Turn VIM into Python IDE

Background

I’ve tried several editors for writing Python, such as Atom, Sublime, PyCharm, and even Bluefish. The issues I experienced bothered me, like Atom too fat, Sublime complicated plugin configuration, PyCharm uncertain runtime path… Eventually I decided to stay with my love, vi and vim that I've used for almost 20 years.

There are multiple ways to configure VIM as Python IDE, through vundle, pip3 install, then I figured to have plugins managed by git and vundle, the plugin manager. Therefore I write this document.

Notes:

• This doc is written with Python3, not tested with Python2
• Python’s plugin are very various and many. I choose some as my personal experience only
• I use Debian 11 Bullseye with pre-installed vim
• All screenshots are captured from gvim

Personally I think that the best practice to Enable VIM as Python IDE is https://realpython.com/vim-and-python-a-match-made-in-heaven/ with credits.

VIM Pre-requisite

vim --version

Supposedly you can see

VIM - Vi IMproved 8.0 (2016 Sep 12, compiled Sep 30 2017 18:21:38) ... 
Huge version with GTK3 GUI. Features included (+) or not (-): 
+acl +file_in_path +mouse_sgr +tag_old_static ... 
+conceal +libcall +profile +viminfo 
+cryptv +linebreak -python +vreplace 
+cscope +lispindent +python3 +wildignore

that indicates this pre-built vim (version 8.0) supports python3, but not python2. Weird but this is default from Debian Stretch 9.6, with vim-tiny completely removed

And verify in vim

:python3 import sys; print(sys.version)

Install Plugins and Setups

Tips: Run :PluginInstall after adding plugins

Create directories

Backup the existing ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim!!!

mkdir -p ~/.vim/{autoload,bundle}

bundle holds all plugins

vundle

touch ~/.vimrc
git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Then put the following at the top of ~/.vimrc

set nocompatible " required 
filetype off " required 
" set the runtime path to include Vundle and initialize 
set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim 
call vundle#begin() 
" alternatively, pass a path where Vundle should install plugins 
"call vundle#begin('~/some/path/here')
" let Vundle manage Vundle, required 
Plugin 'gmarik/Vundle.vim' 
" add all your plugins here (note older versions of Vundle 
" used Bundle instead of Plugin) 
" ... 
" All of your Plugins must be added before the following line 
call vundle#end() " required 
filetype plugin indent on " required

Tips: make sure all plugins being added before the last stance in ~/.vimrc. Read the above.

To enable it, get into vim

:PluginInstall

python-mode

This is a combo that contains lots of feature and submodules. See the details at reference doc > https://github.com/python-mode/python-mode

cd ~/.vim/bundle 
git clone https://github.com/python-mode/python-mode.git 
cd python-mode 
git submodule update --init --recursive

Auto-Complete

I think this is the most important plugin and makes VIM a true Python IDE

Bundle 'Valloric/YouCompleteMe' 
let g:ycm_autoclose_preview_window_after_completion=1 
map <leader>g :YcmCompleter GoToDefinitionElseDeclaration<CR>

Save the above in ~/.vimrc then run :PluginInstall within vim

Tips: if PluginInstall running into error, you might need to execute install manually by cd ~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe; ./install.py

Screenshots of auto-complete and display relative document after pressing Tab

File Browsing

We can see the effect from the above screenshot. The files, from left navigation, are double-clickable into editing mode. Very fancy and nice.

Plugin 'scrooloose/nerdtree' 
Plugin 'jistr/vim-nerdtree-tabs' " use tab 
" hide .pyc 
let NERDTreeIgnore=['\.pyc$', '\~$'] "ignore files in NERDTree

Super Searching

Pressing Ctrl+ p to enable search

Plugin 'kien/ctrlp.vim'

To search keras in all directories

Powerline

Plugin 'Lokaltog/powerline', {'rtp': 'powerline/bindings/vim/'}

Show status and file format

Other Tweaks without Plugin

Split Windows

set splitbelow set splitright

To enable multiple-views, press :sp, we see

Use Ctrl + h /j /k /l to switch among windows

" split navigations 
nnoremap <C-J> <C-W><C-J> 
nnoremap <C-K> <C-W><C-K> 
nnoremap <C-L> <C-W><C-L> 
nnoremap <C-H> <C-W><C-H>

UTF-8 Support

set encoding=utf-8

Set line-number

set nu

PEP8

au BufNewFile,BufRead *.py 
    \ set tabstop=4 | 
    \ set softtabstop=4 | 
    \ set shiftwidth=4 | 
    \ set textwidth=79 | 
    \ set expandtab | 
    \ set autoindent | 
    \ set fileformat=unix

Originally published at gist.github.com.