SpaceVim as Your Ruby IDE: Configuration Tips and Workflow

SpaceVim is defined as a Vim/NeoVim distribution. Some time ago I felt like learning how to use Vim and when I found this project and when I found this project I was convinced to use it as my main code editor and leave Atom behind. So far I have found it excellent, you increase productivity as you depend less and less on the mouse. I’m still not an expert in Vim, but I can move better and better in the code. code.

And the facilities that SpaceVim includes for users who are just starting in the world of Vim are very good. For example, to install a new plugin, all you need to do is to press press SPC f v d (open SpaceVim configuration file) and then type the following:

[[custom_plugins]]
repo = 'ryanoasis/vim-devicons'
merged = false

And that’s it, the next time you start the editor, the plugin will install itself.

So, after a couple of months using SpaceVim I will comment what have been my configurations to use it as a code editor for Ruby (main language in which I program) and although in the official documentation there is a page where they explain how to configure it to program with Ruby, it seems to me that there are a couple of more details to mention for everything to work correctly.

This post is not intended to explain how to install SpaceVim or even less Vim. That can be found here. **## Syntax linting

Syntax linting

In the Syntax linting section they suggest installing rubocop so that Neomake can deliver errors on your code asynchronously, this didn’t work for me and that’s because rubocop’s output is not compatible with Neomake, so what I did was to try ruby-lint which does work, but the project seems to me a bit abandoned, even the repository is archived. So after testing I recommend that for syntax linting use reek and configure it as follows in your vimrc:

let g:neomake_ruby_enabled_makers = ['reek']]

Code formatting

Para formatear el código mencionan rufo. Personalmente, prefiero rubocop, solo basta con tener rubocop y no rufo. Y si te parece bien puedes configurar para darle formato al código al momento de guardar con la siguiente opción:

 [[layers]]
name = "lang#ruby"
format_on_save = true

Autocompletion

For me this is an important topic, the autocompletion of the code helps a lot when developing. And that’s why I had to improve the default autocompletion that SpaceVim delivers and for this I did it integrating Solargraph.

The first thing you have to do is to change the default autocomplete engine to coc. You do this with the following option:

[options]
autocomplete_method = "coc"

After this SpaceVim will take care of installing coc.

If you don’t have the Solargraph gem installed now is the time to do it:

gem install solargraph

Then for coc to work with Solargraph we must install a plugin to coc by running the following command in Vim/NeoVim:

CocInstall coc-solargraph

And we can start enjoying good autocompletion, including documentation.

And to make your Spacevim a nicer space I suggest some settings:

# Enable the git layer
[[layers]]
name = "git"

# Icons for your NERDTree
[[custom_plugins]]
repo = 'ryanoasis/vim-devicons'
merged = false

# Colors according to file type in NERDTree
[[custom_plugins]]
repo = 'tiagofumo/vim-nerdtree-syntax-highlight'
merged = false

# Automatically add end to the end of certain Ruby structures
[[custom_plugins]]
repo = "tpope/vim-endwise"
merged = false

# higlighter 
[[custom_plugins]]
repo = "ap/vim-css-color"
merged = false

Finally, if you want to achieve transparency in the background of your SpaceVim what worked for me was to use the same color in both SpaceVim and my terminal (the latter with transparency).

So, with the Ruby layer enabled, code linting, code formatting and auto-completion working we can start developing without any problems. SpaceVim comes with many more built-in features that can help you (search methods, terminal, todo manager, etc.) just look in its documentation or ask through the channels maintained by the community.

If you are just starting with Vim I suggest the following video:

• https://youtu.be/RZ4p-saaQkc https://youtu.be/RZ4p-saaQkc