CoVim – Collaborative Editing for Vim | Hacker News Reader

CoVim – Collaborative Editing for Vim

github.com

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You might also want to check out Floobits which has collaborative editing for vim and neovim:

https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-vim

https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-neovim

https://floobits.com/help/plugins/nvim

Looks cool. Just a note, this is not free.

It's the same model as GitHub. It costs money for private repos. So it is free if that's what you want.

I think this isn't being currently worked on, although the author notes that NeoVim (and, lately, Vim 8) may have the tooling to allow it to less difficult to develop. https://github.com/FredKSchott/CoVim/issues/86

Why not use tmux/tmate?

You can share any terminal that way then, with anyone's weird setup, vim or not.

Can tmux give each user their own cursor? That's an essential feature for realtime collaborative editing.

Maybe I'm thinking too much in the context of pair programming. When I share a workstation with a person there's one cursor there, but perhaps this is a different goal.

... I forget people use vim to do anything but programming?

when pair programming in person you can trivially point to a bit of code with your hand, if you just share a tmux session (or screenshare via Skype/hangouts) you can't do that and it becomes a bit awkward. Multiple cursors allow you to do this ("<hover> this bit of code" vs "the second condition on line 60, around column 40?" more naturally.

Switching control ("we can do it this way, let me show you") also has less friction with collaborative editing tools compared to classic in person pair programming (no need to shuttle a keyboard/chair back and forth).

When I started using Screenhero which allows screen sharing with multiple cursors it was incredible how effective it felt.

I use it for LaTeX I guess.

Also markdown.

I can see how it would work really well for authors to an extent

We often use this - over vagrant --share. It works well. You don't get two cursors - so only one driver - but that is fine in most cases.

Not on its own, but I've used https://github.com/zolrath/wemux on top of tmux in the past to get that and it's worked well.

Where is the dual cursor option for wemux?

I haven't been able to find it or emulate it. It would be great but each user is sharing the same instance of Vim and sharing their shell (well, in Pairing mode, at least).

Maybe if multiplexing in Rouge Mode it works?

I was just thinking of its rogue mode. I remember each person having their own cursor and being able to work independently in the same session with it.

Multiple cursors! Cool! That beats screen -x

Interesting, but how practical is it in real use? The other person scrolling up down, or jumping to the top/bottom, etc. Guess you would have to turn on line numbering to provide more context.

Split windows into the same buffer would remove issues with the other person screwing up positioning. You'd each work in your own independent window (though you can synch them if desired). I didn't check to see if this is how it works,though. . . .

well, tmate over tmux has been working pretty well for me and honestly never felt I need multiple cursors. but anyway, it is just the way how i pair with my fellows.

Why not just use screen -x?

Ah- you bet me to it! ;)

I came here to ask that!

Because it like tmux doesn't support multiple cursors.

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