[gentoo-dev] announcing app-vim

[Aron Griffis <agriffis@gentoo.org>]

Developers,

Well, it's been a little while in coming, but this is the official
announcement for the app-vim category.  There are many plugins available
for vim, similar to all the modules available for emacs (see app-emacs)
and xemacs (app-xemacs).  Most of the best plugins find their way to
vim.sf.net.

I've created a couple eclasses to make it relatively easy to add vim
plugins to portage.  These are vim-plugin.eclass and vim-doc.eclass.
The result is that a plugin's ebuild looks about like this:

    inherit vim-plugin

    DESCRIPTION="vim plugin: commands and maps to help produce aligned text"
    HOMEPAGE="http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=294"
    LICENSE="vim"
    KEYWORDS="~x86 ~alpha"

You might ask some of the following questions, so I'll answer them now
before you ask!

--------

Q: If it's that easy, why aren't there more plugins in app-vim already?

A: It isn't quite that easy.  The plugins from vim.sf.net can't be
   downloaded easily by portage, so instead we repackage them.  The
   additional bonus of repackaging is that we can store the layout of
   the plugin in the tarball.  For example, align-21.tar.bz2 has the
   following contents:

        align-21/doc/Align.txt
        align-21/plugin/Align.vim
        align-21/plugin/AlignMaps.vim

--------

Q: That doesn't sound too hard!

A: That isn't much of a question, but I understand the implication.
   There is an additional problem beyond repackaging that takes a lot
   more time.  Most of the plugins don't have license information
   included in them.  In order to include them in portage, we need to
   ask the authors for licensing information.  Most of the time I
   suggest the Vim license, and they go along with it.

--------

Q: Since you're already repackaging the plugins, what's the point of
   vim-plugin.eclass?

A: It handles installation in /usr/share/vim/vimfiles, plus the updating
   of help tags (by calling update_vim_helptags from vim-doc.eclass),
   and updating the "after" scripts (see :help after-directory) for
   syntax files.

--------

Q: Why did you put update_vim_helptags in a separate eclass?

A: Because emacs might want to use it.  Just kidding!  Because it is
   called by both vim-plugin.eclass and vim.eclass for updating the vim
   help tags (/usr/share/vim/vim62/doc/tags).

--------

Q: How do I _use_ the plugins?

A: First, emerge them.  Then go read the documentation on the HOMEPAGE
   listed in the ebuilds.

--------

Q: Neato.  How do I suggest my favorite plugin for inclusion in portage?

A: Provide an ebuild via bugs.gentoo.org.  Attach a tarball formatted
   like the ones already available.  If there's a license to be
   verified, I can handle that part, or you can write an email to the
   author asking for the information, and cc me.  :-)

Thanks & Enjoy,
Aron

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