Zeavim starts Zeal in foreground

[lervag]

Hi. I'm curious if I am misunderstanding something: When I start Zeal through zeavim, the Zeal window is blocking Vim. Is that by intention?

I'm on Vim 8.0.427 on Arch Linux. This behaviour happens with both vim and gvim. I use the following settings:

let g:zv_disable_mapping = 1
let g:zv_zeal_args = '--style=gtk+'
let g:zv_file_types = {
    \ 'help' : 'vim',
    \ 'python' : 'python 3',
    \ }

nmap gzz <plug>Zeavim
xmap gzz <plug>ZVVisSelection
nmap gz <plug>ZVMotion

I would expect that the Zeal window opens as a background process, such that I could read the docs while editing the file. The current behaviour requires me to close the Zeal window before I continue editing the file.

[KabbAmine]

No this is not expected, vim should not be blocked.
Zeal is executed in the background and have or not the focus depending of g:zv_keep_focus's value (see #17).

There is the command used in the plugin, try it directly and see what happen:

" Linux
:silent exe "!zeal --style=gtk+ foo:bar 2> /dev/null &" | redraw!
" Windows
:silent exe "!start path/to/zeal.exe foo:bar &" | redraw!

[lervag]

Ah, if I disable the g:zv_keep_focus, things work as expected.

IMHO, I think it is better to separate the focus command from the zeal command. That is, I think you should have two execute commands, one that only opens the zeal window, and one that runs the focus command. Something like this:

let l:cmd = printf('!%s%s %s %s %s &',
      \ (has('unix') ? '' : 'start '),
      \ g:zv_zeal_executable,
      \ g:zv_zeal_args,
      \ shellescape(l:docset . l:query),
      \ (has('unix') ? '2> /dev/null' : '')
      \ )
silent execute l:cmd

if g:zv_keep_focus
      \ && has('unix')
      \ && executable('wmctrl')
      \ && v:windowid !=# 0
  silent execute 'wmctrl -ia' v:windowid
endif

I would also claim that the following is more readable:

silent execute '!'
      \ . (has('unix') ? '' : 'start ')
      \ . g:zv_zeal_executable
      \ . ' ' . g:zv_zeal_args
      \ . ' ' . shellescape(l:docset . l:query)
      \ . (has('unix') ? ' 2> /dev/null' : '')
      \ . ' &'

Although clearly this is a subjective matter. :)

[KabbAmine]

Ah, if I disable the g:zv_keep_focus, things work as expected.

Strange, this one is applied only when wmctrl is installed and do not block vim either (I should add it to the documentation).

I think it is better to separate the focus command from the zeal command.

Good idea, I'll do it later when having time ⌚

I would also claim that the following is more readable:...

Nah 👅 I prefer the good old printf format, it makes clear how much elements and spaces we have in our string.

[lervag]

I have wmctrl installed, so it should work. For some reason, it does not. But no worries, I don't mind having it disabled, and now it works.

So far I like your plugin, good work! I would prefer a similar plugin that worked without external guis, but that is only a minor drawback. Zeal seems to work pretty well.

[KabbAmine]

Have you tried dasht? It uses the same docsets as dash/zeal but can render them in a terminal.

[lervag]

Yes, and vim-dasht, but I couldn't get it working quite as I wanted. I might look more into it later, though, thanks!