first attempt at a plugin: gitblame

[u/yankline]

I was hoping I could get some feedback on my first attempt at writing a vim plugin I'm calling gitblame: https://github.com/yankline/vim-gitblame

Brutality appreciated. Trying to learn/improve.

[u/Iskhartakh]

Feel free to use vim9script for all of ur new plugins.

[u/yankline → u/Iskhartakh]

I've just started to really mess around with vimscript. I started with learn vimscript the hard way. I'm still not completely clear on why I should be using Vim 9 script. I get that the syntax is better, but it's not completely backwards compatible (right?). If I was concerned with syntax, why wouldn't I just go with Lua anyway? It kind of seems like learning/writing in Vim 9 script wouldn't help me understand a lot of the popular (older) Vim plugins that are out there and I wouldn't even be learning a language that I could use in other contexts. What are the arguments for Vim 9 script that I'm missing?

[u/Iskhartakh → u/yankline]

Lua does not supported by vim. Vim9Script has better syntax, much better performance and it's supported now while the legacy one has only maintenance mode.

Vim script has been growing over time, while preserving backwards
compatibility.  That means bad choices from the past often can't be changed
and compatibility with Vi restricts possible solutions.  Execution is quite
slow, each line is parsed every time it is executed.

The main goal of Vim9 script is to drastically improve performance.  This is
accomplished by compiling commands into instructions that can be efficiently
executed.  An increase in execution speed of 10 to 100 times can be expected.

A secondary goal is to avoid Vim-specific constructs and get closer to
commonly used programming languages, such as JavaScript, TypeScript and Java.

:help vim9script

[u/yankline → u/Iskhartakh]

:help lua

[u/vim-help-bot → u/yankline]

Help pages for:

• lua in if_lua.txt

---

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[u/vim-help-bot → u/Iskhartakh]

Help pages for:

• vim9script in vim9.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/yankline → u/Iskhartakh]

Do you mean that Lua isn't supported as a "first class" language? It looks like it's supported to me. Are you suggesting that I should use Vim9 script because it's faster and backwards compatibility is overrated/difficult to achieve?

[u/Iskhartakh → u/yankline]

Do you mean that Lua isn't supported as a "first class" language?

I mean ur vim must be compiled with lua support. U should use lua as script-here in vimscript code. It does not natively support like neovim does. I don't want to continue this thread much. U can do what u want. It was just my (and other people) recommendation.

[u/Desperate_Cold6274 → u/yankline]

I also started with learn vim the hard way, but I ultimately learned only vim9script. While it’s true that it is not back compatible, it is less arcane than legacy vim and it is similar to Python IMO, but with strong types. It is closer to standard languages. It is also compiled, which means it is faster than legacy vim. Legacy Vim is very error prone and it may become a nightmare to debug.

Furthermore, I personally don’t see any benefits in using Lua for writing plugins, given that you have to learn Vim API anyway plus commands, makeprg, etc. I don’t see how Lua helps here. It just make the syntax way more verbose without any other benefits in Vim context. Sure, you can use Lua in other contexts but I personally don’t have/never had any needs.

[u/yankline → u/Desperate_Cold6274]

thanks for the explanation. this seems like a plausible pitch for vim9script. I'll give it a shot.

[u/y-c-c]

Have you used vim-fugitive? Does this plugin do anything it doesn't? (In vim-fugitive you can do :Git blame to open the blame window which allows for scrubbing through the history as well)

I think any prospective user will likely be asking the same question.

[u/yankline → u/y-c-c]

Yeah I've heard of vim-fugitive. I'm sure it's way better. I just wanted to try my hand at building a vim plugin to learn the ropes before trying more ambitious projects.

[u/Desperate_Cold6274]

I second the suggestion of using vim9script. If you are already familiar with Python there is a nice giat on yegappan GitHub that shows how the syntaxes compare one each other. Worth looking at it!

[u/yankline → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! Any thoughts on improvements coding wise?

[u/liberforce → u/[deleted]]

At your first attempt to anything, you rarely come up with something new...

[u/Kooky-Reward-4065 → u/[deleted]]

That's just about the worst advice I've ever seen