → wrappers.TemporaryOptions

Create a context that allows the buffer to be modified.

on_first_showing()

Invoked when the buffer is first, successfully displayed.

Subclasses can implement this as required.

set_ext_name(name)

Set the extension name for this buffer.

Parameters

name
The extension part of the name

show(splitlines: int = 0, splitcols: int = 0) → bool

Make this buffer visible.

Without a splitlines or splitcols argument, this will use the current window to show this buffer. Otherwise the current window is split, horizontally if splitlines != 0 or vertically if splitcols != 0. The buffer is shown in the top/left part of the split. A positive split specifies how many lines/columns to allocate to the bottom/right part of the split. A negative split specifies how many lines to allocate to the top/left window.

Parameters

splitlines: int
Number of lines allocated to the top/bottom of the split.

splitcols: int
Number of columns allocated to the left or right window of the split.

Return value

True if the window is successfully shown.

Struct

class vpe.Struct

A basic data storage structure.

This is intended to store arbitrary name, value pairs as attributes. Attempting to read an undefined attribute gives None.

This is provided primarily to support the Buffer.store mechanism. Direct use of this class is not intended as part of the API.

Methods

__getstate__()

Support pickling - only intended for testing.

__setstate__(state)

Support pickling - only intended for testing.

TabPage

class vpe.TabPage(tab_page: _vim.TabPage)

Wrapper around a python-tabpage.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

This is a proxy that extends the vim.TabPage behaviour in various ways.

Properties

property buffers → list[Buffer]

A list of the buffers visible in the tab page.

The list is in the same order as the tab page’s windows, but does not contain duplicates.

property vars

The buffer vars wrapped as a Variables instance.

Methods

retrieve_store(key: Any) → Struct | None

Retrieve a given tabpage store if it exists.

This is similar to store, but no new store is created.

Return value

The requested store Struct or None if it does not exist or this tab page has been closed (valid is False).
store(key: Any) → Struct | None
Provide a Struct for a given key.

This provides a mechanism to store arbitrary data associated with a given tab page. A new Struct is created the first time a given key is used. An example of how this can be used:
vim.current.tabpage.store['my-store'].processed = True
...
for page in vim.buffers:
    if page.store['my-store'].processed:
        # Treat already processed tab pages differently.
        ...
The vpe package arranges to return the same TabPage instance for a given python-tabpage so this effectively allows you to associated meta-data with individual Vim tab pages.

If the underlying tab page has been closed (valid is False) then this simply returns None.

Class methods

classmethod get_known(tab_page: _vim.TabPage | TabPage) → TabPage | None

Get the TabPage instance for a given vim.tab_page.

This is only intended for internal use.

Parameters

tab_page: vim.TabPage | vpe.wrappers.TabPage
A standard python-tab_page or a TabPage.

TabPages

class vpe.TabPages

Wrapper around the built-in vim.tabpages.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

This is a proxy that extends the vim.TabPages behaviour in various ways.

Static methods

static new(position='after')

Create a new tab page.

Parameters

position
The position relative to this tab. The standard character prefixes for the :tabnew command can be used or one of the more readable strings:

‘after’, ‘before’
Immediately after or before the current tab (same as ‘.’, ‘-‘),

‘first’, ‘last’
As the first or last tab (same as ‘0’, ‘$’),

This defaults to ‘after’.

Timer

class vpe.Timer(...)

Timer(
        ms: int | float,
        func: Callable[[...], None],
        repeat: int | None = None,
        pass_timer: bool = True,
        meta: Any | None = None,
        args=(),

Pythonic way to use Vim’s timers.

This can be used as a replacement for the vim functions: timer_start, timer_info, timer_pause, timer_stop.

An example of usage:

def handle_expire(t):
    print(f'Remaining repeats = {t.repeat}')

# This will cause handle_expire to be called twice. The output will be:
#     t.repeat=2
#     t.repeat=1
t = Timer(ms=100, handle_expire, repeat=2)

The status of a timer can be queried using the properties time, repeat, remaining and paused. The methods pause, stop and resume allow an active timer to be controlled.

A timer with ms == 0 is a special case. It is used to schedule an action to occur as soon as possible once Vim is waiting for user input. Consequently the repeat argument is forced to be 1 and the pass_timer argument is forced to be False.

Parameters

ms: The timer’s interval in milliseconds. The value int(ms) is used.
func: The function to be invoked when the timer fires. This is called with the firing Timer instance as the only parameter.
repeat: How many times to fire. This defaults to a single firing.
pass_timer: Set this false to prevent the timer being passed to func.
meta: Arbitrary meta-data to be stored in the Callback’s meta attribute.
args: Optional positional arguments to pass to func.
kwargs: Optional keyword arguments to pass to func.

Attributes

args

Optional positional arguments to pass to func.

dead

This is set true when the timer is no longer active because all repeats have occurred or because the callback function is no longer available.

fire_count

This increases by one each time the timer’s callback is invoked.

kwargs

Optional keyword arguments to pass to func.

meta

Arbitrary meta-data to be stored in the Callback’s meta attribute.

Properties

property id → int

The ID of the underlying vim timer.

property paused → bool

True if the timer is currently paused.

property remaining → int

The time remaining (ms) until the timer will next fire.

property repeat → int

The number of times the timer will still fire.

Note that prior to Vim patch 8.2.3768 this was 1 greater that one might expect. Now Vim’s timer_info() returns the expected value except during the final callback, when we get None. This is non-Pythonic, so None is converted to zero.

property time → int

The time value used to create the timer.

Methods

pause()

Pause the timer.

This invokes vim’s timer_pause function.

resume()

Resume the timer, if paused.

This invokes vim’s timer_pause function.

stop()

Stop the timer.

This invokes vim’s timer_stop function.

Variables

class vpe.Variables(obj=None)

Wrapper around the various vim variable dictionaries.

This allows entries to be modified.

Vim

class vpe.Vim(*args, **kwargs)

A wrapper around and replacement for the vim module.

This is a instance object not a module, but it provides a API that is extremely compatible with the python-vim module.

Properties

property buffers → Buffers

A read-only container of the all the buffers.

property current → Current

Convenient access to currently active objects.

Note: Does not support assignment to window, buffer or tabpage.

property error → Type[_vim.error]

The plain built-in Vim exception (python-error).

property options → GlobalOptions

An object providing access to Vim’s global options.

property registers → Registers

Dictionary like access to Vim’s registers.

This returns a Registers object.

property tabpages → TabPages

A read-only container of the all the tab pages.

property vars → Variables

An object providing access to global Vim variables.

property vvars → Variables

An object providing access to Vim (v:) variables.

property windows → Windows

A read-only container of the windows of the current tab page.

Methods

command(cmd: str) → None

Execute an Ex command.

Parameters

cmd: str
The Ex command to execute:

Exceptions raised

VimError
A more detailed version vim.error (python-error).

eval(expr: str) → dict | list | str

Evaluate a Vim expression.

Return value

A dict, list or string. See python-eval for details.

Exceptions raised

VimError
A more detailed version vim.error (python-error).

temp_options(**presets) → TemporaryOptions

Context used to temporarily change options.

Static methods

static __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
Ensure only a single Vim instance ever exists.

This means that code like:
myvim = vpe.Vim()
Will result in the same object as vpe.vim.
static iter_all_windows() → Iterator[tuple[TabPage, Window]]

Iterate over all the windows in all tabs.

Parameters

yield
A tuple of TagPage and Window.

static vim()

Get the underlying built-in vim module.

VimError

class vpe.VimError(error: _vim.error)

A parsed version of vim.error.

VPE code raises this in place of the standard vim.error exception. It is a subclass of vim.error, so code that handles vim.error will still work when converted to use the vpe.vim object.

This exception attempts to parse the Vim error string to provide additional attributes:

Attributes

code: int:

The error code. This will be zero if parsing failed to extract the code.

command: str:

The name of the Vim command that raised the error. This may be an empty string.

message: str:

The message part, after extracting the command, error code and ‘Vim’ prefix. If parsing completely fails then is simply the unparsed message.

Window

class vpe.Window(window)

Wrapper around a python-window.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

This is a proxy that extends the vim.Window behaviour in various ways.

Attributes

id

This is the window’s unique ID (as obtained by win_getid).

Properties

property vars → Variables

The buffer vars wrapped as a Variables instance.

property visible_line_range → tuple[int, int]

The range of buffer lines visible within this window.

This is a Python style range.

Methods

close() → bool

Close this window, if possible.

Return value

True if the window was closed.

goto() → bool

Switch to this window, if possible.

Return value

True if the current window was set successfully.

temp_options(**presets) → TemporaryOptions

Context used to temporarily change options.

This does for a window what Buffer.temp_options does for buffer.

Static methods

static win_id_to_window(win_id: str) → Window | None

Return the window corresponding to a given window ID.

Windows

class vpe.Windows(obj=None)

Wrapper around the built-in vim.windows.

User code should not directly instantiate this class. VPE creates and manages instances of this class as required.

Parameters

obj: A python-windows object.

saved_current_window

class vpe.saved_current_window: Context manager that saves and restores the active window.

saved_winview

class vpe.saved_winview: Context manager that saves and restores the current window’s view.

temp_active_window

class vpe.temp_active_window(win: wrappers.Window)

Context manager that temporarily changes the active window.

Parameters

win: The Window to switch to.

call_soon

vpe.call_soon(func: Callable, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any)

Arrange to call a function ‘soon’.

This uses a Vim timer with a delay of 0ms to schedule the function call. This means that currently executing Python code will complete before the function is invoked.

The function is invoked as:

func(*args, **kwargs)

Parameters

func: Callable: The function to be invoked.
args: Any: Positional arguments for the callback function.
kwargs: Any: Keyword arguments for the callback function.

call_soon_once

vpe.call_soon_once(token: Any, func: Callable, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any)

Arrange to call a function ‘soon’, but only once.

This is like call_soon, but if multiple calls with the same token are scheduled then only the first registed function is invoked when Vim’s main loop regains control.

Parameters

token: Any: A token that identifies duplicate registered callbacks. This can be any object that may be a member of a set, except None.
func: Callable: The function to be invoked.
args: Any: Positional arguments for the callback function.
kwargs: Any: Keyword arguments for the callback function.

define_command

vpe.define_command(...)

define_command(
        name: str,
        func: Callable,
        nargs: int | str = 0,
        complete: str = '',
        range: bool | int | str = '',
        count: int | str = '',
        addr: str = '',
        bang: bool = False,
        bar: bool = False,
        register: bool = False,
        buffer: bool = False,
        replace: bool = True,
        pass_info: bool = True,
        args=(),

Create a user defined command that invokes a Python function.

When the command is executed, the function is invoked as:

func(info, *args, *cmd_args, **kwargs)

The info parameter is CommandInfo instance which carries all the meta information, such as the command name, range, modifiers, etc. The cmd_args are those provided to the command; each is a string. The args and kwargs are those provided to this function.

Parameters

name: str: The command name; must follow the rules for :command.
func: Callable: The function that implements the command.
nargs: int | str: The number of supported arguments; must follow the rules for :command-nargs, except that integer values of 0, 1 are permitted.
complete: str: Argument completion mode (see command-complete). Does not currently support ‘custom’ or ‘customlist’.
range: bool | int | str: The permitted type of range; must follow the rules for :command-range, except that the N value may be an integer.
count: int | str: The permitted type of count; must follow the rules for :command-count, except that the N value may be an integer. Use count=0 to get the same behaviour as ‘-count’.
addr: str: How range or count values are interpreted (see :command-addr).
bang: bool: If set then the ‘!’ modifieer is supported (see :command-bang).
bar: bool: If set then the command may be followed by a ‘|’ (see :command-bar).
register: bool: If set then an optional register is supported (see :command-register).
buffer: bool: If set then the command is only for the current buffer (see :command-buffer).
replace: bool: If set (the default) then ‘command!’ is used to replace an existing command of the same name.
pass_info: bool: If set then the first argument passed to func is a MappingInfo object. Defaults to True.
args: Additional arguments to pass to the mapped function.
kwargs: dict | None: Additional keyword arguments to pass to the mapped function.

dot_vim_dir

vpe.dot_vim_dir() → str

Provide the likely path to the ~/.vim directory or its equivalent.

All this does is lookup $MYVIMDIR.

echo_msg

vpe.echo_msg(*args, soon=False)

Like error_msg, but for information.

Parameters

args: All non-keyword arguments are converted to strings before output.
soon: If set, delay invocation until the back in the Vim main loop.

error_msg

vpe.error_msg(*args, soon=False)

A print-like function that writes an error message.

Unlike using sys.stderr directly, this does not raise a vim.error.

Parameters

args: All non-keyword arguments are converted to strings before output.
soon: If set, delay invocation until the back in the Vim main loop.

find_buffer_by_name

vpe.find_buffer_by_name(name: str) → wrappers.Buffer | None

Find the buffer with a given name.

The name must be an exact match.

Parameters

name: str: The name of the buffer to find.

get_display_buffer

vpe.get_display_buffer(...)

get_display_buffer(
        name: str,
        buf_class: Type[ScratchBuffer] = <class 'vpe.core.ScratchBuffer'>

Get a named display-only buffer.

The actual buffer name will be of the form ‘/[[name]]’. The buffer is created if it does not already exist.

Parameters

name: str: An identifying name for this buffer. This becomes the ScratchBuffer.simple_name attribute.

get_managed_io_buffer

vpe.get_managed_io_buffer(...)

get_managed_io_buffer(
        buf_class: Type[ManagedIOBuffer],
        name: str = '',
        literal_name: str = ''

Get a named managed I/O buffer.

The actual buffer name will be of the form ‘/[<name>]’ if name is provided and simply the literal_name otherwise. The buffer is created if it does not already exist.

Parameters

name: str: An identifying name for this buffer. This take precedence over the literal_name.
literal_name: str: If this is provided and name has a false value then it is used as the literal name for the buffer.

highlight

vpe.highlight(...)

highlight(
        group: str | None = None,
        clear: bool = False,
        default: bool = False,
        link: str | None = None,
        disable: bool = False,
        debug: bool = False,
        file: TextIO or None = None,

Execute a highlight command.

This provides keyword arguments for all the command parameters. These are generally taken from the :highlight command’s documentation.

Parameters

group: str | None

The name of the group being defined. If omitted then all other arguments except clear are ignored.

clear: bool

If set then the command highlight clear [<group>] is generated. All other arguments are ignored.

disable: bool

If set then the specified group is disabled using the command:

highlight <group> NONE

link: str | None

If set then a link command will be generated of the form:

highlight link <group> <link>.

Other arguments are ignored.

default: bool

If set then the generated command has the form highlight default....

debug: bool

Print the command’s arguments, for debugging use.

kwargs

The remaining keyword arguments act like the :highlight command’s keyword arguments.

pedit

vpe.pedit(path: str, silent=True, noerrors=False)

Edit file in the preview window.

Parameters

path: str: The files path.
silent: If true then run the :pedit command silently.
noerrors: If true then add ‘!’ to suppress errors.

popup_clear

vpe.popup_clear(force=False): Convenience function that invokes Popup.clear.

script_py_path

vpe.script_py_path() → str: Derive a python script name from the current Vim script name.

warning_msg

vpe.warning_msg(*args, soon=False)

A print-like function that writes a warning message.

Parameters

args: All non-keyword arguments are converted to strings before output.
soon: If set, delay invocation until the back in the Vim main loop.