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VIM mode of Eiffel 3 and Lace

Written by Jocelyn Fiat and Reimer Behrends.

• 20 February 1998.
• Copyrighted freeware.

vim.zip (8,477 bytes)
vim.tar.gz (7,244 bytes)
ftp://ftp.eiffel.com/pub/shelf/ise/vim/ (for downloads)
http://www.eiffel.com/ (ISE home page)

VIM is (according to the official description) "a BIG improvement over the Unix standard text editor Vi". It is available free for many platforms (see references at the end of this message).

VIM is very nice to use. It has many interesting functionalities and in particular supports syntax adaptation to various languages.

We have written VIM syntax files for both Eiffel and Lace (the Language for Assembly of Classes in Eiffel), and are making them publicly available from our FTP site.

1) How to use the files

• Copy "eiffel.vim" and "lace.vim" into the $VIM/syntax/ directory (usually /usr/local/bin/share/vim/syntax for the Unix version).
• If you want to keep the files in a different directory (for example ~/vim/ ), add the following lines to your .vimrc file.

: " augroup Eiffel
: " au! BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.e
: " au BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.e so ~/vim/eiffel.vim
: " augroup END
: " :let Eiffel = "~/vim/eiffel.vim"
: 
: " augroup Lace
: " au! BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.ace
: " au BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.ace so ~/vim/lace.vim
: " augroup END
: " :let Lace = "~/vim/lace.vim"

• If you want to use syntax highlighting by default, don't forget to add in your ".vimrc" the line

: syntax on

• It is also possible to add the two syntax extensions to the "syntax menu" of gvim (the graphical version). To do that, copy the file syntax.vim to the $VIM/syntax/ directory. Or if you already have a modified version of syntax.vim you only need to add the relevant lines at the right place :

: " (ISE) Eiffel 
: au BufNewFile,BufRead *.e,*.E so $VIM/syntax/eiffel.vim

: " (ISE) Lace 
: au BufNewFile,BufRead *.ace,*.ACE so $VIM/syntax/lace.vim

and

: 50amenu Syntax.ABCDE.Eiffel :so $VIM/syntax/eiffel.vim^M
: 50amenu Syntax.KLMNO.Lace :so $VIM/syntax/lace.vim^M

in the syntax.vim file.

2) In the future

• These files can be used freely but they are copyrighted. If you make a change or improvement you should send it to the maintainer.
• Very soon you will be able to download dictionary files (.vimdict) for Eiffel and Lace.
• The syntax files will be improved to take advantage of new VIM features.
• We will be grateful for any improvements and suggestions. Please mail them to <utilities@eiffel.com>.

3) Reference

To download the VIM files:

ftp://ftp.eiffel.com/pub/shelf/vim.tgz
ftp://ftp.eiffel.com/pub/shelf/vim.zip

To send mail to the maintainer:

<utilities@eiffel.com>

The latest news about VIM can be found in the VIM home page:

http://www.vim.org/

If you have problems with VIM, have a look at the Vim FAQ:

http://www.vim.org/faq/

4) Acknowledgements

The Eiffel syntax mode has been developed and is maintained by Reimer Behrends <reimer.behrends@usa.net>, with much input from Jocelyn Fiat <fiat@eiffel.com>.

The Lace syntax mode has been developed and is maintained by Jocelyn Fiat <fiat@eiffel.com>.

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