Re: Not necessarily a "question" - but need help nonetheless

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 2:25 AM, Chris Jones <cjns1989@gmail.com> wrote:

Just a quick update to mention that I installed NERDTree, and as I
suspected, when restoring a previous session, it comes up with an empty
side bar.

...
As an aside, this is a great plugin, bu I noted that on my hardware
running terminal Vim, loading large directories is very slow, to the
point that I probably will not use it. The problem here is usability
rather than the actual measured slowness, since it is not _that_ slow.
But because everything else in terminal Vim is so very fast, I found
that it was kind of breaking my rhythm to the point that on a couple of
occasions I lost my train of thought.

You bring up a great point - which is the root of where I'm having difficulty - work flow.  the NERDTree plugin is great for me because it's a quick and easy way to browse my file system and open files.  There's a couple of "limitations" that I'm sure I could figure out but that's not the point.  I don't think I need to be more proficient at using that particular plugin - I need to figure out a faster workflow using vim! :)

So - is there a better way to deal with managing a folder full of files?

For example, I use CodeIgniter PHP framework.  I regularly switch between files in different directories:
system
  application
    controllers
    views
    models
public
  css
  js

the NERDTree gives me a nice way to navigate the folder structure.  You said it yourself, though--- it's just slow enough that it broke your train of thought - maybe I'm just missing a key feature of vim?
My workflow:
editing system/application/controllers/home.php
"i need to add a login screen"
create system/application/views/login.php and add the necessary code
"I need access to the database"
create system/application/models/user.php and add code
"I need to open the form validation config file"
open system/application/config/form_validation.php
etc...

In a previous life full of graphical IDEs and heavy mouse usage, I would just double-click on the file(s) and start editing.  The "vim way" - at least for now - is a lot slower for me to move around.

Back to the question, then... is there a better/faster way for me to move around and open files in the various directories without having to type :e ~/public_html/project_folder/system/application/controllers/home.php when I need to open a file?

Thanks,
Jon

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