`:NnnExplorer` bugs and additional features

[mcchrish]

• :NnnExplorer should toggle the nnn window instead of opening a new window. toggle explorer instead of opening a new one #138
• Each tab should only have one explorer window. toggle explorer instead of opening a new one #138
• Nice to have: option to have the same nnn buffer in all tabs.
• Nice to have: option to change window background when not in focus. Sometimes it's hard to tell where the focus is. Explorer design #135
• Set only bufhidden=wipe to buflisted to nnn picker buffer. Might be useful to still list the explorer buffer specially for navigation.

[luukvbaal]

:NnnExplorer should toggle the nnn window instead of opening a new window.

I think the same behavior should apply to :NnnPicker as well, it's what I did for nnn.nvim at least.

[N-R-K]

• Nice to have: option to have the same nnn buffer in all tabs.

I thought about it but not sure if that's possible. On NERDTree they just ask you to create a new buffer for each tab.
https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree#can-i-have-the-same-nerdtree-on-every-tab-automatically

All the other points seems reasonable.

Also I noticed that if multiple explorer window is opened, then only the last one's fifo is getting deleted/cleaned. So you can add that to the list of bugs.

[luukvbaal]

Nice to have: option to have the same nnn buffer in all tabs.

In nnn.nvim this was default, luukvbaal/nnn.nvim@d4f5763 adds the option.

[N-R-K]

One more bug would be this: #123 (comment) explorer apparently behaves badly with minibufexplorer plugin.

One other problem, in nnn.vim in general not just explorer mode, is this #123 (comment) , the plugin AutoComplPop can end up renaming files due to some autocmd.

@mcchrish how do you suggest we deal with these type of compatibility problems? Do we try to fix it on our end or just add it to the docs and expect users to add the fixes to their vimrc?

Since there's thousands of vim plugins, trying to fix these compatibility issues can easily bloat up the plugin code. IMO it makes more sense to instruct the users to apply the fixes that they need instead.

[jarun]

Do we try to fix it on our end or just add it to the docs and expect users to add the fixes to their vimrc?

Give it a shot but don't spend too much time. I don't prefer devs working on their free time spending unreasonable effort on my projects. Whatever you guys do already is much more than enough. @luukvbaal knows it well. ;)

[N-R-K]

I don't prefer devs working on their free time spending unreasonable effort on my projects.

Since I use AutoComplPop myself I was going to fix it anyways. So far I got a rough idea on what to do (setup an autocmd that will disable AutoComplPop when entering nnn buffer and enable it back when leaving the buffer), just need to translate that into vimscript. I just wanted to know weather we want to add the fix to the plugin or add it to the docs.

For the minibufexplorer problem, I'll look into it when I got nothing else to do.

[jarun]

Just hit this with latest:

Error detected while processing function nnn#explorer:
line   22:
E730: Using a List as a String
E484: Can't open file /tmp/vprM9ID/1
Press ENTER or type command to continue

[N-R-K]

Pulled the latest master. I get the same on vim. I think it's due to this commit cf3e27c

[N-R-K]

This should fix it,

diff --git a/autoload/nnn.vim b/autoload/nnn.vim
index 6164672..b3835de 100644
--- a/autoload/nnn.vim
+++ b/autoload/nnn.vim
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ function! nnn#explorer(...) abort
     let l:On_exit = s:explorer_create_on_exit_callback(l:opts)
 
     " create the fifo ourselves since otherwise nnn might not create it on time
-    call system(['mkfifo', s:explorer_fifo])
+    call system('mkfifo '.shellescape(s:explorer_fifo))
     let l:opts.term = s:build_window(l:layout, { 'cmd': l:cmd, 'on_exit': l:On_exit })
     let b:tbuf = l:opts.term

@jarun I'll open a PR if you can confirm it works.

[jarun]

Yes it works fine. 👍

[jarun]

Another problem:

• open any file in vim
• open explorer
• try to exit with :wqa

I see:

E948: Job still running