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A Better Vim Plugin Site

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Posted by Benjamin Hoffstein

Vim is a popular text editor with a very large community and thousands of available plugins.  Unfortunately, the central clearinghouse for these plugins -- http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php -- is extremely basic and lacks many useful features such as user reviews, searchable metadata, social features, etc.

The users of Vim can benefit greatly from a community website more akin to Mozilla's add-on site for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/).  In particular, the following features of Mozilla's site would directly translate into a potential Vim plugin site:

  • "Reviews" section allows users to rate each plugin (on a 1 to 5 star scale) and add comments
  • "Categories" drop-down allows users to browse plugins in many different categories and see the most popular in each
  • Screenshots are provided for most plugins and hosted on Mozilla's site instead of having to be linked externally via <img> tabs
  • "Share This" button allows one-click posting to Facebook, Delicious, etc.
  • "Collections" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/) allow users to create custom bundles of plugins either for sharing or backing up their own configuration
  • "Advanced Search" allows users to search by keyword, type, version, last updated, etc.
  • "Source Code License" section allows plugin authors to specify a particular license for their contribution

Some additional features that would be nice but not essential:

  • "Browse source" function to allow users to see the source code before downloading
  • "Theme browser" to preview any color schemes on a simulated Vim screen before downloading
  • User-assigned tags to provide additional metadata for each plugin
  • More sophisticated statistics on how many times the plugin was downloaded on a particular day, within the past month, etc.

If implemented, this solution will help many thousands of Vim users find, download, and share useful plugins.  Also, since nearly all of the features listed are applicable to any sort of software plugin site, it could serve as an excellent framework above and beyond what is useful for Vim.

PLEDGES

ChallengePost does not guarantee pledges will be collectable. Successful solvers who identify pre-existing solutions will not receive cash, but their profiles will reflect their success and how many people they helped.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Will remain with whoever successfully solves the challenge.

Judging

Will be performed by Benjamin Hoffstein.

Solutions (1)

  • A new solution.
    No avatar
    Submitted by Chris Lawlor, Manassas, VA 5 months ago

Questions and Suggestions (4)

  • No avatar

    Is this challenge still active?

    Question regarding submitting plugins: Since the plugins seem to be short text files, is it OK if the plugin source is pasted into a text field? This takes less time to implement securely than handling file uploads.

    The plugins would still be available for download as .vim files.

    I'm also interested in knowing what the buy in from vim.org is.

    Question from Chris Lawlor 6 months, 2 weeks ago

    • avatar

      Yes, the challenge is still active. Thank you for your interest. A text field to paste plugin source sounds like a good idea, as long as the user could specify the name of the file (e.g. myplugin.vim). Having an upload button as well would be a good alternative for those who want to submit a plugin without copy/paste and file naming. As far as vim.org I have not reached out to them, but both you and Peter Harkins (below) have brought this up so I will do so. It's hard to imagine that they'd be averse to the endeavor, but it would require some effort if they agreed to transition plugin management to this site and/or migrate existing plugins. That being said, there's definitely a large advantage in having official buy-in and/or cooperation in migrating existing plugins to this site.

      Reply from Benjamin Hoffstein 6 months, 2 weeks ago

  • avatar

    I'm considering taking up this challenge and have two questions:

    1. What are the judging criteria? Is finishing the first set of bullet points enough? Must the site be hosted? When exactly is this project considered "done"?
    2. What is the buyin from vim.org? Have they expressed an interest in adopting a new scripts system, or would this be an independent and competing marketplace?

    In short, I guess, I don't see an explicit definition of success for this project. I understand (and share!) the need for a better script system, but I don't see the specific, measurable goals for a good project.

    Question from Peter Harkins 11 months, 3 weeks ago

    • avatar

      Thanks for the questions. The first set of bullet points are the essentials, so satisfying those requirements would quality as "done". There is no official buy-in from vim.org, but I will work on that separately. With regard to hosting, if vim.org is warm to the idea, I will ask them provide hosting. Otherwise, I will arrange for hosting through Rackspace, Heroku, or another provider (depending on the technology requirements) and cover the cost myself and/or through donations. Either way, it is not the responsibility of the submitter to provide hosting for this site.

      Reply from Benjamin Hoffstein 6 months, 2 weeks ago

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