Vimbot - test drive vim from ruby

Usage

Start up a vim application like this:

vim = Vimbot::Driver.new
vim.start

When you want to quit vim,

> vim.stop

By default, Vimbot will try to guess what vim application to use, and use an empty .vimrc and .gvimrc. If you want to specify a vim binary or some config files, you can do this:

> vim = Vimbot::Driver.new(
  :vim => "bin/my_vim",
  :vimrc => "~/.vimrc",
  :gvimrc => ".alternative_gvimrc"
)

From there, you can begin editing:

> vim.type "i", "Hey vim users,"
> vim.append "<CR><CR>", "Try testing your vim plugins with vimbot!"
> vim.command "%s/vim/best_editor_ever/g"

=> "2 substitutions on 2 lines"

API

editing

• type - sends keyboard input to vim, applying mappings and creating an undo entry where needed
• normal - like, type, but enters normal mode first
• insert - like, type, but enters insert mode first
• append - like, type, but enters insert mode first
• undo
• redo
• clear_buffer
• raw_type - like type, but does not do vimbot's normal behavior of ensuring that an undo entry is created and that mappings are applied

querying the state of the editor

• line - get the text of the line the cursor is on
• line_number, column_number - get the position of the cursor
• register - get the contents of a given register
• mode - returns the mode as a letter: i, n, c, v, V, s
• evaluate - get value of arbitrary vimscript expression
• in_insert_mode?
• in_normal_mode?
• in_command_mode?
• in_visual_mode?
• in_select_mode?

configuration

• source, runtime - load vimscript files
• set - set a vim option
• map - add a key mapping

Contributing

New convenience methods are easy to add, and pull requests are welcome!

Dependencies

Vimbot is developed with Vim 7.3 and Ruby 1.9.2.

Author

Vimbot is developed by Max Brunsfeld | @maxbrunsfeld | maxbrunsfeld@gmail.com