vim-outline

A simple outline sketcher for Vim.

Introduction

Vim-outline parse your current buffer and slam an outline in a side-window. That's all!

The outline is far from being perfect, but it gives you a good idea of how your code is structured and it allows you to jump from one place to another. It is perhaps the plugin that I use more!

At the moment the supported language are python, vim9script, tex and markdown. For non supported languages, you will be entertained with some famous quotes every time you attempt to trigger the outline window.

Nevertheless, if you really don't like the quotes, and you are good with regex and you want to add support for another language you are welcome to send PR:s! Take a look at:h OutlineAddNewLanguages for more details.

Installation

Use any plugin manager or the builtin Vim plugin manager.

Requirements

Vim-outline is written in Vim9script, therefore you need at least Vim 9.0. That is pretty much all. No ctags, nor LSP servers required.

Usage

Commands

:OutlineToggle open/close a side-window that shows an outline of your current buffer.

:OutlineJump jump on the outline window. Such a command is handy when you have different windows open in the same tab and you want to jump directly to the outline window with one key-press.

:OutlineRefresh update outline & locate yourself.

Mappings

# Default mappings
nmap <silent> <F8> <Plug>OutlineToggle
nmap <silent> <leader>l <Plug>OutlineRefresh
nmap <silent> <leader>o <Plug>OutlineGoToOutline

Feel free to change them at your convenience.

Configuration

You only have few tweaking variables:

g:outline_buf_name = "Outline!"
g:outline_win_size = &columns / 4
g:outline_enable_highlight = true

See :h OutlineConfiguration for more info.

Create arbitrary outlines

What about slamming :global results in the Outline window such that when you hit enter on an Outline line you jump to the corresponding line in the buffer?

You can do that with a little hack, as explained next. We assume that you want to do this game for cpp filetypes.

Step 1

Create a cpp.vim file in ./ftplugin with the following content

vim9script

def FilterOutline(outline: list<string>): list<string>
    return outline ->filter("v:val =~ "
    \ .. string(join(g:outline_pattern_to_include["cpp"], '|')))
enddef

b:FilterOutline = FilterOutline

Step 2

Add the following lines to your .vimrc

    extend(g:outline_include_before_exclude, {cpp: true})
    extend(g:outline_pattern_to_include, {cpp: ['<KEEP-ME!>']})

Step 3

Comment each line that you want to keep in the outline with // <KEEP-ME!>.

At this point, call :OutlineToggle (or hit if you are using the default mapping) and see what happens. Jumps and localization functions should work automatically.

Help

:h outline.txt

Contributing

Contributions are more than welcome! See :h OutlineContributing for more info.

License

BSD3-Clause.