Column Tags - Follow your tags in column-view

Overview

This plugin aims to help you navigate through you code using tags. Vim already has good support for this. Having generated a tags file in your current working directory, if you move your cursor over a keyword while in command mode and press CTRL-], you will navigate to the definition of the keyword within your project and pressing CTRL-t will take you back to where you came from.

Using this plugin, the experience is very similar, but you can take advantage of Vim's support for multiple windows and a wide screen to maintain an overview of both the part of the code you navigated from and the part of the code that hosts the definition of you keyword. The final experience is reminiscent of the column-view of Mac's file manager program, Finder.

To get started, you must create a tags file in the base folder of you project. Most developmnent environments come with ctags installed, so simply run:

cd <path-to-project>
ctags -R .

While using the plugin, you will have up to 3 windows displayed as columns.

With CTRL-], you can follow the tag under the cursor in a new vertical split. If the number of existing columns is g:columntags_max_columns and the rightmost column is focused, the view will be shifted to the left before doing the vertical split. If you follow a tag from a column that is not rightmost, the new column will replace those that are to the right of the one that was in focus. The goal is to be able to view both the part of the code that executes a function or class and its definition at the same time.

With CTRL-t, you can go back to where you were before following a tag. If the column under focus is not the leftmost, this simply means focusing on the column to the left. If the leftmost column was focused, the windows that got hidden by following tags and moving towards the right will start being revealed.

Installation

Just paste the package's contents into into your .vim directory.

Installing with Pathogen

1. cd ~/.vim/bundle
2. git clone git://github.com/kbairak/ColumnTags.vim.git

Usage

• Press CTRL-] to follow a tag and open it in a column right of the one you are focused on
• Press CTRL-t to go back to where you came from before following a tag. If you are not on the leftmost column, this will simpley focus the column to the left. If you are on the leftmost column, this wil shift all columns to the right and reveal the file you navigated to the leftmost column from
• Press CTRL-, to shift all columns to the right and reveal the file you navigated to the leftmost column from

Customization

You can customize the maximum number of columns visible by putting this in your .vimrc (default is 3):

let g:columntags_max_columns = 4