1*if_ole.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Aug 16 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Paul Moore 5 6 7The OLE Interface to Vim *ole-interface* 8 91. Activation |ole-activation| 102. Methods |ole-methods| 113. The "normal" command |ole-normal| 124. Registration |ole-registration| 135. MS Visual Studio integration |MSVisualStudio| 14 15{Vi does not have any of these commands} 16 17OLE is only available when compiled with the |+ole| feature. See 18src/if_ole.INSTALL. 19An alternative is using the client-server communication |clientserver|. 20 21============================================================================== 221. Activation *ole-activation* 23 24Vim acts as an OLE automation server, accessible from any automation client, 25for example, Visual Basic, Python, or Perl. The Vim application "name" (its 26"ProgID", in OLE terminology) is "Vim.Application". 27 28Hence, in order to start a Vim instance (or connect to an already running 29instance), code similar to the following should be used: 30 31[Visual Basic] > 32 Dim Vim As Object 33 Set Vim = CreateObject("Vim.Application") 34 35[Python] > 36 from win32com.client.dynamic import Dispatch 37 vim = Dispatch('Vim.Application') 38 39[Perl] > 40 use Win32::OLE; 41 $vim = new Win32::OLE 'Vim.Application'; 42 43[C#] > 44 // Add a reference to VIM in your project. 45 // Choose the COM tab. 46 // Select "VIM Ole Interface 1.1 Type Library" 47 Vim.Vim vimobj = new Vim.Vim(); 48 49Vim does not support acting as a "hidden" OLE server, like some other OLE 50Automation servers. When a client starts up an instance of Vim, that instance 51is immediately visible. Simply closing the OLE connection to the Vim instance 52is not enough to shut down the Vim instance - it is necessary to explicitly 53execute a quit command (for example, :qa!, :wqa). 54 55============================================================================== 562. Methods *ole-methods* 57 58Vim exposes four methods for use by clients. 59 60 *ole-sendkeys* 61SendKeys(keys) Execute a series of keys. 62 63This method takes a single parameter, which is a string of keystrokes. These 64keystrokes are executed exactly as if they had been types in at the keyboard. 65Special keys can be given using their <..> names, as for the right hand side 66of a mapping. Note: Execution of the Ex "normal" command is not supported - 67see below |ole-normal|. 68 69Examples (Visual Basic syntax) > 70 Vim.SendKeys "ihello<Esc>" 71 Vim.SendKeys "ma1GV4jy`a" 72 73These examples assume that Vim starts in Normal mode. To force Normal mode, 74start the key sequence with CTRL-\ CTRL-N as in > 75 76 Vim.SendKeys "<C-\><C-N>ihello<Esc>" 77 78CTRL-\ CTRL-N returns Vim to Normal mode, when in Insert or Command-line mode. 79Note that this doesn't work halfway a Vim command 80 81 *ole-eval* 82Eval(expr) Evaluate an expression. 83 84This method takes a single parameter, which is an expression in Vim's normal 85format (see |expression|). It returns a string, which is the result of 86evaluating the expression. A |List| is turned into a string by joining the 87items and inserting line breaks. 88 89Examples (Visual Basic syntax) > 90 Line20 = Vim.Eval("getline(20)") 91 Twelve = Vim.Eval("6 + 6") ' Note this is a STRING 92 Font = Vim.Eval("&guifont") 93< 94 *ole-setforeground* 95SetForeground() Make the Vim window come to the foreground 96 97This method takes no arguments. No value is returned. 98 99Example (Visual Basic syntax) > 100 Vim.SetForeground 101< 102 103 *ole-gethwnd* 104GetHwnd() Return the handle of the Vim window. 105 106This method takes no arguments. It returns the hwnd of the main Vimwindow. 107You can use this if you are writing something which needs to manipulate the 108Vim window, or to track it in the z-order, etc. 109 110Example (Visual Basic syntax) > 111 Vim_Hwnd = Vim.GetHwnd 112< 113 114============================================================================== 1153. The "normal" command *ole-normal* 116 117Due to the way Vim processes OLE Automation commands, combined with the method 118of implementation of the Ex command :normal, it is not possible to execute the 119:normal command via OLE automation. Any attempt to do so will fail, probably 120harmlessly, although possibly in unpredictable ways. 121 122There is currently no practical way to trap this situation, and users must 123simply be aware of the limitation. 124============================================================================== 1254. Registration *ole-registration* *E243* 126 127Before Vim will act as an OLE server, it must be registered in the system 128registry. In order to do this, Vim should be run with a single parameter of 129"-register". 130 *-register* > 131 gvim -register 132 133If gvim with OLE support is run and notices that no Vim OLE server has been 134registered, it will present a dialog and offers you the choice to register by 135clicking "Yes". 136 137In some situations registering is not possible. This happens when the 138registry is not writable. If you run into this problem you need to run gvim 139as "Administrator". 140 141Once vim is registered, the application path is stored in the registry. 142Before moving, deleting, or upgrading Vim, the registry entries should be 143removed using the "-unregister" switch. 144 *-unregister* > 145 gvim -unregister 146 147The OLE mechanism will use the first registered Vim it finds. If a Vim is 148already running, this one will be used. If you want to have (several) Vim 149sessions open that should not react to OLE commands, use the non-OLE version, 150and put it in a different directory. The OLE version should then be put in a 151directory that is not in your normal path, so that typing "gvim" will start 152the non-OLE version. 153 154 *-silent* 155To avoid the message box that pops up to report the result, prepend "-silent": 156> 157 gvim -silent -register 158 gvim -silent -unregister 159 160============================================================================== 1615. MS Visual Studio integration *MSVisualStudio* *VisVim* 162 163The OLE version can be used to run Vim as the editor in Microsoft Visual 164Studio. This is called "VisVim". It is included in the archive that contains 165the OLE version. The documentation can be found in the runtime directory, the 166README_VisVim.txt file. 167 168 169Using Vim with Visual Studio .Net~ 170 171With .Net you no longer really need VisVim, since .Net studio has support for 172external editors. Follow these directions: 173 174In .Net Studio choose from the menu Tools->External Tools... 175Add 176 Title - Vim 177 Command - c:\vim\vim63\gvim.exe 178 Arguments - --servername VS_NET --remote-silent "+call cursor($(CurLine), $(CurCol))" $(ItemPath) 179 Init Dir - Empty 180 181Now, when you open a file in .Net, you can choose from the .Net menu: 182Tools->Vim 183 184That will open the file in Vim. 185You can then add this external command as an icon and place it anywhere you 186like. You might also be able to set this as your default editor. 187 188If you refine this further, please post back to the Vim maillist so we have a 189record of it. 190 191--servername VS_NET 192This will create a new instance of vim called VS_NET. So if you open multiple 193files from VS, they will use the same instance of Vim. This allows you to 194have multiple copies of Vim running, but you can control which one has VS 195files in it. 196 197--remote-silent "+call cursor(10, 27)" 198 - Places the cursor on line 10 column 27 199In Vim > 200 :h --remote-silent for mor details 201 202[.Net remarks provided by Dave Fishburn and Brian Sturk] 203 204============================================================================== 205 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 206