montana / vim-maktaba

Consistent Vimscript

Maktaba is a vimscript plugin library. It is designed for plugin authors. Features include:

• Plugin objects (for manipulating plugins in vimscript)
• Plugin flags (used to configure plugins without global settings)
• Universal logger interface
• Dependency management tools
• Real closures

Maktaba advocates a plugin structure that, when adhered to, gives the plugin access to many powerful tools such as configuration flags. Within Google, these conventions standardize behavior across a wide variety of plugins.

Also contained are many utility functions that ease the pain of working with vimscript. This includes, among other things:

• Exception handling
• Variable type enforcement
• Filepath manipulation

Usage example

Maktaba plugins can be installed using any plugin manager. However, maktaba plugins make heavy use of dependency management, so it's recommended to use a plugin manager with dependency management capabilities, like VAM.

Installation of a few plugins using VAM looks something like

set runtimepath+=~/.vim/bundle/vim-addon-manager/
" Loads glaive, vtd, and their maktaba dependency.
call vam#ActivateAddons(['glaive', 'vtd'])
" Initializes all maktaba plugins.
call maktaba#plugin#Detect()

Plugins Using Maktaba

Several vim plugins are already using maktaba. As a user, you can generally expect these plugins to be configurable using Glaive and be more well-behaved in terms of things like defining unwanted global mappings and variables and avoiding annoying side-effects like moving your cursor.

Plugin authors should consider developing plugins using maktaba to simplify code, support modular plugins with hassle-free dependency management, and avoid common pitfalls. If you've written a plugin using maktaba, please add it to the list above and share feedback.

Further reading

In the vroom/ directory you'll find literate test files that walk you through maktaba features in depth. vroom/main.vroom is a good place to start.

In the examples/ directory you can find an example maktaba plugin to give you a feel for how maktaba plugins look.

In the doc/ directory you'll find helpfiles for maktaba. These are also available via :help maktaba if maktaba has been installed and helptags have been generated. The help files document the maktaba API in its entirety.