Home

Awesome

REQUIREMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Build systems were originally created to script the build process, but they can do much more - they are actually a great way to organize and run all the project-specific, development-related scripts. You can keep all the scripts for running the project, running unit-tests, cleaning, deploying etc. as different tasks(or targets) in a single build file, and easily run specific tasks from the command-line.

Integrake takes this one step farther - it uses Vim's ruby interface and the Rake API to load Rakefiles and run Rake tasks inside the Vim environment. Integrake tasks, are written in Ruby - which means power, elegance and access to any gem you want - and executed in the environment of the current Vim instance - which means you can interact with the buffers, change settings, modify global Vim variables and execute the commands of your Vim plugins.

Integrake also assists in creation and editing those Integrake tasks, and allows you to easily copy project-type-general Integrake file that you made in advance.

For example - you might always want a :run task that runs your project with specific input(that you often change) and see if it behaves like you want.

Since you always use the same task name - :run - you can have a global key mapping that runs your project in the appropriate way, no matter which type of project it is. And since the task is defined in a file in the project's directory, you can easily change the run arguments to test different things in your project, without having to remap the key.

INTEGRAKE IS NOT A BUILD SYSTEM!

Rake is a build system - an awesome build system! But Integrake is not a build system. Integrake uses Rake, so you can use Integrake as a build system - but you shouldn't.

One of the most important merits of using a build system is that it makes it easier for new developers to join the project. You don't have to explain to them how to configure their IDE(and force them to use the same IDE you use), how to compile the files, how to do the post-compilation preparations(like running source generators) and in which order. All they need to do is to get the source, install build system, and run a few build system tasks.

Integrake's advantage over using Rake directly is it's access to Vim's environment. If you access Vim tasks in your build tasks, you are forcing other developers into using Vim(Vim is awesome, but there are enough developers who don't want to use it). If you access plugin commands in your build tasks, you are also forcing them to install the same plugins you have, and possibly configure them the same way.

Luckily, access to the Vim environment is much more useful in the run-test related Inegrake tasks, and provide very little value in the build tasks. That means you can keep your build tasks clean of Vim interaction and plugin commands. But if you do that - you might as well put them in a proper Rakefile - so people can use Rake normally - and use Integrake.load to import that Rakefile in your Integrake file. Alternatively, you can run the Rake tasks as shell commands(using sh).

CONFIGURATION

Integrake files are personal, so if two developers work on the same project, they need two different Integrake files. To easily differentiate between the Integrake files of different developers, each developer should set a prefix using the g:integrake_filePrefix global variable. It's a good idea to use your name the prefix - so other developers will know that file belongs to you - and to start it with ., so it will be hidden by the operation system(unless you use Windows) and by plugins like NERDTree.

Example:

let g:integrake_filePrefix = '.idanarye'

If you want to use integrake-templates - premade files that you can easily grab for new projects - you need to set g:integrake_grabDirs to a directory(or a list of directories) that contain those templates.

Example:

let g:integrake_grabDirs = [expand('<sfile>:p:h').'/my-configurations/integrake-templates']

CREATING TASKS

Integrake tasks are written in the Integrake file. The Integrake file must be at the current directory(=the root of the project) and it's name is the value of g:integrake_filePrefix plus the .integrake suffix.

You can use the IRedit command to open your Integrake file for editing. You can optionally supply a task name as an argument to jump directly to the definition of an existing task, or to automatically create a new empty task.

IRsedit and IRvedit are work similarly, except they open the Integrake buffer in a horizontally or vertically split window.

The syntax for the Integrake file is the same as a Rakefile syntax. You can read more about Rake syntax at [http://rake.rubyforge.org/]

RUNNING TASKS

Use the IR command to run tasks.

IR with no arguments displays a list of tasks. Selecting a task from the list will prompt you to enter the arguments(if the task has any arguments) and then run the tasks(with the supplied arguments).

IR with arguments runs a task directly. The first argument is the name of the task to run. The other arguments are sent to the task as task arguments.

If IR is called with a range, the Integrake task will have access to that range via the $range variable.

TEMPLATES

Integrake has a very basic template system. Template files are static - if you need dynamic templates you can use a proper templating plugin.

To use the template system, you first need to configure g:integrake_grabDirs. Put the template files in the folders specified there. The template files should be the description of that template file - usually the language or framework that template file targets - followed by .integrake.

The IRgrab command displays your list of template files. When you choose a file, it copies that file as is to be your Integrake file for the current project. If you already have an Integrake file for the current project, you will be prompted to override it.

RUBY HELPERS

the system and sh commands were change to delegate the execution to Vim. Otherwise you could not use the input and output.

cmd is a wrapper around VIM::command and evl is a wrapper around VIM::evaluate.

curbuf is a wrappwer around VIM::Buffer.current and curwin is a wrapper around VIM::Windows.current.

selection returns the selected text, if IR is called with a range.

Any vim function can be called directly from Integrake by using the function's name. Example:

puts expand('%')

will print the name of the current file.

Any vim command can be called directly from Integrake by using the command's full name. Example:

edit 'foo.txt'

will edit the file foo.txt. The arguments are not escaped, so

echo 'hello'

will not print hello - it will try to print a variable named hello. To print the string hello with echo, use

echo '"hello"'

var can be used like an hash to read and write variables. Example:

var['g:foo'] = 12
cmd 'echo g:foo' #prints 12
cmd 'let g:foo = 14'
puts var['g:foo'] #prints 14

to_vim will turn any object into a VimScript literal. Ruby strings and numbers are converted directly to Vim strings and numbers. Ruby arrays are converted to Vim lists. Ruby hashes are converted to Vim dictionaries. Ruby nil and false are converted to 0, and Ruby true is converted to 1. Everything else is converted to a string.

find_window_numbers scans the window numbers and returns an ordered and unique list of the window numbers(1-based, like in Vim's window-functions) of the windows that fulfill the criterion specified in the argument:

find_window_number is like find_window_numbers but returns only the first result(or nil for no matches)

do_in_windows runs find_window_numbers on it's argument and runs it's block in the context of the returned windows. It returns an Hash where the keys are the window numbers and the values are the results of the block ran in each window.

do_in_window runs find_window_number on it's argument and runs it's block in the context of the returned window. It returns the result of the block.

input_list is an improved version of Vim's inputlist(). It accepts two arguments - prompt and options - where "prompt" is the text to put at the top and "options" is the list of options to let the user choose from. Improvements over Vim's inputlist():

LOADING RUBY FILES

To load a Ruby file that might change in Integrake use Integrake.load instead of Ruby's load. this will ensure that if the file is changed it will be reloaded.

You can also put *.rb files in integrake directories in Vim's runtime path to make Integrake load them automatically.

PASSING DATA FROM PREREQUISITES

Integrake has a mechanism for passing data from prerequisite tasks to the task that called them. The data is passed only to task that has the passer as a direct prerequisite(though task higher in the chain can add that prerequisite, and it'll only be called once and pass the same data to all the tasks that require it).

To pass data, from the prerequisite task call the pass_data method of the task object(the first argument to the Ruby block defining the task). To use that data in the caller task, use the subscript operator of the caller task object with the name of the task that passed the data. So, if this is our integrake file:

task :data_passer do|t|
    t.pass_data 'some data'
end

task :data_user => [:data_passer] do|t|
    puts t[:data_passer]
end

Calling :IR data_user will print "some data".

OPTIONS CHOOSER TASKS

Integrake's options chooser tasks allows you to define options you can use in your tasks, with a selection interface that remembers your decisions for minimal interference with your workflow. To create such an option, use the Integrake.option method, where the first argument is the name of the option and the rest of the arguments are the options to choose from:

Integrake.option :color, :red,:green,:blue

task :print_chosen_color => [:color] do|t|
    puts t[:color]
end

With this, when we first run :IR print_chosen_color we are prompted to choose a color, and then that color name is printed. If we run it again - we get the same color without being prompted! If we want to be prompted again, we need to run :IR color directly.

You can also use hash arguments:

Integrake.option :number,
    'ten' => 10,
    'twenty' => 20

With this, the keys will be displayed when you are prompted, but the data you'll get with the subscript operator is the value of the chosen key.

When running the task directly, you can also pass the chosen option as an argument.

Integrake.option will also create a task with the same name + a question mark(e.g. :color? and :number?), which will print the currently chosen option.

WINDOW PREPARATION TASKS

Sometimes you need a window to be there before you run a plugin. For example, using the vimshell plugin, you might want to open a vimshell terminal and run "make" in it. However, you don't want to open the terminal if it's alredy open. So - you use the Integrake.window helper to build a window preparation task:

Integrake.window :'open-shell' do
    VimShellCreate '-split'
end

task :build => :'open-shell' do|t|
    VimShellSendString 'make'
end

With this, when we run :IR build it'll first call the "open-shell" task, which will create the vimshell window, and then run "make" in it. If we call it again, it'll recognize the window is already open and not create it again. But if we close the vimshell window and run it, it won't be able to find that window and reopen it. That way the "build" task will always have a vimshell window, be it a freshly created one or an already existing one.

A window preparation task will use the integrake pass_data mechanism to pass the window object of that window.

A window preparation task must end when the active window is a new window. If the active window already existed before the task the task will fail.

AUTO COMPLETION

Integrake supports custom autocompletion for task arguments. To create a custom completion call the "complete" method of the task object, and pass to it a block that accepts the array of the command parts before the cursor(including IR and the task name) and returns a list of completions. Take note that Integrake does not filter your results to match the argument you are trying to complete - but parts has the filter_completions method that does just that.

The following example will add autocompletion for the colors "red", "green" and "blue" to the task print_color:

task :print_color, [:color] do|t, args|
    puts args[:color]
end.complete do|parts|
    parts.filter_completions(['red', 'green', 'blue'])
end

You can also use prepared autocompletion by passing the prepared autocompletion name as the first argument to complete. For example, to complete a single file use:

task :file_size, [:filename] do|t, args|
    puts File.stat(args[:filename]).size
end.complete :file

The prepared autocompletion supplied with Integrake are:

To create your own prepared autocompletion, use Integrake.register_completer. Pass to it as argument the name of the completer, and it's block should accept completer arguments and return a callable object that accepts the parts argument and will serve as the completer itself. So, the print_color task from before could be created like so:

Integrake.register_completer :color do|*colors|
    lambda do|parts|
        parts.filter_completions(colors)
    end
end

task :print_color, [:color] do|t, args|
    puts args[:color]
end.complete :color, 'red', 'green', 'blue'