A message from the Scheme Underground ...

[Brent Fulgham <bfulgham@debian.org>]

Fight the proliferation of ad hoc languages!  Release yourself from
the shackles of semi-colon terminated languages, the madness of
infix notation, and the oppressive weight of procedural programming's
history.  Join the freedom-loving ranks of the programming elite!
(Joking!)

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I have created a patch against Vim60m to embed an MzScheme interpreter.
You can use MzScheme inside Vim in much the same way as the Python,
Perl, Ruby, or Tcl interfaces (though of course, with more style).

Be warned, this is fairly embryonic, but I was excited enough that it
was working that I thought it could benefit from some extra eyes.

If you like Scheme, and you like Vim (the only text editor worth
using IMHO), this is for you!  (Yes, I realize most MzSchemer's
enjoy the DrScheme environment, but of course that's only because they
have not learned Vim!)

The most glaring omission at the moment is the ability to source
files -- that's coming later this week, but I have some additional
plans for how this piece will work that aren't ready quite yet.
Other than that, it supports most things you can do from Python and
Tcl (the two interfaces that provided most of the structure of how
to embed the software).

======================================================================

Examples:

So what good is this?  Here are some examples:

1.  If you want a quite calculator, use the command line:

:mzscheme (+ 1 2)
3

2.  If you want to beep the Vim buzzer:
:mz (vim-beep)
*beep!*

3.  If you wish to manipulate some text:

Every good boy does fine.
All dogs go to heaven.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.

:mz (vim-set-buff-line 3 (string-append (vim-get-buff-line 3) 
"  And laughed all the way home"))

Every good boy does fine
All dogs go to heaven.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.  And laughed all the way home.

4.  Compare two vim buffers:
(buffer 1, named "good")
That's fine.
(buffer 2, named "fine")
That's fine.
Plus more text.
: buffers
1 "good"
2 "fine"

:mz (define (a-buf) (vim-get-buff-by-num 1))
<vim-buffer>
:mz (define (b-buf) (vim-get-buff-by-num 2))
<vim-buffer>

:mz (display (cond ((string=? (vim-get-buff-line 1 a-buff) (vim-get-buff-line 1 b-buff)) "Match")
(else "Not a Match"))
Match
:mz (display (cond ((string=? (vim-get-buff-line 1 a-buff) (vim-get-buff-line 2 b-buff)) "Match")
(else "Not a Match"))
Not a Match.

5.  See what kinds of windows are open:
:mz (vim-get-win-list)
(#<vim-window> #<vim-window>)

========================================================================================

As you can see, it should be fairly easy to extend these capabilities to do
very useful things.  But first, I'm wondering about a few things:

1.  Would it make more sense for Buffers and windows to be full-fledged MzScheme
classes in all their object-oriented glory?
2.  What kinds of features are needed in melding scripts/macros to the editor proper?
(I.e., besides the usual features what do you want?)
    vim-command                 -- Perform the vim ":Ex" style command
    vim-eval                    -- evaluate the vim command string
    vim-range-start(end)        -- Start/End of the range passed with the Scheme command
    vim-get(set)-buff-line      -- Get/Set a line in a buffer
    vim-get(set)-buff-line-list -- Get/Set a list of lines in a buffer
    vim-get-buff-name           -- Get a buffer's text name
    vim-get-buff-num            -- Get a buffer's number
    vim-get-buff-size           -- Get buffer line count
    vim-insert-buff-line-list   -- Insert a list of lines into a buffer
    vim-curr-buff               -- Get the current buffer
    vim-buff-count              -- Get count of total buffers in the editor
    vim-get-next(prev)-buff     -- Get next/previous buffer
    vim-open-buff               -- Open a new buffer (for file "name")
    vim-get-buff-by-name        -- Get a buffer by its filename
    vim-get-buff-by-num         -- Get a buffer by its number
    vim-curr-win                -- Get the current window
    vim-win-count               -- Get count of windows
    vim-get-win-by-num          -- Get window by its number
    vim-get-win-buffer          -- Get the buffer for a given window
    vim-get(set)-win-height     -- Get/Set height of window
    vim-get(set)-win-width      -- Get/Set width of window
    vim-get-win-list            -- Get list of windows for a buffer
    vim-beep                    -- Beep the buzzer
    vim-get(set)-option         -- Get/Set a Vim option

Anyway, I apologize for the length of this message.  If you want to take a look at
the code, the diff is at "http://people.debian.org/~bfulgham";.

Warning:  While this did build on Windows 95 prior to my Thanksgiving Hacking
a quick build with this diff today at work failed.  I'll upload a new patch
later this week to correct the problem.

So, Linux users -- enjoy!

Thanks!

-Brent

P.S.  The True Scheme Underground claims no responsibility for any of
the above activities....