Question

I’ve been trying to find this information online but I’m not getting the answer.

I’ve used RStudio and Geany for editing files before. Now I’m trying to use ViM to edit python and R files (I know there’s RPy, but nothing to do with my problem).

I would like to know how can I have 3 terminals (could also be vim buffers, or screen windows) with one running ViM and the others running R and Python. When I execute a Python script, the terminal (window or buffer) with python shows the output. The same when I run R scripts.

I would appreciate insight on this as this is something that’s keeping me from using ViM regularly. I would also consider a solution with terminator terminal multiplexer or guake terminal. Any information about sending code for scripting from one instance to another is welcome.

Answer 1

Are you looking for a way to have a REPL inside Vim? If so, Vim wasn’t really designed with that in mind, though there are some plugins that try. Conque is an example.

Some things I use to have a quicker code/run/test iteration with Python:

• IPython’s %edit feature, which starts editing a script with $EDITOR and will run the script after you exit.
• vim-ipython which can send/execute/recieve code via an IPython interpreter.
• tmux which allows you to have multiple shells side by side, but with little interaction between them.