Following up on my previous post on Essential Vim Plugins for Web Developers, I have decided to tell you about the awesomeness of the C / C++ plugin for Vim in this article.
Now to get things going, let’s start by thinking what are the basic stuffs that you would be carrying out as a C / C++ developer? Include header files, some functions, loops, conditional statements and a main function. These are some repetitive boring tasks that you would rather have someone else do it for you. Well, that’s what c.vim plugin is all about.
For example, after installing this plugin, when you open a C or C++ file, you would get something like:
To make necessary changes in the above fields, modify the values in ~/.vim/c-support/templates/Templates file. (Installation at the end of the article)
Now you would want to insert some header files. All you need to do is type these commands in either normal mode or insert mode of vim.
Similarly, to include loop structures, all you have to do is type these commands in normal or insert mode of vim.
If you want to make your program, a well-documented and a readable one, then take my advice, use c.vim plugin. You can add a frame comment, a class description, function description etc.
For e.g. if you type \cfu in visual or insert mode, it will give you
This is one of the interesting parts of c.vim plugin. For instance, type \ii (in normal or insert mode) and witness the change.
You can now compile and run your program without quitting Vim. You don’t need to go back to the terminal, compile and again return to vim to make necessary modifications. Just follow the following commands (in visual or insert mode).
Finally, \hm to Show manual & \hp for help.
- Download the plugin c.vim
- Extract the file to .vim folder
unzip -d ~/.vim/ - Enable the plugin by adding the following line in ~/.vimrc file
filetype plugin on
