Open external URL in Vim vsplit with w3m
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Last edited: $Date: 2020/05/03 16:57:41 $
Starting from version 8.1 Vim has a terminal
function. It lets you open a Vim window that acts
like a terminal.
With ":terminal" you open a terminal in the current
window.
To create a vertical split, with a terminal in the
newly opened window, use ":vertical terminal".
With some easy Vim scripting you can open the
external URL that is under the cursor with the
awesome textmode browser w3m in a Vim terminal. I
liked to have that in a vertical split.
This is what I came up with:
function s:vertopen_url()
normal! "uyiW
let mycommand = "w3m " . @u
execute "vertical terminal++close " . mycommand
endfunction
This is what this function does:
* yank the inner Word into the register "u".
* create a string with "w3m" folowed by a space and
the url
* open a vertical split terminal and run this string
as command
This works fine, but could use some improvement:
* The contents of the register "u" are overwritten
So perhaps we need to add something to save the
contents of register "u" and restore it after
calling w3m.
But for now, this function is good enough.
Put this function in a file under ~/.vim/plugin and
add the following line to this file:
noremap <Plug>vertopen_url : call <SID>vertopen_url()<CR>
In your .vimrc you can map this function to a
command. I have binded this function to <leader>x:
nmap <Leader>x <Plug>vertopen_url
This it how it works:
* Go to an URL somewhere in your Vim edit session
* Put the cursor somewhere on this URL
* Hit <leader>x
* Vim opens a window in a vertical split and starts
w3m with this URL
## Thanks to R. Tyler Croy
Tylor pointed me to the terminal++close option, which
causes in this use-case Vim to close the terminal
after the user closes w3m.
Thanks Tyler !
Have fun!
