TimL is a Lisp dialect implemented in and compiling down to VimL, the scripting language provided by the Vim text editor. Think Clojure meets VimL.
If you mean the 6,000 lines of working code, then no, I poured hundreds upon hundreds of very serious hours into that. But if you're referring to the fact it's woefully underdocumented, adds considerable overhead to an already slow host platform, and ultimately unlikely to gain any traction, then yeah, probably.
- Clojure like syntax and API, including everything from rich syntax literals to destructuring.
- Namespaces, including
refer
andalias
. timl.core
, a tiny but growing API resemblingclojure.core
.- The same persistent collection types and interfaces, including vectors, hash maps, hash sets, lists, and lazy sequences.
- Macros, including syntax quoting and the implicit
&form
and&env
. - Metadata. (Some collection types don't support it yet.)
- Reference types, including vars, atoms, futures.
- Extensible type system, including
defmethod
for duck typing. (This is the most significant departure from Clojure.) - Caching compiler generates real VimL.
- TimL functions are actually VimL dictionaries (objects) containing a dictionary function (method) and a reference to the enclosing scope.
- Defining a symbol
baz
in namespacefoo.bar
actually definesg:foo#bar.baz
. If that symbol refers to something callable (like a function), callingfoo#bar#baz()
on the VimL side will invoke it. - Arbitrary Vim variables and options can be referred to using VimL notation:
b:did_ftplugin
,v:version
,&expandtab
. You can also change them withset!
:(set! &filetype "timl")
. #*function
returns a reference to a built-in or user defined function. You can call it like any other function:(#*toupper "TimL is pretty neat")
.- Interact with VimL exceptions with
throw
/try
/catch
/finally
. - Call a Vim command with
execute
:(execute "wq")
. - Lisp macros are a wonderful way to encapsulate and hide a lot of the pain points of VimL. The current standard library barely scratches the surface here.
If you don't have a preferred installation method, I recommend installing pathogen.vim, and then simply copy and paste:
cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone git:https://github.com/tpope/timl.git
Once help tags have been generated, you can view the manual with :help timl
.
There's not a whole lot there, yet. If you know Clojure, you can probably
guess a bunch of the function names.
Start a repl with :TLrepl
. Tab complete is your friend. The first time may
take several seconds (if your computer is a piece of shit), but compilation is
cached, so subsequent invocations will be super quick, even if Vim is
restarted.
The familiar ns
macro from Clojure is mostly identical in TimL.
:refer-clojure
is now :refer-timl
, which is identical to
(refer 'timl.core opts)
. :use
only supports symbol arguments.
(ns my.ns
(:refer-timl :exclude [+])
(:use timl.repl)
(:require [timl.file :as file]
[timl.test]))
You can use Clojure's in-ns
, require
, refer
, alias
, and use
,
however use
and require
are limited to a single argument.
(in-ns 'my.ns)
(use 'timl.repl)
(require 'timl.file)
(alias 'file 'timl.file)
Put files in autoload/*.tim
in the runtime path and they will be requirable.
Copyright © Tim Pope.
The use and distribution terms for this software are covered by the Eclipse Public License 1.0, which can be found in the file epl-v10.html at the root of this distribution.
By using this software in any fashion, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this license. You must not remove this notice, or any other, from this software.