netbeans.txt For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2024 May 11 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Gordon Prieur et al. netbeans NetBeans netbeans-support Vim NetBeans Protocol: a socket interface for Vim integration into an IDE. 1. Introduction netbeans-intro 2. Integration features netbeans-integration 3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans netbeans-configure 4. Error Messages netbeans-messages 5. Running Vim in NetBeans mode netbeans-run 6. NetBeans protocol netbeans-protocol 7. NetBeans commands netbeans-commands 8. Known problems netbeans-problems 9. Debugging NetBeans protocol netbeans-debugging 10. NetBeans External Editor 10.1. Downloading NetBeans netbeans-download 10.2. NetBeans Key Bindings netbeans-keybindings 10.3. Preparing NetBeans for Vim netbeans-preparation 10.4. Obtaining the External Editor Module obtaining-exted 10.5. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim netbeans-setup {only available when compiled with the |+netbeans_intg| feature} ============================================================================== 1. Introduction netbeans-intro The NetBeans interface was initially developed to integrate Vim into the NetBeans Java IDE, using the external editor plugin. This NetBeans plugin no longer exists for recent versions of NetBeans but the protocol was developed in such a way that any IDE can use it to integrate Vim. The NetBeans protocol of Vim is a text based communication protocol, over a classical TCP socket. There is no dependency on Java or NetBeans. Any language or environment providing a socket interface can control Vim using this protocol. There are existing implementations in C, C++, Python and Java. The name NetBeans is kept today for historical reasons. Active project using the NetBeans protocol of Vim: - Eclim, http://eclim.org/ VimIntegration, description of various projects doing Vim Integration: http://www.freehackers.org/VimIntegration Projects using the NetBeans protocol of Vim are or were: - Agide, an IDE for the AAP project, written in Python (now replaced by :Termdebug): http://www.a-a-p.org - Clewn, a gdb integration into Vim, written in C: http://clewn.sourceforge.net/ - Pyclewn, a gdb integration into Vim, written in Python: http://pyclewn.sourceforge.net/ - VimWrapper, library to easy Vim integration into IDE: http://www.freehackers.org/VimWrapper Outdated projects (links don't work): - VimPlugin, integration of Vim inside Eclipse: http://vimplugin.sourceforge.net/wiki/pmwiki.php - PIDA, IDE written in Python integrating Vim: http://pida.co.uk/ Check the specific project pages to see how to use Vim with these projects. An alternative is to use a channel, see channel. In the rest of this help page, we will use the term "Vim Controller" to describe the program controlling Vim through the NetBeans socket interface. About the NetBeans IDE NetBeans is an open source Integrated Development Environment developed jointly by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the netbeans.org developer community. Initially just a Java IDE, NetBeans has had C, C++, and Fortran support added in recent releases. For more information visit the main NetBeans web site http://www.netbeans.org. The External Editor is now, unfortunately, declared obsolete. See (link seems dead): http://externaleditor.netbeans.org. Sun Microsystems, Inc. also ships NetBeans under the name Sun ONE Studio. Visit http://www.sun.com for more information regarding the Sun ONE Studio product line. Current releases of NetBeans provide full support for Java and limited support for C, C++, and Fortran. Current releases of Sun ONE Studio provide full support for Java, C, C++, and Fortran. ============================================================================== 2. Integration features netbeans-integration The NetBeans socket interface of Vim allows to get information from Vim or to ask Vim to perform specific actions: - get information about buffer: buffer name, cursor position, buffer content, etc. - be notified when buffers are open or closed - be notified of how the buffer content is modified - load and save files - modify the buffer content - installing special key bindings - raise the window, control the window geometry For sending key strokes to Vim or for evaluating functions in Vim, you must use the clientserver interface. ============================================================================== 3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans netbeans-configure For more help about installing Vim, please read usr_90.txt in the Vim User Manual. On Unix: -------- When running configure without arguments the NetBeans interface should be included. That is, if the configure check to find out if your system supports the required features succeeds. In case you do not want the NetBeans interface you can disable it by uncommenting a line with "--disable-netbeans" in the Makefile. Currently the NetBeans interface is supported by Vim running in a terminal and by gvim when it is run with one of the following GUIs: GTK, GNOME, Windows and Motif. netbeans-xpm If Motif support is required the user must supply XPM libraries. The XPM library is required to show images within Vim with Motif. Without it the toolbar and signs will be disabled. The XPM library is provided by Arnaud Le Hors of the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. It can be downloaded from http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libXpm. The current release, as of this writing, is xpm-3.4k-solaris.tgz, which is a gzip'ed tar file. If you create the directory /usr/local/xpm and untar the file there you can use the uncommented lines in the Makefile without changing them. If you use another xpm directory you will need to change the XPM_DIR in src/Makefile. On MS-Windows: -------------- The Win32 support is now in beta stage. To use XPM signs on Win32 (e.g. when using with NetBeans) you can compile XPM by yourself or use precompiled libraries from (link seems dead): http://iamphet.nm.ru/misc/ (for MS Visual C++) or http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net (for MinGW). Enable debugging: ----------------- To enable debugging of Vim and of the NetBeans protocol, the "NBDEBUG" macro needs to be defined. Search in the Makefile of the platform you are using for "NBDEBUG" to see what line needs to be uncommented. This effectively adds "-DNBDEBUG" to the compile command. Also see netbeans-debugging ============================================================================== 4. Error Messages netbeans-messages These error messages are specific to NetBeans socket protocol: E463 Region is guarded, cannot modify The Vim Controller has defined guarded areas in the text, which you cannot change. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. E532 The defineAnnoType highlighting color name is too long The maximum length of the "fg" or "bg" color argument in the defineAnnoType command is 32 characters. New in version 2.5. E656 Writes of unmodified buffers forbidden Writes of unmodified buffers that were opened from the Vim Controller are not possible. E657 Partial writes disallowed Partial writes for buffers that were opened from the Vim Controller are not allowed. E658 Connection lost for this buffer The Vim Controller has become confused about the state of this file. Rather than risk data corruption, it has severed the connection for this file. Vim will take over responsibility for saving changes to this file and the Vim Controller will no longer know of these changes. E744 Read-only file Vim normally allows changes to a read-only file and only enforces the read-only rule if you try to write the file. However, NetBeans does not let you make changes to a file which is read-only and becomes confused if Vim does this. So Vim does not allow modifications to files when run in NetBeans mode. ============================================================================== 5. Running Vim in NetBeans mode netbeans-run There are two different ways to run Vim in NetBeans mode: + an IDE may start Vim with the -nb command line argument + NetBeans can be started from within Vim with the :nbstart command Vim uses a 3 second timeout on trying to make the connection. netbeans-parameters Three forms can be used to setup the NetBeans connection parameters. When started from the command line, the -nb command line argument may be: -nb={fname} from a file -nb:{hostname}:{addr}:{password} directly -nb from a file or environment When started from within Vim, the :nbstart optional argument may be: ={fname} from a file :{hostname}:{addr}:{password} directly <MISSING ARGUMENT> from a file or environment E660 E668 When NetBeans is started from the command line, for security reasons, the best method is to write the information in a file readable only by the user. The name of the file can be passed with the "-nb={fname}" argument or, when "-nb" is used without a parameter, the environment variable "__NETBEANS_CONINFO". The file must contain these three lines, in any order: host={hostname} port={addr} auth={password} Other lines are ignored. The Vim Controller is responsible for deleting the file afterwards. {hostname} is the name of the machine where Vim Controller is running. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_HOST" is used or the default "localhost". {addr} is the port number for the NetBeans interface. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_SOCKET" is used or the default 3219. {password} is the password for connecting to NetBeans. When omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_VIM_PASSWORD" is used or "changeme". Vim will initiate a socket connection (client side) to the specified host and port upon startup. The password will be sent with the AUTH event when the connection has been established. ============================================================================== 6. NetBeans protocol netbeans-protocol The communication between the Vim Controller and Vim uses plain text messages. This protocol was first designed to work with the external editor module of NetBeans. Later it was extended to work with Agide (A-A-P GUI IDE, see http://www.a-a-p.org) and then with other IDE. The extensions are marked with "version 2.1". Version 2.2 of the protocol has several minor changes which should only affect NetBeans users (ie, not Agide users). However, a bug was fixed which could cause confusion. The netbeans_saved() function sent a "save" protocol command. In protocol version 2.1 and earlier this was incorrectly interpreted as a notification that a write had taken place. In reality, it told NetBeans to save the file so multiple writes were being done. This caused various problems and has been fixed in 2.2. To decrease the likelihood of this confusion happening again, netbeans_saved() has been renamed to netbeans_save_buffer(). We are now at version 2.5. For the differences between 2.4 and 2.5 search for "2.5" below. The messages are currently sent over a socket. Since the messages are in plain UTF-8 text this protocol could also be used with any other communication mechanism. Netbeans messages are processed when Vim is idle, waiting for user input. When Vim is run in non-interactive mode, for example when running an automated test case that sources a Vim script, the idle loop may not be called often enough. In that case, insert :sleep commands in the Vim script. The :sleep command does invoke Netbeans messages processing. 6.1 Kinds of messages nb-messages 6.2 Terms nb-terms 6.3 Commands nb-commands 6.4 Functions and Replies nb-functions 6.5 Events nb-events 6.6 Special messages nb-special 6.7 Protocol errors nb-protocol_errors 6.1 Kinds of messages nb-messages There are four kinds of messages: kind direction comment Command IDE -> editor no reply necessary Function IDE -> editor editor must send back a reply Reply editor -> IDE only in response to a Function Event editor -> IDE no reply necessary The messages are sent as a single line with a terminating newline character. Arguments are separated by a single space. The first item of the message depends on the kind of message: kind first item example Command bufID:name!seqno 11:showBalloon!123 "text" Function bufID:name/seqno 11:getLength/123 Reply seqno 123 5000 Event bufID:name=seqno 11:keyCommand=123 "S-F2" 6.2 Terms nb-terms bufID Buffer number. A message may be either for a specific buffer or generic. Generic messages use a bufID of zero. NOTE: this buffer ID is assigned by the IDE, it is not Vim's buffer number. The bufID must be a sequentially rising number, starting at one. When the 'switchbuf' option is set to "usetab" and the "bufID" buffer is not found in the current tab page, the netbeans commands and functions that set this buffer as the current buffer will jump to the first open window that contains this buffer in other tab pages instead of replacing the buffer in the current window. seqno The IDE uses a sequence number for Commands and Functions. A Reply must use the sequence number of the Function that it is associated with. A zero sequence number can be used for Events (the seqno of the last received Command or Function can also be used). string Argument in double quotes. Text is in UTF-8 encoding. This means ASCII is passed as-is. Special characters are represented with a backslash: \" double quote \n newline \r carriage-return \t tab (optional, also works literally) \\ backslash NUL bytes are not allowed! boolean Argument with two possible values: T true F false number Argument with a decimal number. color Argument with either a decimal number, "none" (without the quotes) or the name of a color (without the quotes) defined both in the color list in highlight-ctermfg and in the color list in gui-colors. New in version 2.5. offset A number argument that indicates a byte position in a buffer. The first byte has offset zero. Line breaks are counted for how they appear in the file (CR/LF counts for two bytes). Note that a multibyte character is counted for the number of bytes it takes. lnum/col Argument with a line number and column number position. The line number starts with one, the column is the byte position, starting with zero. Note that a multibyte character counts for several columns. pathname String argument: file name with full path. 6.3 Commands nb-commands actionMenuItem Not implemented. actionSensitivity Not implemented. addAnno serNum typeNum off len Place an annotation in this buffer. Arguments: serNum number serial number of this placed annotation, used to be able to remove it typeNum number sequence number of the annotation defined with defineAnnoType for this buffer off number offset where annotation is to be placed len number not used In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off". balloonResult text Not implemented. close Close the buffer. This leaves us without current buffer, very dangerous to use! create Creates a buffer without a name. Replaces the current buffer (it's hidden when it was changed). The Vim Controller should use this as the first command for a file that is being opened. The sequence of commands could be: create setCaretListener (ignored) setModified (no effect) setContentType (ignored) startDocumentListen setTitle setFullName defineAnnoType typeNum typeName tooltip glyphFile fg bg Define a type of annotation for this buffer. Arguments: typeNum number sequence number (not really used) typeName string name that identifies this annotation tooltip string not used glyphFile string name of icon file fg color foreground color for line highlighting bg color background color for line highlighting Vim will define a sign for the annotation. When color is a number, this is the "#rrggbb" Red, Green and Blue values of the color (see gui-colors) and the highlighting is only defined for gVim. When color is a name, this color is defined both for Vim running in a color terminal and for gVim. When both "fg" and "bg" are "none" no line highlighting is used (new in version 2.1). When "glyphFile" is empty, no text sign is used (new in version 2.1). When "glyphFile" is one or two characters long, a text sign is defined (new in version 2.1). Note: the annotations will be defined in sequence, and the sequence number is later used with addAnno. editFile pathname Set the name for the buffer and edit the file "pathname", a string argument. Normal way for the IDE to tell the editor to edit a file. You must set a bufId different of 0 with this command to assign a bufId to the buffer. It will trigger an event fileOpened with a bufId of 0 but the buffer has been assigned. If the IDE is going to pass the file text to the editor use these commands instead: setFullName insert initDone New in version 2.1. enableBalloonEval Not implemented. endAtomic End an atomic operation. The changes between "startAtomic" and "endAtomic" can be undone as one operation. But it's not implemented yet. Redraw when necessary. guard off len Mark an area in the buffer as guarded. This means it cannot be edited. "off" and "len" are numbers and specify the text to be guarded. initDone Mark the buffer as ready for use. Implicitly makes the buffer the current buffer. Fires the BufReadPost autocommand event. insertDone starteol readonly Sent by Vim Controller to tell Vim an initial file insert is done. This triggers a read message being printed. If "starteol" is "F" then the last line doesn't have a EOL. If "readonly" is "T" then the file is marked as readonly. Prior to version 2.3, no read messages were displayed after opening a file. New in version 2.3. moveAnnoToFront serNum Not implemented. netbeansBuffer isNetbeansBuffer If "isNetbeansBuffer" is "T" then this buffer is "owned" by NetBeans. New in version 2.2. putBufferNumber pathname Associate a buffer number with the Vim buffer by the name "pathname", a string argument. To be used when the editor reported editing another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to tell the editor what buffer number it will use for this file. Also marks the buffer as initialized. New in version 2.1. raise Bring the editor to the foreground. Only when Vim is run with a GUI. New in version 2.1. removeAnno serNum Remove a previously placed annotation for this buffer. "serNum" is the same number used in addAnno. save Save the buffer when it was modified. The other side of the interface is expected to write the buffer and invoke "setModified" to reset the "changed" flag of the buffer. The writing is skipped when one of these conditions is true: - 'write' is not set - the buffer is read-only - the buffer does not have a file name - 'buftype' disallows writing New in version 2.2. saveDone Sent by Vim Controller to tell Vim a save is done. This triggers a save message being printed. Prior to version 2.3, no save messages were displayed after a save. New in version 2.3. setAsUser Not implemented. setBufferNumber pathname Associate a buffer number with Vim buffer by the name "pathname". To be used when the editor reported editing another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to tell the editor what buffer number it will use for this file. Has the side effect of making the buffer the current buffer. See "putBufferNumber" for a more useful command. setContentType Not implemented. setDot off Make the buffer the current buffer and set the cursor at the specified position. If the buffer is open in another window than make that window the current window. If there are folds they are opened to make the cursor line visible. In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off". setExitDelay seconds Set the delay for exiting to "seconds", a number. This delay is used to give the IDE a chance to handle things before really exiting. The default delay is two seconds. New in version 2.1. Obsolete in version 2.3. setFullName pathname Set the file name to be used for a buffer to "pathname", a string argument. Used when the IDE wants to edit a file under control of the IDE. This makes the buffer the current buffer, but does not read the file. "insert" commands will be used next to set the contents. setLocAndSize Not implemented. setMark Not implemented. setModified modified When the boolean argument "modified" is "T" mark the buffer as modified, when it is "F" mark it as unmodified. setModtime time Update a buffers modification time after the file has been saved directly by the Vim Controller. New in version 2.3. setReadOnly readonly When the boolean argument "readonly" is "T" for True, mark the buffer as readonly, when it is "F" for False, mark it as not readonly. Implemented in version 2.3. setStyle Not implemented. setTitle name Set the title for the buffer to "name", a string argument. The title is only used for the Vim Controller functions, not by Vim. setVisible visible When the boolean argument "visible" is "T", goto the buffer. The "F" argument does nothing. showBalloon text Show a balloon (popup window) at the mouse pointer position, containing "text", a string argument. The balloon should disappear when the mouse is moved more than a few pixels. Only when Vim is run with a GUI. New in version 2.1. specialKeys Map a set of keys (mostly function keys) to be passed back to the Vim Controller for processing. This lets regular IDE hotkeys be used from Vim. Implemented in version 2.3. startAtomic Begin an atomic operation. The screen will not be updated until "endAtomic" is given. startCaretListen Not implemented. startDocumentListen Mark the buffer to report changes to the IDE with the "insert" and "remove" events. The default is to report changes. stopCaretListen Not implemented. stopDocumentListen Mark the buffer to stop reporting changes to the IDE. Opposite of startDocumentListen. NOTE: if "netbeansBuffer" was used to mark this buffer as a NetBeans buffer, then the buffer is deleted in Vim. This is for compatibility with Sun Studio 10. unguard off len Opposite of "guard", remove guarding for a text area. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. version Not implemented. 6.4 Functions and Replies nb-functions getDot Not implemented. getCursor Return the current buffer and cursor position. The reply is: seqno bufID lnum col off seqno = sequence number of the function bufID = buffer ID of the current buffer (if this is unknown -1 is used) lnum = line number of the cursor (first line is one) col = column number of the cursor (in bytes, zero based) off = offset of the cursor in the buffer (in bytes) New in version 2.1. getLength Return the length of the buffer in bytes. Reply example for a buffer with 5000 bytes: 123 5000 TODO: explain use of partial line. getMark Not implemented. getAnno serNum Return the line number of the annotation in the buffer. Argument: serNum serial number of this placed annotation The reply is: 123 lnum line number of the annotation 123 0 invalid annotation serial number New in version 2.4. getModified When a buffer is specified: Return zero if the buffer does not have changes, one if it does have changes. When no buffer is specified (buffer number zero): Return the number of buffers with changes. When the result is zero it's safe to tell Vim to exit. New in version 2.1. getText Return the contents of the buffer as a string. Reply example for a buffer with two lines 123 "first line\nsecond line\n" NOTE: docs indicate an offset and length argument, but this is not implemented. insert off text Insert "text" before position "off". "text" is a string argument, "off" a number. "text" should have a "\n" (newline) at the end of each line. Or "\r\n" when 'fileformat' is "dos". When using "insert" in an empty buffer Vim will set 'fileformat' accordingly. When "off" points to the start of a line the text is inserted above this line. Thus when "off" is zero lines are inserted before the first line. When "off" points after the start of a line, possibly on the NUL at the end of a line, the first line of text is appended to this line. Further lines come below it. Possible replies: 123 no problem 123 !message failed Note that the message in the reply is not quoted. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. Does not move the cursor to the changed text. Resets undo information. remove off length Delete "length" bytes of text at position "off". Both arguments are numbers. Possible replies: 123 no problem 123 !message failed Note that the message in the reply is not quoted. Also sets the current buffer, if necessary. saveAndExit Perform the equivalent of closing Vim: ":confirm qall". If there are no changed files or the user does not cancel the operation Vim exits and no result is sent back. The IDE can consider closing the connection as a successful result. If the user cancels the operation the number of modified buffers that remains is returned and Vim does not exit. New in version 2.1. 6.5 Events nb-events balloonEval off len type The mouse pointer rests on text for a short while. When "len" is zero, there is no selection and the pointer is at position "off". When "len" is non-zero the text from position "off" to "off" + "len" is selected. Only sent after "enableBalloonEval" was used for this buffer. "type" is not yet defined. Not implemented yet. balloonText text Used when 'ballooneval' is set and the mouse pointer rests on some text for a moment. "text" is a string, the text under the mouse pointer. Only when Vim is run with a GUI. New in version 2.1. buttonRelease button lnum col Report which button was pressed and the location of the cursor at the time of the release. Only for buffers that are owned by the Vim Controller. This event is not sent if the button was released while the mouse was in the status line or in a separator line. If col is less than 1 the button release was in the sign area. New in version 2.2. disconnect Tell the Vim Controller that Vim is exiting and not to try and read or write more commands. New in version 2.3. fileClosed Not implemented. fileModified Not implemented. fileOpened pathname open modified A file was opened by the user. Arguments: pathname string name of the file open boolean always "T" modified boolean always "F" geometry cols rows x y Report the size and position of the editor window. Arguments: cols number number of text columns rows number number of text rows x number pixel position on screen y number pixel position on screen Only works for Motif. insert off text Text "text" has been inserted in Vim at position "off". Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". invokeAction Not implemented. keyCommand keyName Reports a special key being pressed with name "keyName", which is a string. Supported key names: F1 function key 1 F2 function key 2 ... F12 function key 12 ' ' space (without the quotes) ! exclamation mark ... any other ASCII printable character ~ tilde X any unrecognized key The key may be prepended by "C", "S" and/or "M" for Control, Shift and Meta (Alt) modifiers. If there is a modifier a dash is used to separate it from the key name. For example: "C-F2". ASCII characters are new in version 2.1. keyAtPos keyName lnum/col Like "keyCommand" and also report the line number and column of the cursor. New in version 2.1. killed A file was deleted or wiped out by the user and the buffer annotations have been removed. The bufID number for this buffer has become invalid. Only for files that have been assigned a bufID number by the IDE. newDotAndMark off off Reports the position of the cursor being at "off" bytes into the buffer. Only sent just before a "keyCommand" event. quit Not implemented. remove off len Text was deleted in Vim at position "off" with byte length "len". Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". revert Not implemented. save The buffer has been saved and is now unmodified. Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". startupDone The editor has finished its startup work and is ready for editing files. New in version 2.1. unmodified The buffer is now unmodified. Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen". version vers Report the version of the interface implementation. Vim reports "2.4" (including the quotes). 6.6 Special messages nb-special These messages do not follow the style of the messages above. They are terminated by a newline character. ACCEPT Not used. AUTH password editor -> IDE: First message that the editor sends to the IDE. Must contain the password for the socket server, as specified with the -nb argument. No quotes are used! DISCONNECT IDE -> editor: break the connection. The editor will exit. The IDE must only send this message when there are no unsaved changes! DETACH IDE -> editor: break the connection without exiting the editor. Used when the IDE exits without bringing down the editor as well. New in version 2.1. REJECT Not used. 6.7 Protocol errors nb-protocol_errors These errors occur when a message violates the protocol: E627 E628 E629 E632 E633 E634 E635 E636 E637 E638 E639 E640 E641 E642 E643 E644 E645 E646 E647 E648 E650 E651 E652 ============================================================================== 7. NetBeans commands netbeans-commands :nbstart E511 E838 :nbs[tart] {connection} Start a new Netbeans session with {connection} as the socket connection parameters. The format of {connection} is described in netbeans-parameters. At any time, one may check if the netbeans socket is connected by running the command: ':echo has("netbeans_enabled")' :nbclose :nbc[lose] Close the current NetBeans session. Remove all placed signs. :nbkey :nb[key] {key} Pass the {key} to the Vim Controller for processing. When a hot-key has been installed with the specialKeys command, this command can be used to generate a hotkey message to the Vim Controller. This command can also be used to pass any text to the Vim Controller. It is used by Pyclewn, for example, to build the complete set of gdb commands as Vim user commands. The events newDotAndMark, keyCommand and keyAtPos are generated (in this order). ============================================================================== 8. Known problems netbeans-problems NUL bytes are not possible. For editor -> IDE they will appear as NL characters. For IDE -> editor they cannot be inserted. A NetBeans session may be initiated with Vim running in a terminal, and continued later in a GUI environment after running the :gui command. In this case, the highlighting defined for the NetBeans annotations may be cleared when the ":gui" command sources .gvimrc and this file loads a colorscheme that runs the command ":highlight clear". New in version 2.5. ============================================================================== 9. Debugging NetBeans protocol netbeans-debugging To debug the Vim protocol, you must first compile Vim with debugging support and NetBeans debugging support. See netbeans-configure for instructions about Vim compiling and how to enable debug support. When running Vim, set the following environment variables: export SPRO_GVIM_DEBUG=netbeans.log export SPRO_GVIM_DLEVEL=0xffffffff Vim will then log all the incoming and outgoing messages of the NetBeans protocol to the file netbeans.log . The content of netbeans.log after a session looks like this: Tue May 20 17:19:27 2008 EVT: 0:startupDone=0 CMD 1: (1) create CMD 2: (1) setTitle "testfile1.txt" CMD 3: (1) setFullName "testfile1.txt" EVT(suppressed): 1:remove=3 0 -1 EVT: 1:fileOpened=0 "d:\\work\\vimWrapper\\vimWrapper2\\pyvimwrapper\\tests\\testfile1.txt" T F CMD 4: (1) initDone FUN 5: (0) getCursor REP 5: 1 1 0 0 CMD 6: (2) create CMD 7: (2) setTitle "testfile2.txt" CMD 8: (2) setFullName "testfile2.txt" EVT(suppressed): 2:remove=8 0 -1 EVT: 2:fileOpened=0 "d:\\work\\vimWrapper\\vimWrapper2\\pyvimwrapper\\tests\\testfile2.txt" T F CMD 9: (2) initDone ============================================================================== 10. NetBeans External Editor NOTE: This information is obsolete! Only relevant if you are using an old version of NetBeans. 10.1. Downloading NetBeans netbeans-download The NetBeans IDE is available for download from netbeans.org. You can download a released version, download sources, or use CVS to download the current source tree. If you choose to download sources, follow directions from netbeans.org on building NetBeans. Depending on the version of NetBeans you download, you may need to do further work to get the required External Editor module. This is the module which lets NetBeans work with gvim (or xemacs :-). See http://externaleditor.netbeans.org for details on downloading this module if your NetBeans release does not have it. For C, C++, and Fortran support you will also need the cpp module. See http://cpp.netbeans.org (link seems dead) for information regarding this module. You can also download Sun ONE Studio from Sun Microsystems, Inc for a 30 day free trial. See http://www.sun.com for further details. 10.2. NetBeans Key Bindings netbeans-keybindings Vim understands a number of key bindings that execute NetBeans commands. These are typically all the Function key combinations. To execute a NetBeans command, the user must press the Pause key followed by a NetBeans key binding. For example, in order to compile a Java file, the NetBeans key binding is "F9". So, while in vim, press "Pause F9" to compile a java file. To toggle a breakpoint at the current line, press "Pause Shift F8". The Pause key is Function key 21. If you don't have a working Pause key and want to use F8 instead, use: :map <F8> <F21> The External Editor module dynamically reads the NetBeans key bindings so vim should always have the latest key bindings, even when NetBeans changes them. 10.3. Preparing NetBeans for Vim netbeans-preparation In order for NetBeans to work with vim, the NetBeans External Editor module must be loaded and enabled. If you have a Sun ONE Studio Enterprise Edition then this module should be loaded and enabled. If you have a NetBeans release you may need to find another way of obtaining this open source module. You can check if you have this module by opening the Tools->Options dialog and drilling down to the "Modules" list (IDE Configuration->System->Modules). If your Modules list has an entry for "External Editor" you must make sure it is enabled (the "Enabled" property should have the value "True"). If your Modules list has no External Editor see the next section on obtaining-exted. 10.4. Obtaining the External Editor Module obtaining-exted There are 2 ways of obtaining the External Editor module. The easiest way is to use the NetBeans Update Center to download and install the module. Unfortunately, some versions do not have this module in their update center. If you cannot download via the update center you will need to download sources and build the module. I will try and get the module available from the NetBeans Update Center so building will be unnecessary. Also check http://externaleditor.netbeans.org for other availability options. To download the External Editor sources via CVS and build your own module, see http://externaleditor.netbeans.org and http://www.netbeans.org. Unfortunately, this is not a trivial procedure. 10.5. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim netbeans-setup Assuming you have loaded and enabled the NetBeans External Editor module as described in netbeans-preparation all you need to do is verify that the gvim command line is properly configured for your environment. Open the Tools->Options dialog and open the Editing category. Select the External Editor. The right hand pane should contain a Properties tab and an Expert tab. In the Properties tab make sure the "Editor Type" is set to "Vim". In the Expert tab make sure the "Vim Command" is correct. You should be careful if you change the "Vim Command". There are command line options there which must be there for the connection to be properly set up. You can change the command name but that's about it. If your gvim can be found by your $PATH then the Vim Command can start with "gvim". If you don't want gvim searched from your $PATH then hard code in the full Unix path name. At this point you should get a gvim for any source file you open in NetBeans. If some files come up in gvim and others (with different file suffixes) come up in the default NetBeans editor you should verify the MIME type in the Expert tab MIME Type property. NetBeans is MIME oriented and the External Editor will only open MIME types specified in this property. vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: