Expand bash brace forms in Vim

gistfile1.vim

" Barry Arthur, Feb 2015
" Expand a bash brace expression

let x = 'xorg-{,xinit,xfontsel,xset,xrdb,font-util{,s},server{,-utils,},utils,xmodmap,xwininfo}'

function! BashBracesToVimTree(string)
  return eval('[' .
      \ tr(substitute(substitute(substitute(substitute(a:string, "'", "''", 'g')
      \                          , '[^,{}]\+', "'&'", 'g')
      \               ,  "'{", "',{", 'g')
      \    ,  "{,", "{", 'g')
      \ , '{}', '[]')
      \ . ']')
endfunction

function! ExpandTree(tree, ...)
  let parent = a:0 ? a:1 : ''
  let s = []
  for elem in a:tree
    if type(elem) == type([])
      let prior = s[-1]
      if parent == ''
        call remove(s, -1)
      endif
      call add(s, ExpandTree(elem, prior))
    else
      call add(s, parent . elem)
    endif
    unlet elem
  endfor
  return join(s)
endfunction

echo ExpandTree(BashBracesToVimTree(x))