Notes on setting up vim for Clojure development.

gvim-clojure.md

Environment

• GVim
• tmux (for vim-dispatch)
• Clojure
• Leiningen 2
• drip (https://github.com/flatland/drip)

Vim Plugins

• vim-clojure-static
• vim-fireplace
• vim-classpath
• vim-dispatch
• ConqueTerm

Usage

First of all, Fireplace gives you <C-W> <C-D> - open symbol definition under cursor in a split. Haven't figured out how to make it work for Java methods and classes, though.

Custom functions I defined using ConqueTerm:

• :Repl Launch a Lein REPL
• :Clj Evaluate arbitrary Clojure code in the current buffer.

Source:

let s:CLOJURE_JAR = $HOME."/java/clojure-1.5.1/clojure-1.5.1.jar"

fun! CljCMD()
	execute 'w! /tmp/temp.clj'
	execute 'set syntax=clojure'
	execute 'ConqueTermSplit drip -cp '.s:CLOJURE_JAR.' clojure.main /tmp/temp.clj'
endf
command! Clj call CljCMD()

fun! LeinCMD()
    execute 'ConqueTermSplit lein repl'
    execute 'set syntax=clojure'
    execute 'normal! i'
endf
command! Repl call LeinCMD()

(Adapted from: http://stackoverflow.com/q/15734470/7507)

Now, if just want to test out some Clojure code, just create a new buffer with some code and run :Clj. If you want a full REPL, use :Repl. Since you are using drip, these commands (especially :Clj) will execute rather quickly the second time you run them.

Note that to exit either, you may need to <Ctrl-D> while in insert mode or kill the spawned Java process. Closing the buffer with :bd does not automatically kill the process.

Also notice that :Clj doesn't launch a REPL. It evaluates Clojure code. So you won't see any output unless your code actually has (println) or similar output.

What About Pipe?

I also tried to get Clojure evaluation working with vim-pipe, but couldn't get it to work:

autocmd FileType	clj		let b:vimpipe_command="drip -cp ".s:CLOJURE_JAR." clojure.main /tmp/temp.clj"
autocmd FileType	clj		let b:vimpipe_filetype="clojure"

That's because Pipe expects to read the contents of the buffer as if from stdin, as do python and ruby. But clojure.main takes either command line, script or launches a repl - so I went the ConqueTerm route.

Asynchronous Build with vim-dispatch

Dispatch allows you to launch a long-running process, such as a Leiningen build, in the background and capture the output. View the trailer.

If you launch gvim from tmux, :Make (note uppercase M) will now run lein <build target> on your tmux command line and redirect the result to Copen. It's like magic.

Steps:

tmux
gvim project.clj
(In gvim)
:Make test

Other Vim Plugins

Other plugins that I installed but haven't internalized yet.

• surround
• vim-paredit