desk

sugar for vim buffer, window, tab, and file management.

model

desk provides commands to help manage multiple projects in a single vim instance by grouping windows, buffers, and files under tabs, where a project is a local file directory/cloned source code repository. desk makes it possible to swap projects as "books", where things like the tree view, etc. are scoped by a given book.

tabs have a...storied history, and may not be useful for everyone. it's highly recommended that users become proficient with default vim buffer and window behavior first, i.e. get used to using only buffers and windows. after that point, the default tab behavior may be interesting and useful to play with. finally, once the default vim buffer/window/tab model and use cases are well understood, desk may be a good convenience wrapper.

for a starting point, here's a high-level overview of the default vim model:

• buffers are an in-memory representation of a file on disk. vim reads a file and loads the content into a buffer.
• windows are a viewport for buffers. they can be opened, quit, split, and moved.
• tabs are groups of windows. this is important: vim tabs do not behave like tabs in other applications.

here's how desk's model and nomenclature fits in:

• a "book" is a tab, roughly.
  • file trees are scoped by book.
  • books are named by the last file path component.
• windows are windows.
  • windows are grouped by book.
• a "page" is a buffer.
  • pages are grouped by book.
  • pages are named after their respective files, just like regular vim.

installation

use git or your plugin manager of choice to install desk.

dependencies

currently, desk leans on several other vim plugins. install the following:

• vim-ctrlspace
• nerdtree
• vim-bufkill

over time, these dependencies should (hopefully) be removed.

configuration

add the following to your vim configuration:

" desk {{{
set nocompatible
set hidden
set encoding=utf-8
" }}}

commands and default keybindings

Ctrl-d(esk) -> command: description:

• <C-d>n -> DeskBookNew: open a (n)ew book.
• <C-d>l -> DeskBookNext: change focus to the (n)ext book on the right.
• <C-d>h -> DeskBookPrevious: change focus to the (p)revious book on the left.
• <C-d>q -> DeskBookQuit: (q)uit/close a book.
• <C-d>b -> DeskBookRebind: re(b)ind an open book, i.e. move to a new working directory.
• <C-d>r -> DeskBookRename: (r)ename a book.
• <C-d>t -> DeskBookTreeToggle: toggle book (t)ree view.

complimentary plugins

vim-airline, with tabline enabled, has been useful for providing visual queues such as current book/working directory/git branch/buffer.

acknowledgements

• the vim-ctrlspace contributors and maintainers
• the nerdtree contributors and maintainers
• the vim-bufkill contributors and maintainers
• steve losh's book, learn vimscript the hard way, was a great and useful read.