edit many files in one buffer

Question

I have enjoyed coding not too large projects in one single file. This way I can press * on an identifier and find it without having to hop across buffers.

But naturally this doesn't scale and at some point I need to isolate code into multiple files.

Here is a dream use-case for which I wonder what is the best way to accomplish:

Edit one buffer with multiple sections, each titled with the name of a file. Upon saving, each section is saved into the appropriate file. Upon loading/reading files, each file is incorporated into the buffer into a section titled with its name.

By "section" I do not mean any special construct. Just some convention, perhaps file name underlined by ===== to denote a boundary in text.

Here's an example:

main.py
=======

import util

print(util.rnd())

util.py
=======

def rnd ():
    return 7

PS: please excuse the diminished entropy of the random generator in this example

Answer 1

I don't thinks it's doable in pure Vim, or easly doable, but you can write a little script, in Python for example. Let's call it split.py. You can have a file, let's call it code.py, which will be the one that you edit. You can then call your script:

./split.py code.py

You can then also automate it in Vim with:

autocmd BufWritePost code.py !./split.py %

This will call your split.py whenever you will save a file called code.py.

Or have it in $PATH somewhere, and call it without ./

To merge files, you could write another script - merge.py - and call it manually or try to use BufReadPre autocommand in similar way as above with BufWritePost.

---

On the other hand, since you're using Python in the example, why not try Python-mode plugin, which provides really nice experience while working with Python code (you will need also some kind of completion plugin, like neocomplete, YouCompleteMe, deoplete, etc..). I'm using this setup at work as a Python developer. It contains refactoring tools, go to definition, linters, checkers

Answer 2

You can achieve the functionality you're looking for through the use of multiple windows. This allows for search and highlighting across windows. To save all files :wa to save and close :wqa.

Open new windows using :split/<C-w>S for horizontal splitting or :vsplit/<C-w>v for vertical splitting. You can then navigate between using <C-w>[h/j/k/l] or <C-w>w to cycle through windows. To open the desired files use :e /path/to/file (relative to directory you opened vim from)

BTW didn't know you could push * to highlight all occurrences of an identifier, its a neat trick. A fine addition to my collection ;)

Answer 3

I think you're approaching that from the wrong direction: Instead of artificially joining and splitting multiple files into a single buffer, you should instead adjust your searching to cover multiple buffers (or windows, if you :sbuffer them). That means that you can't simply use * and n/N to go through all matches, but:

• use :vimgrep and the quickfix list and corresponding commands (e.g. :cnext) to iterate over matches
• :set nowrapscan and switch to the next window (<C-w><C-w>) before continuing searching with n
• use a combination of :bufdo and :global to show matches
• ...