CtrlP > Command-T
For years I’ve been using Command-T vim plugin as my quick file finder plugin. TextMate introduced us to the incredible productivity boosting ⌘-T key combination that brings up a dialog to quickly switch to any file in your project using fuzzy search. So back in 2010 when switching from TextMate to VIM was on of my new years resolutions, the first plugin I looked for was one that implemented this functionality. Back then Command-T and FuzzyFinder were the only options. I settled on Command-T and have been using it for the last couple years. The few times that Command-T got updated I almost always ran into issues building the Ruby dependencies if I forgot to target the right Ruby instance with RVM during the upgrade. The occasional OS X upgrade also broke the plugin as I settled on building against the system Ruby. All in all very minor issues for such an awesome tool.
This all changed when bringing VIM up on an environment where a Ruby enabled VIM does not exist: Termux on a Intel m3 Chromebook with ARC (subject of another post). That left me with two options:
- YAK shaving my way to a working Ruby VIM binary on Termux
- Look for a Command-T alternative
Easy choice, a quick google search later and I found CtrlP.
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Since CtrlP is written in straight Vim script there are no external dependencies to deal with. My only worry would be its speed. Why else would Command-T require wrapping some high performance C code in Ruby to expose it to VIM, right? Luckily the speed of CtrlP is very good. In fact, I don’t even notice the difference between the two. So, replacing:
map \ :CommandT<CR>with:
map \ :CtrlP<CR>in my base .vimrc and boom, fuzzy file finding on Termux!
..and one new years resolution down (“Post a story on Medium”)
