Vim pluginsEdit

This is a list of Vim plugins which I find useful and robust enough to warrant recommending them.

[Disclaimer: This list is massively out of date. See my dotfiles repo for a more accurate reflection of what I’m using.]

Switching between buffers

• minibufexpl.vim: http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=159
• a.vim: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=31 (opens alternate files; header and source files, for example)

Project and file system browsing

• Command-T (written by me)
• fuzzyfinder.vim: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1984
• NERD Tree: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1658

Retired from service

These are plug-ins which I tried out for a while but eventually got rid of due to insatisfaction:

• fuzzy_file_finder (similar to Command-T in TextMate): http://github.com/jamis/fuzzy_file_finder/tree/master
• fuzzyfinder_textmate (extends Fuzzyfinder to use fuzzy_file_finder): http://github.com/jamis/fuzzyfinder_textmate/tree/master

Editing

Manipulating spans

• surround.vim: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1697

This plug-in is great for doing things like converting single quotes to double quotes with: cs'"

• repeat.vim: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2136

Complementary to surround.vim, repeat.vim allows plugins to hook into the repeat command (.) so that the entire action performed by a plug-in mapping can be repeated rather than just the last command that was executed inside the function.

Commenting

• The NERD Commenter: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1218

Snippets

• XP Template: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2611

Rails

• rails.vim: http://github.com/tpope/vim-rails (see also http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1567)
  • screencast: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2139263225227275468