Shortcut for automatic execution

Question

I've found the following command to execute Python or Matlab or any other language as far as I understand to execute code

nnoremap <buffer> <F9> :exec '!python' shellescape(@%, 1)<cr>

(source)

and

map <F5> <Esc>:w<CR>:!%:p<CR>

(source; supposedly should work for all scripts as it uses vim expand however I had this working before but now is giving me a shell returned 126 error)

Is there a way to automatically execute the code without explicitly specifying the command?

In other words, if I have any script (Matlab, Python, Latex, ...) open and I press F9 the script is executed?

Or maybe there's a package for such a thing?

Answer 1

You are looking for the makeprg option, :h 'makeprg':

                                    *'makeprg'* *'mp'*
'makeprg' 'mp'                      string    (default "make", VMS: "MMS")
                                    global or local to buffer |global-local|
                                    {not in Vi}
    Program to use for the ":make" command.  See :make_makeprg.

    This option may contain '%' and '#' characters, 
    which are expanded to the current and alternate file name.  Use |::S| 
    to escape file names in case they contain special characters.
    Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|.  See |option-backslash|
    about including spaces and backslashes.

    Note that a '|' must be escaped twice: once for ":set" and once for
    the interpretation of a command.  When you use a filter called
    "myfilter" do it like this:

        :set makeprg=gmake\ \\\|\ myfilter

    The placeholder "$*" can be given (even multiple times) to specify
    where the arguments will be included, for example:

        :set makeprg=latex\ \\\\nonstopmode\ \\\\input\\{$*}

    This option cannot be set from a |modeline| or in the |sandbox|, for
    security reasons.

The best way to use it is to define the option in an ftplugin. For example for python create ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/python.vim containing:

setlocal makeprg=python\ %

Create a new ftplugin and adapt the makeprg for each filetype you want to handle.

Then you can simply use the command :make in the file you want to source or create a mapping like nnoremap <F5> :make<CR>.

Some related help topics:

• :h 'makeprg'
• :h :make
• :h ftplugins
• :h :setlocal

Answer 2

Surprisingly, the problem had nothing to do with the command listed in the question. Apparently, the order of the commands in .vimrc matters.

I moved the mapping to the top of the file and it worked.

Hope this helps others while the downvoters continue their greedy search for more points.

Update: It is no longer at the top of the vimrc however at the time it seemed like something else was interfering with it.