Blogs » Use Vim as a Nim IDE

This is a general guide for using SpaceVim as a Nim IDE, including layer configuration and usage. Each of the following sections will be covered:

• Enable language layer
• code completion
• alternate file jumping
• code running
• REPL support
• code format
• Tasks manage

Enable language layer

lang#nim layer provides nim language specific features for SpaceVim. This layer is not enabled by default. To write nim language, you need to enable the lang#nim layer. Press SPC f v d to open SpaceVim configuration file, and add following configuration:

[[layers]]
  name = 'lang#nim'

for more info, you can read the lang#nim layer documentation.

code completion

By default the autocomplete layer has been enabled, so after loading lang#nim layer, the code completion for nim language should work well.

alternate file jumping

To manage the alternate file for a project, you may need to create a .project_alt.json file in the root of your project.

for example, add following content into the .project_alt.json file:

{
  "src/*.nim": {"alternate": "test/{}.nim"},
  "test/*.nim": {"alternate": "src/{}.nim"}
}

with this configuration, you can jump between the source code and test file via command :A

code running

The key binding for running current file is SPC l r , it will run nim c -r current_file asynchronously. And the stdout will be shown on a runner buffer.

REPL support

The REPL support is based on inim, you can download inim via nimble install inim

Start a inim inferior REPL process with SPC l s i. After REPL process started, you can send code to inim process via key bindings:

code format

The code formation feature is provided by format layer, and this layer is enabled by default. The default format engine is neoformat, it will run nimpretty asynchronously on current file.

Tasks manage

SpaceVim will detect nimble project tasks automatically. If there is *.nimble file in the root directory of your project. The following nimble tesks will be detected automatically.

To select a tast to run, use key binding SPC p t r, you can also use SPC p t l to list all the tasks in the tasks manager window.