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Could there be a check box in the custom keybinding drop down menu where you could select which keybindings you wanted to use, either the default NBs, Emacs, or Vi? I know it is possible to manually configure this, but there are other IDE's that do this, it would be stop gap until we can get full integration with emacs and vi, and it would ease the transition of programmers using those tools to ours. Emacs and Vi still account for a very large portion of developers out there. Thanks, Dan
Changing the state of the issue to ASSIGNED, because it was covered in Requirements document at http://editor.netbeans.org/doc/Requirements.html
Target milestone -> 3.3.1.
Set target milestone to TBD
*** Issue 30895 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
There's some additional information related to this enhancement in issues; 30895, 35595, 42407 and 53128 That information is being consolidated and captured in this enhancement. From 30895: "NetBeans would utterly destroy the competition if the editor could be bound with VIM functionality. In addition, emacs and brief emulation would also be great. Then programmers could use their favorite "hackers editor" within netbeans. There is not a single commercial IDE that has done it and the one that does will gain allot of customers. I really miss VIM emulation when I am in NetBeans. Since VIM is open source, it should provide tons of information for those qualified to do such a port." =================================================================== From 35595: User problem -- configuring all the keyboard shortcuts is a time consuming task. User need -- the user wants to use keyboard shortcuts he or she is acustomed to using. Product requirement -- provide shortcut presets for most commonly used IDEs (Visual Studio, EMACS, ...) and a simple way how to choose them. Also necessary is to support multi-key shortcuts to be able to support EMACS ones. Additional Comments From danielpelton 2004-08-03 09:08 PDT ------- Not having the gnu emacs keys pre-configured is a real problem for the developers at my company. We have decided to use Eclipse instead. We believe that this is a very important feature missing from Netbeans. I wish someone with fix this. Additional Comments From Tim Boudreau 2004-09-02 00:21 PDT ------- Note that, though hackish, this is semi doable already via a module. We're doing something like this for Apple keybindings. =================================================================== From 42407: Using the external editor (gvim) is a stop gap method at best as many features are lost. VI keybindings should be available in an integrated editor. This issue is keeping me from adopting Netbeans. =================================================================== From 51328: NetBeans should offer an editor that has the same feel/keybindings as the traditional 'vi', 'vim' and 'emacs' editors. This kind of feature could be configured in NetBeans as easily as a radio button or check box where an traditional user of vi or emacs can do all of his or her edits with a vi or emacs type of editor. But, can also reap all the other benefits built into NetBeans. The following text summarizes comments from a developer who has used vi and vim for 15 years and would like to try NetBeans if Source Editor behaved in a similar manner as vi: "It's possible to do most of what NetBeans 4.x has in a good editor such as vim, emacs, or jedit. But NetBeans has all of the integration done already in one standard package. However, the editor key bindings will prevent me from using it as a replacement for vi or vim. Similar sort of argument exists for emacs users as well. Please note that a lot of vi users have actually migrated to vim, which supports features such as multiple buffers, windows, splitting windows, and a lot of other features. NetBeans should look at the vim extensions to vi as well and make those available in a NetBeans vi type editor. Also, note that vim (and especially emacs) are more than just keybindings. Both editors are extremely programmable. Many developers take advantage of the programmability to extend the editor, and also to add IDE features as needed. Some of the more common extensions should be looked at as well."
*** Issue 35595 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 53128 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Feedback from a potential customer on the SDN 2006-05-19: "I simply can't code without VI. I am not using NetBeans because of it." Note: 58412 has been marked RESOLVED/FIXED.
I have been a Vim user for about 5 years now and I am looking for a "way in" to contribute to NetBeans development. I would definitely consider helping out with Vim keybindings if it is possible/feasible. What is the current status on this? Is anyone working on it at the moment?
The Vim support is not being actively developed at the moment although I would like to have the Vim support as well. Compared to regular NetBeans keyboard profile the Vim support is somewhat trickier. We need to support generic prefixing of the actions by numbers e.g. "10x" and suffixing of certain actions e.g. "dw" "dG" etc. and support the modes (command mode and insert mode). The command line mode should IMHO be limited. Personally I would like to retain the regular JComponent handling and just have specialized actions that would possibly hold an extra context e.g. as JComponent.getClientProperty().
I also think that "normal" and "insert" modes would be enough as a started. Even replace and visual modes are not must-have as started I think. I.e. whatever what would bring at least a little of VIM (or Emacs if anybody cares ;) ) functionality would be very nice to have. By setting TM -> Dev, you meant that something could be done for next version? That would super.
Please give us at least simple emulation! I love netbeans, but the biggest problem is that there is no vi emulation. Who thought EMacs would be a better fit? Yuk! Thanks!
*** Issue 77436 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I will look into this. As a simple feasibility test I could attempt to implement normal and insert modes with basic nagivation support (hjkl) maybe, just to see what obstacles get in the way. I am new to NetBeans development however, so this may come to nothing!
Doesn't the jVi plug-in satisfy the requirements listed here? http://jvi.sourceforge.net Emacs keybinding are available in Tools | Options | Keymaps.
I would say it does. I think it's by far the best Vi integration we have ever had.
Is it time to close this issue then as resolved?
I also consider the jVi plugin very good and covering the requirements discussed here. There are still some issues but it is already pretty usable for everyday development. The developer of the plugin is still working on it so I assume it is going to be even better.
Ok, let's say it's fixed. Thank you to Ernie for jVi integration and many nameless for the Emacs keybinding profile!