uwo-ua / guile-repl.nvim

The GNU Guile REPL for Nvim

Guile-REPL.nvim - The GNU Guile REPL for Nvim

Warning

This plugin is deprecated in favour of REPL.nvim, which does everything Guile-REPL.nvim does, but in a more general way, and it supports any programming language. This project should be considered abandoned.

Guile-REPL.nvim wraps around Nvim's built-in terminal emulator to create a REPL buffer for GNU Guile. While not as perfect as a native REPL buffer, it is functional and gets the job done.

Getting started

Installation

You need a working copy of GNU Guile first. Install this plugin like you would any other Nvim plugin. You can set the Guile binary by setting the variable guile-repl['binary']. See the configuration section below for more information or read the documentation.

Starting a REPL

A new REPL window is created by running the :Guile command. You can use the same arguments you can also use with your Guile binary. Example:

" Add the current working directory to the load path
:Guile -l my-file.scm

" Evaluate an expression and exit (escape the space after 'display')
:Guile -c '(display\ "Hello from Guile")'

By default the working directory is added to the load path by passing the -L . argument to the binary. See below for how to set the default arguments. The :Guile command also accepts the usual modifiers like :vert:

" Open the REPL in a vertical split
:vert Guile -l my-file.scm

Configuration

REPL settings

All REPL configuration is held within the g:guile_repl dictionary. You can read the documentation for details; here is what the default configuration looks like:

let g:guile_repl = {'binary': 'guile', 'args': ['-L', '.'], 'syntax': 'scheme'}

To override the defaults create a new g:guile_repl in your init.vim file containing only options you want to change. Guile-REPL.nvim is smart enough to fill in the rest.

" Turn off syntax highlighting only
let g:guile_repl = {'syntax': ''}

After Nvim has loaded you can the dictionary entries. If you wanted to turn syntax highlighting back on after starting up Nvim you would execute

" Globally turn syntax highlighting back on
:let g:guile_repl['syntax'] = 'scheme'

You can also specify settings local to the current tab/window/buffer by using a local dictionary:

" Turn off syntax highlighting for this tab only
let t:guile_repl = {'syntax': ''}

Local dictionaries can be created at any time.

Key mappings

A new operator is available for sending text from the current buffer to the REPL. You will have to remap the keys for the new operator:

" Send the text of a motion to the REPL
nmap <leader>rs  <Plug>(GuileReplSend)
" Send the current line to the REPL
nmap <leader>rss <Plug>(GuileReplSendLine)
nmap <leader>rs_ <Plug>(GuileReplSendLine)
" Send the selected text to the REPL
vmap <leader>rs  <Plug>(GuileReplSend)

With these mappings you could position your cursor inside an s-expression, press <leader>rsa) and your expression would be sent over to the REPL with its parentheses.

Shortcomings

Since Guile-REPL.nvim is implemented on top of Nvim's terminal emulator it is also bound to the same interface. You cannot use Vim's commands to edit text, you instead have to enter terminal mode (insert mode for the terminal) to modify text.

Syntax highlighting uses Vim's Scheme highlighting, but this might not always be adequate. Highlighting the prompt or the backtrace as if it was regular Scheme code is wrong.

License

Guile-REPL.nvim is release under the terms of the MIT license. See the LICENSE.rst file for details.