Using VIM as IDE has many benefits, the reason I use VIM is because it’s free and I can compile and test on the same machine I wrote. While it also has some drawbacks, I always leave lots of typo errors inside codes, forget to add headers and didn’t quote namespaces, etc. And another drawbacks is coding style, after I added one more parameter or change function name, I need to shifts rest of codes in same line to make it align.

To fix those hassle, I chose to use google-codefmt and YouCompleteMe to make VIM a little bit smart, for now I don’t have some features like tagtree, since I feel it is quite convenient for me to use “grep” to find the codes definition. But I do added auto fold in my vimrc, so I can fold function when I don’t want to see them.

Here is all the steps to make My VIM CPP IDE done.

vundle

Vundle is a project used to install plugins and manage plugins in VIM, if you don’t have vundle installed, please [click here.

google/vim-codefmt

vim-codefmt is a tool which can help you to do codefmt by vim, two ways can be used to trigger codefmt

1. use “:FormatCode”, vim will format your codes by detected code type.
2. add auto format inside vimrc, and every time when you do “:w” for saving, codes will be auto formatted.

Installation of vim-codefmt is listed as below.

1. Change your .vimrc and add below lines in the beginning.

   set nocompatible
   filetype off
   set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim
   call vundle#begin()
   Plugin 'google/vim-maktaba'
   Plugin 'google/vim-codefmt'
   Plugin 'google/vim-glaive'
   call vundle#end()
   call glaive#Install()
   " Optional: Enable codefmt's default mappings on the <Leader>= prefix.
   Glaive codefmt plugin[mappings]
   

2. Trigger the installation

   option 1. Launch vim and run :PluginInstall
   

   option 2. To install from command line: vim +PluginInstall +qall
   

3. now you should installed codefmt, to make it autoformatting, add below lines in your vimrc.

   augroup autoformat_settings
     autocmd FileType bzl AutoFormatBuffer buildifier
     autocmd FileType c,cpp,proto,javascript AutoFormatBuffer clang-format
     autocmd FileType dart AutoFormatBuffer dartfmt
     autocmd FileType go AutoFormatBuffer gofmt
     autocmd FileType gn AutoFormatBuffer gn
     autocmd FileType html,css,sass,scss,less,json AutoFormatBuffer js-beautify
     autocmd FileType java AutoFormatBuffer google-java-format
     autocmd FileType python AutoFormatBuffer yapf
     " Alternative: autocmd FileType python AutoFormatBuffer autopep8
     autocmd FileType vue AutoFormatBuffer prettier
   augroup END
   

4. now open any unformatted codes of yours, and use “:w”, you should see codes are shifted.

YouCompleteMe

YouCompelteMe is a tool to use your Makefile or CMakefile to understand your codes and then provides auto filling advices and diagnose codes error while you writing codes.

Linux Must Install Full installation Guide

CheckList:

• install python-devel and python3-devel package
• install YouCompeleteMe through Vundle

  vim ~/.vimrc
  set nocompatible
  filetype off
  set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim
  call vundle#begin()
  Plugin 'Valloric/YouCompleteMe'
  call vundle#end()
  :wq
  Launch vim and run :PluginInstall
  

• Install Clangd compeleter to YouCompleteMe

  cd ~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe
  python3 install.py --clangd-completer
  

• Compile ycm_core

  cd ~
  mkdir ycm_build
  cd ycm_build
  cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" . ~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe/third_party/ycmd/cpp
  cmake --build . --target ycm_core --config Release
  

• Enable C-family Semantic Completion I used Makefile for now, and use compiledb to generate compilation database

  pip install compiledb
  cd ${CPP project}
  compiledb -n make
  # now you should see a file called "compile_commands.json" in your root dir.
  

Now, YouCompleteMe should be working for your CPP codes, let’s have a try open one of your cpp code with vim

:YcmDiags

some infomation will be shown at bottom, if there is no error, it would appear to be “No warinings or errors detected.”

Other vimrc settings

filetype plugin indent on
" show existing tab with 4 spaces width
set tabstop=2
" when indenting with '>', use 4 spaces width
set shiftwidth=2
" On pressing tab, insert 4 spaces
set expandtab
set foldmethod=indent
set foldnestmax=10
set nofoldenable
set foldlevel=2
" set textwidth=90
set colorcolumn=90
set number
set foldmethod=syntax
hi Folded ctermbg=black
map <C-]> :YcmCompleter GoToImprecise<CR>
let g:ycm_enable_diagnostic_signs = 1
highlight YcmErrorLine ctermfg=White cterm=bold