Switching to SuperTab; A new Crichton thriller, WHAT?!

02 Jul 2017 books · editor · plugins · vim

Ever since I started using Vim as my primary browser, I have been using YouCompleteMe as the completion plugin. It works fine, it is annoying because it tries to autocomplete everything and sometimes that gets in the way of navigation using the arrow keys. In any case, I was fairly happy with the plugin’s performance because it never really slowed down my editing experience. Until a couple of weeks ago.

That was when I saw that the editor just hung for some amount of time, and it was really trying to find suggestions for the word I was typing. This was really hampering the time it took for me to actually write code. And thus, I set out on my search for a better plugin.

One thing about YCM that is slightly irritating is that it has a compiled component. This compiled component doesn’t build on computers that have less than 1 GB of RAM (Looking at you, $5 a month Digital Ocean droplets.)

I tested neocomplete.vim. It doesn’t have a compiled component and has some really extensive configuration options. That include using <CR> as the key to confirm suggestions. That was rather pleasant, perhaps when I have a computer with more RAM and a better processor, neocomplete would be the option. (It is most certainly better than YCM, simply the lack of compiled component ensures that!)

Coming back to my own quandary, I found this new set of completion plugins that show you suggestions but work on pressing the TAB button. It’s pretty interesting, and I started using SuperTab. I am still reserved about how useful it is, perhaps I will report again after a few weeks of use.

I have also just started reading Dragon Teeth - Michael Crichton. It’s really surprising that a new Crichton book was released less than a month ago, seeing as Crichton himself died in 2008. I haven’t read up on the history but I guess this manuscript was discovered. I am about 50% through the book (one 5 hour train journey ensured that!) and it’s been riveting till now. The strange antiquated habit of journaling really takes on a life of it’s own throughout the book (as most of the narration is either the experience itself or what one of the characters recorded in their journal).