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vim-devdocs

Look up keywords on https://devdocs.io from Vim.

Introduction

Vim-devdocs is a very small and trivial plugin with a laser-focused purpose: looking up keywords on https://devdocs.io from Vim.

It does so by providing a single command, :DD, that will figure out the current filetype and point your default browser to the web app with the correct query.

Even better, :DD can be used under the hood by the built-in K for maximum street credibility.

To work its magic, vim-devdocs depends on:

• xdg-open on various Unix-like systems, part of the xdg-utils package,
• open on MacOS, it is installed by default,
• cmd.exe on WSL, it is also installed by default,
• explorer on Windows, it is also installed by default,

but you can tell it to use any external command with 'g:devdocs_open_command'.

Whether you use one of the standard commands above or a custom one, it is expected to handle URLs of the form:

https://devdocs.io/#q=javascript%20proxy

Out of the box, the standard commands handle that URL by opening your default Web browser, which is the nominal, expected behavior.

Background

Vim-devdocs started its life in my config as an experimental snippet circa 2016, then became a clean and reusable Gist in mid-2017, which I decided to weaponize one year later. If you think a plugin should not be needed for such a trivial feature be reassured that I totally share that view. If you feel remix-y, the original Gist is still up in all its 13LOC glory.

NOTE: vim-devdocs is not affiliated in any way with https://devdocs.io so any request pertaining to that site should be directed to its operators.

NOTE: vim-devdocs relies entirely on the underlying command (see above) for the handling of the constructed URL. If, somehow, it doesn't behave as expected, refer to its documentation and/or use its official support channels.

Installation

Method 1

Use your favorite runtimepath/plugin manager.

Method 2

If you are using Vim 8.0 or above, move this directory to:

# Unix-like systems
~/.vim/pack/{whatever name you want}/start/vim-devdocs

# Windows
%userprofile%\vimfiles\pack\{whatever name you want}\start\vim-devdocs

See :help package.

Method 3

If you are using Vim 7.4 without a runtimepath/plugin manager, move the files in this directory to their standard location:

# Unix-like systems
~/.vim/doc/devdocs.txt
~/.vim/plugin/devdocs.vim

# Windows
%userprofile%\vimfiles\doc\devdocs.txt
%userprofile%\vimfiles\plugin\devdocs.vim

and make Vim aware of the plugin's documentation with:

:helptags ALL

Documentation

You can use this command to get help on vim-devdocs:

:help vim-devdocs

Configuration

Add the line below to your vimrc if you want to disable automatic filetype scoping:

let g:devdocs_enable_scoping = 0

Add the line below to your vimrc if you want to use a different "opener" than the default one:

let g:devdocs_open_command = "my-command"

Usage

Use :DD without argument to look up the word under the cursor, scoped with the current filetype:

:DD

Use :DD [keyword] to look up the given keyword, scoped with the current filetype:

:DD Map

Use :DD [filetype] [keyword] to do the scoping yourself:

:DD scss @mixin

Add a <bang> to prevent automatic filetype scoping:

:DD!
:DD! Map

unless you absolutely insist:

:DD! scss @mixin

Vim comes with the built-in and often overlooked K, a normal mode command that looks up the keyword under the cursor with the external command or Ex command set via the 'keywordprg' option. :DD being a pretty basic Ex command it is easy to use it for K.

If you want K to ALWAYS use :DD, put this line in your vimrc:

set keywordprg=:DD

If you want K to use :DD ONLY for certain filetypes, put this line in the appropriate after/ftplugin/<filetype>.vim:

setlocal keywordprg=:DD