Problem:
POSIX-compatible Ex-mode requires special-cases all over the codebase to
match various quirks that don't actually matter to users.
- The main utility of *interactive* Ex-mode is its REPL behavior, and
that can be achieved with `cmdwin`, which also gains extra UX
benefits.
- The main utility of *non-interactive* `nvim -es` is for shell
scripting, where Ex-mode quirks are mostly unhelpful (e.g. the
"Entering Ex mode" message).
Solution:
- Reimplement *interactive* Ex-mode as a "persistent, insert-mode
cmdwin" in Lua.
- "nvim -e/-E" is simply an alias to "gQ".
- Reframe *non-interactive* Ex-mode (`nvim -es`) as "script mode".
- Drop POSIX Ex-mode quirks.
Improvements:
- "nvim -V1 -es" output ends with a final newline!
- "nvim -V1 -es" no longer shows the "Entering Ex mode" msg. (This was
pointless noise, unwanted for scripting purposes.)
- stdin is no longer typeahead. Scripts (":lua io.read()") can read
stdin as data.
- Empty line is a no-op: a stray blank line no longer moves the cursor
(deviates from POSIX ex "+1"), no longer exits 1 at EOF (E501).
Preserved behavior:
- cursor starts at "$"
- mode()=="cv" (for non-interactive)
- multiline commands (:append/:function/heredoc pull continuation lines)
- bare-range print
- :print=>stdout
- -V1=>stderr
- CRLF input
- continue-after-error and exit codes
Dropped (regressed) POSIX behavior (non-interactive):
- Event loop only ticks while/between commands, not while blocked
waiting for a stdin line.
- ":g/pat/visual...Q"
- input()/getchar()/":s/x/y/c" no longer consume stdin lines as
answers: Nvim stops at end-of-input, skipping the rest of the script,
exit 0. Use ":lua io.read()" instead.
- If users care about this they should use interactive Ex-mode (`gQ`).
- ":@r" stops at end of the register instead of continuing to read
cmdline input from stdin.
Problem:
`nvim__ui_detach` was added in 85e0559d46 in order to implement
`detach_others` from Lua. Using Lua in this case is doing more harm than
good.
Solution:
Extract `ui_detach_channel`, which also allows it to be used for the
"self detach" path from `ex_detach`.
Bonus: the old MSWIN path always called `os_swap_to_hidden_console()`;
now `ui_detach_channel` only does so for a stdio channel. For the common
stdio TUI this is identical; for a socket UI it's more correct (no
parent console to swap).
Problem:
`:restart` does not preserve window layout, etc.
Solution:
- Change `:restart` to save/restore a session automatically.
- Introduce "bang" variant `:restart!` to restart *without* session
save/restore.
- Introduce `v:startreason`.
- `ZR` maps to `:restart!`.
Problem:
When showing the :connect menu, it is useful to know which servers
are most-recently active. But we don't have a good way to detect that.
Solution:
- Introduce `v:useractive`.
- Include this timestamp in `serverlist({info=true})`.
Co-authored-by: Justin M. Keyes <justinkz@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Szymon Wilczek <swilczek.lx@gmail.com>
Problem:
UI tools and orchestration engines need more context than just raw
socket addresses from serverlist(). Without knowing if a server belongs
to the current instance or knowing its PID, UIs cannot display
meaningful options to users.
Solution:
- Added the `info=v:true` option to `serverlist()`.
- When `info` is requested, it implies `peer=true` and returns a list of
dictionaries (defined as `vim.ServerInfo`) with `addr`, `pid` and
`own`.
- Uses an RPC request to `getpid()` across the socket to fetch the
peer's actual process ID.
Signed-off-by: Szymon Wilczek <swilczek.lx@gmail.com>
Problem:
- The `ZR` feature makes it more obvious that we need some sort of flag so that
an `ExitPre` / `QuitPre` / `VimLeave` handler can handle restarts differently
than a normal exit. For example, it's common that users want `:mksession` on
restart, but perhaps not on a normal exit.
- Nvim has no way to report its "uptime".
Solution:
- Introduce `v:starttime`
- Introduce `v:exitreason`
Problem: :restart leads to ERR/WRN logging on Windows with --listen.
Solution: Add a log_level flag to vim._with() and use it to suppress
logging from serverstart()/serverstop() during restart.
Problem:
On Windows, :restart cannot immediately reuse the canonical --listen
address because named pipe release is asynchronous.
Solution:
Start the new Nvim server on a temporary address; in the new Nvim,
retry serverstart() with the original ("canonical") address until it
succeeds.
Problem:
Too much boilerplate needed to use Lua to impl an excmd or f_xx
function.
Solution:
- Add `nlua_call_vimfn` which takes the args typval, executes
Lua, and returns a typval.
- refactor(excmd): lua impl for :log, :lsp
Problem:
We want to encourage implementing core features in Lua instead of C, but
it's clumsy because:
- Core Lua code (built into `nvim` so it is available even if VIMRUNTIME
is missing/invalid) requires manually updating CMakeLists.txt, or
stuffing it into `_editor.lua`.
- Core Lua modules are not organized similar to C modules, `_editor.lua`
is getting too big.
Solution:
- Introduce `_core/` where core Lua code can live. All Lua modules added
there will automatically be included as bytecode in the `nvim` binary.
- Move these core modules into `_core/*`:
```
_defaults.lua
_editor.lua
_options.lua
_system.lua
shared.lua
```
TODO:
- Move `_extui/ => _core/ui2/`
