if_ole.txt For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2008 Aug 16LINK

VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Paul Moore

The OLE Interface to Vim ole-interfaceLINK

1. Activation ole-activation

2. Methods ole-methods

3. The "normal" command ole-normal

4. Registration ole-registration

5. MS Visual Studio integration MSVisualStudio

{Vi does not have any of these commands}

OLE is only available when compiled with the +ole feature. See

src/if_ole.INSTALL.

An alternative is using the client-server communication clientserver.

==============================================================================

1. Activation ole-activationLINK

Vim acts as an OLE automation server, accessible from any automation client,

for example, Visual Basic, Python, or Perl. The Vim application "name" (its

"ProgID", in OLE terminology) is "Vim.Application".

Hence, in order to start a Vim instance (or connect to an already running

instance), code similar to the following should be used:

[Visual Basic]

Dim Vim As Object

Set Vim = CreateObject("Vim.Application")

[Python]

from win32com.client.dynamic import Dispatch

vim = Dispatch('Vim.Application')

[Perl]

use Win32::OLE;

$vim = new Win32::OLE 'Vim.Application';

[C#]

// Add a reference to VIM in your project.

// Choose the COM tab.

// Select "VIM Ole Interface 1.1 Type Library"

Vim.Vim vimobj = new Vim.Vim();

Vim does not support acting as a "hidden" OLE server, like some other OLE

Automation servers. When a client starts up an instance of Vim, that instance

is immediately visible. Simply closing the OLE connection to the Vim instance

is not enough to shut down the Vim instance - it is necessary to explicitly

execute a quit command (for example, :qa!, :wqa).

==============================================================================

2. Methods ole-methodsLINK

Vim exposes four methods for use by clients.

ole-sendkeysLINK

SendKeys(keys) Execute a series of keys.

This method takes a single parameter, which is a string of keystrokes. These

keystrokes are executed exactly as if they had been types in at the keyboard.

Special keys can be given using their <..> names, as for the right hand side

of a mapping. Note: Execution of the Ex "normal" command is not supported -

see below ole-normal.

Examples (Visual Basic syntax)

Vim.SendKeys "ihello<Esc>"

Vim.SendKeys "ma1GV4jy`a"

These examples assume that Vim starts in Normal mode. To force Normal mode,

start the key sequence with CTRL-\ CTRL-N as in

Vim.SendKeys "<C-\><C-N>ihello<Esc>"

CTRL-\ CTRL-N returns Vim to Normal mode, when in Insert or Command-line mode.

Note that this doesn't work halfway a Vim command

ole-evalLINK

Eval(expr) Evaluate an expression.

This method takes a single parameter, which is an expression in Vim's normal

format (see expression). It returns a string, which is the result of

evaluating the expression. A List is turned into a string by joining the

items and inserting line breaks.

Examples (Visual Basic syntax)

Line20 = Vim.Eval("getline(20)")

Twelve = Vim.Eval("6 + 6") ' Note this is a STRING

Font = Vim.Eval("&guifont")

ole-setforegroundLINK

SetForeground() Make the Vim window come to the foreground

This method takes no arguments. No value is returned.

Example (Visual Basic syntax)

Vim.SetForeground

ole-gethwndLINK

GetHwnd() Return the handle of the Vim window.

This method takes no arguments. It returns the hwnd of the main Vimwindow.

You can use this if you are writing something which needs to manipulate the

Vim window, or to track it in the z-order, etc.

Example (Visual Basic syntax)

Vim_Hwnd = Vim.GetHwnd

==============================================================================

3. The "normal" command ole-normalLINK

Due to the way Vim processes OLE Automation commands, combined with the method

of implementation of the Ex command :normal, it is not possible to execute the

:normal command via OLE automation. Any attempt to do so will fail, probably

harmlessly, although possibly in unpredictable ways.

There is currently no practical way to trap this situation, and users must

simply be aware of the limitation.

==============================================================================

4. Registration ole-registration E243LINK

Before Vim will act as an OLE server, it must be registered in the system

registry. In order to do this, Vim should be run with a single parameter of

"-register".

-register LINK

gvim -register

If gvim with OLE support is run and notices that no Vim OLE server has been

registered, it will present a dialog and offers you the choice to register by

clicking "Yes".

In some situations registering is not possible. This happens when the

registry is not writable. If you run into this problem you need to run gvim

as "Administrator".

Once vim is registered, the application path is stored in the registry.

Before moving, deleting, or upgrading Vim, the registry entries should be

removed using the "-unregister" switch.

-unregister LINK

gvim -unregister

The OLE mechanism will use the first registered Vim it finds. If a Vim is

already running, this one will be used. If you want to have (several) Vim

sessions open that should not react to OLE commands, use the non-OLE version,

and put it in a different directory. The OLE version should then be put in a

directory that is not in your normal path, so that typing "gvim" will start

the non-OLE version.

-silentLINK

To avoid the message box that pops up to report the result, prepend "-silent":

gvim -silent -register

gvim -silent -unregister

==============================================================================

5. MS Visual Studio integration MSVisualStudio VisVimLINK

The OLE version can be used to run Vim as the editor in Microsoft Visual

Studio. This is called "VisVim". It is included in the archive that contains

the OLE version. The documentation can be found in the runtime directory, the

README_VisVim.txt file.

Using Vim with Visual Studio .Net

With .Net you no longer really need VisVim, since .Net studio has support for

external editors. Follow these directions:

In .Net Studio choose from the menu Tools->External Tools...

Add

Title - Vim

Command - c:\vim\vim63\gvim.exe

Arguments - --servername VS_NET --remote-silent "+call cursor($(CurLine), $(CurCol))" $(ItemPath)

Init Dir - Empty

Now, when you open a file in .Net, you can choose from the .Net menu:

Tools->Vim

That will open the file in Vim.

You can then add this external command as an icon and place it anywhere you

like. You might also be able to set this as your default editor.

If you refine this further, please post back to the Vim maillist so we have a

record of it.

--servername VS_NET

This will create a new instance of vim called VS_NET. So if you open multiple

files from VS, they will use the same instance of Vim. This allows you to

have multiple copies of Vim running, but you can control which one has VS

files in it.

--remote-silent "+call cursor(10, 27)"

- Places the cursor on line 10 column 27

In Vim

:h --remote-silent for mor details

[.Net remarks provided by Dave Fishburn and Brian Sturk]

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