BufExplorer/doc/bufexplorer.txt

*bufexplorer.txt*              Buffer Explorer       Last Change: 17 Feb 2025

Buffer Explorer                                *buffer-explorer* *bufexplorer*
                                Version 7.6.0

Plugin for easily exploring (or browsing) Vim|:buffers|.

|bufexplorer-installation|   Installation
|bufexplorer-usage|          Usage
|bufexplorer-windowlayout|   Window Layout
|bufexplorer-customization|  Customization
|bufexplorer-changelog|      Change Log
|bufexplorer-todo|           Todo
|bufexplorer-credits|        Credits
|bufexplorer-copyright|      Copyright

For Vim version 7.0 and above.
This plugin is only available if 'compatible' is not set.

{Vi does not have any of this}

==============================================================================
INSTALLATION                                        *bufexplorer-installation*

To install:
  - Download the bufexplorer.zip from one of the following places:
    https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer
    http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=42
    or use a package manager like vim-plug, Vundle, etc..
  - Extract the zip archive into your runtime directory.
    The archive contains plugin/bufexplorer.vim, and doc/bufexplorer.txt.
  - Start Vim or goto an existing instance of Vim.
  - Execute the following command:
>
      :helptag <your runtime directory>/doc
<
    This will generate all the help tags for any file located in the doc
    directory.

==============================================================================
USAGE                                                      *bufexplorer-usage*

To start exploring in the current window, use: >
 <Leader>be   or   :BufExplorer   or   Your custom key mapping
To toggle bufexplorer on or off in the current window, use: >
 <Leader>bt   or   :ToggleBufExplorer   or   Your custom key mapping
To start exploring in a newly split horizontal window, use: >
 <Leader>bs   or   :BufExplorerHorizontalSplit   or   Your custom key mapping
To start exploring in a newly split vertical window, use: >
 <Leader>bv   or   :BufExplorerVerticalSplit   or   Your custom key mapping

If you would like to use something other than the default leader key - '\' -
you may simply change the leader (see |mapleader|).

When <Leader>bs or <Leader>bv is issued, bufexplorer opens in either a
horizontally or vertically split window.  By issuing either of these commands,
the user is telling bufexplorer that they want to split the window and have
bufexplorer show the buffer they are about to select (from the bufexplorer
windows) in the newly split window.  When <Leader>be is issued, bufexplorer
opens the bufexplorer contents in the current window and the buffer the user
selects is opened in the current window.

Note: If the current buffer is modified when bufexplorer started, the current
      window is always split and the new bufexplorer is displayed in that new
      window.

Commands to use once exploring:

 <F1>          Toggle help information.
 <enter>       Opens the buffer that is under the cursor into the current
               window.
 <leftmouse>   Opens the buffer that is under the cursor into the current
               window.
 <shift-enter> Opens the buffer that is under the cursor in another tab.
 a             Toggles whether you are taken to the active window when
               selecting a buffer or not.
 b             Fast buffer switching with b<any bufnum>.
 B             Works in association with the |ShowTabBuffer| option.  If
               |ShowTabBuffer| is set to 1, this toggles if BufExplorer is to
               only store the most recent tab for this buffer or not.
 d             |:delete| the buffer under the cursor from the list.  The
               buffer's 'buflisted' is cleared. This allows for the buffer to
               be displayed again using the 'show unlisted' command.
 D             |:wipeout| the buffer under the cursor from the list.  When a
               buffer is wiped, it will not be shown when unlisted buffers are
               displayed.
 F             Open selected buffer in another window above the current.
 f             Open selected buffer in another window below the current.
 o             Opens the buffer that is under the cursor into the current
               window.
 p             Toggles the showing of a split filename/pathname.
 q             Exit/Close bufexplorer.
 r             Reverses the order the buffers are listed in.
 R             Toggles relative path/absolute path.
 s             Cycle thru how the buffers are listed. Either by buffer
               number, file name, file extension, most recently used (MRU), or
               full path.
 S             Cycle thru how the buffers are listed, in reverse order.
               Either by buffer number, file name, file extension, most
               recently used (MRU), or full path.
 t             Opens the buffer that is under the cursor in another tab.
 T             Toggles to show only buffers for this tab or not.
 u             Toggles the showing of "unlisted" buffers.
 V             Open the selected buffer in another window on the left of the current.
 v             Open the selected buffer in another window on the right of the current.

Once invoked, Buffer Explorer displays a sorted list (MRU is the default
sort method) of all the buffers that are currently opened. You are then
able to move the cursor to the line containing the buffer's name you are
wanting to act upon. Once you have selected the buffer you would like,
you can then either open it, close it (delete), resort the list, reverse
the sort, quit exploring and so on...

===============================================================================
WINDOW LAYOUT                                       *bufexplorer-windowlayout*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" Press <F1> for Help
" Sorted by mru | Locate buffer | Absolute Split path
"=
  1 %a    bufexplorer.txt      C:\Vim\vimfiles\doc       line 87
  2 #     bufexplorer.vim      c:\Vim\vimfiles\plugin    line 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | |     |                    |                         |
  | |     |                    |                         +-- Current Line #.
  | |     |                    +-- Relative/Full Path
  | |     +-- Buffer Name.
  | +-- Buffer Attributes. See |:buffers| for more information.
  +-- Buffer Number. See |:buffers| for more information.

===============================================================================
CUSTOMIZATION                                       *bufexplorer-customization*

If you do not like the default key mappings of <Leader>be, <Leader>bs, and
<Leader>bv, you can override bufexplorer's default mappings by setting up
something like the following in your vimrc file:

  nnoremap <silent> <F11> :BufExplorer<CR>
  nnoremap <silent> <s-F11> :ToggleBufExplorer<CR>
  nnoremap <silent> <m-F11> :BufExplorerHorizontalSplit<CR>
  nnoremap <silent> <c-F11> :BufExplorerVerticalSplit<CR>

                                                          *g:bufExplorerChgWin*
If set, bufexplorer will bring up the selected buffer in the window specified
by g:bufExplorerChgWin.

                                                     *g:bufExplorerDefaultHelp*
To control whether the default help is displayed or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerDefaultHelp=0       " Do not show default help.
  let g:bufExplorerDefaultHelp=1       " Show default help.
The default is to show the default help.

                                        *g:bufExplorerDisableDefaultKeyMapping*
To control whether the default key mappings are enabled or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerDisableDefaultKeyMapping=0    " Do not disable mapping.
  let g:bufExplorerDisableDefaultKeyMapping=1    " Disable mapping.
The default is NOT to disable the default key mapping.

                                                    *g:bufExplorerDetailedHelp*
To control whether detailed help is display by, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerDetailedHelp=0      " Do not show detailed help.
  let g:bufExplorerDetailedHelp=1      " Show detailed help.
The default is NOT to show detailed help.

                                                      *g:bufExplorerFindActive*
To control whether you are taken to the active window when selecting a buffer,
use: >
  let g:bufExplorerFindActive=0        " Do not go to active window.
  let g:bufExplorerFindActive=1        " Go to active window.
The default is to be taken to the active window.

                                                         *g:bufExplorerFuncRef*
When a buffer is selected, the functions specified either singly or as a list
will be called.

                                                      *g:bufExplorerOnlyOneTab*
To control whether a buffer should be shown on any tab where it has ever been
used or only on the most-recently-used (MRU) tab (i.e., the tab where the buffer
was most recently used), use: >
  let g:bufExplorerOnlyOneTab=0        " Show in all tabs where buffer was used.
  let g:bufExplorerOnlyOneTab=1        " Show buffer only in MRU tab.
The default is `1` (show a buffer only on the MRU tab).
This setting applies only when |g:bufExplorerShowTabBuffer| is true (i.e., when
BufExplorer shows only those buffers used in the current tab instead of showing
all buffers).

                                                     *g:bufExplorerReverseSort*
To control whether to sort the buffer in reverse order or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerReverseSort=0       " Do not sort in reverse order.
  let g:bufExplorerReverseSort=1       " Sort in reverse order.
The default is NOT to sort in reverse order.

                                                 *g:bufExplorerShowDirectories*
Directories usually show up in the list from using a command like ":e .".
To control whether to show directories in the buffer list or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowDirectories=0   " Do not show directories.
  let g:bufExplorerShowDirectories=1   " Show directories.
The default is to show directories.

                                                      *g:bufExplorerShowNoName*
To control whether to show "No Name" buffers or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowNoName=0        " Do not "No Name" buffers.
  let g:bufExplorerShowNoName=1        " Show "No Name" buffers.
The default is to NOT show "No Name buffers.

                                                *g:bufExplorerShowRelativePath*
To control whether to show absolute paths or relative to the current
directory, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowRelativePath=0  " Show absolute paths.
  let g:bufExplorerShowRelativePath=1  " Show relative paths.
The default is to show absolute paths.

                                                   *g:bufExplorerShowTabBuffer*
To control whether or not to show buffers on for the specific tab or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowTabBuffer=0        " No.
  let g:bufExplorerShowTabBuffer=1        " Yes.
The default is not to show.

                                                    *g:bufExplorerShowUnlisted*
To control whether to show unlisted buffers or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowUnlisted=0      " Do not show unlisted buffers.
  let g:bufExplorerShowUnlisted=1      " Show unlisted buffers.
The default is to NOT show unlisted buffers.

                                                          *g:bufExplorerSortBy*
To control what field the buffers are sorted by, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSortBy='extension'  " Sort by file extension.
  let g:bufExplorerSortBy='fullpath'   " Sort by full file path name.
  let g:bufExplorerSortBy='mru'        " Sort by most recently used.
  let g:bufExplorerSortBy='name'       " Sort by the buffer's name.
  let g:bufExplorerSortBy='number'     " Sort by the buffer's number.
The default is to sort by mru.

                                                      *g:bufExplorerSplitBelow*
To control where the new split window will be placed above or below the
current window, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSplitBelow=1        " Split new window below current.
  let g:bufExplorerSplitBelow=0        " Split new window above current.
The default is to use whatever is set by the global &splitbelow
variable.

                                                   *g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize*
To control the size of the new horizontal split window. use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize=n     " New split window is n rows high.
  let g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize=0     " New split window size set by Vim.
The default is 0, so that the size is set by Vim.

                                                *g:bufExplorerSplitOutPathName*
To control whether to split out the path and file name or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSplitOutPathName=1  " Split the path and file name.
  let g:bufExplorerSplitOutPathName=0  " Don't split the path and file
                                       " name.
The default is to split the path and file name.

                                                      *g:bufExplorerSplitRight*
To control where the new vsplit window will be placed to the left or right of
current window, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSplitRight=0        " Split left.
  let g:bufExplorerSplitRight=1        " Split right.
The default is to use the global &splitright.

                                                   *g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize*
To control the size of the new vertical split window, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize=n          " New split window is n columns wide.
  let g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize=0          " New split windows size set by Vim.
The default is 0, so that the size is set by Vim.

                                                   *g:bufExplorerShowTerminal*
To control whether terminal buffers are displayed in BufExplorer, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerShowTerminal=1           " Show terminal buffers.
  let g:bufExplorerShowTerminal=0           " Don't show terminal buffers.
The default is 1, to show the terminal buffers.

                                                   *g:bufExplorerVersionWarn*
To control whether to warning about Vim version or not, use: >
  let g:bufExplorerVersionWarn=1       " Warn if version conflict.
  let g:bufExplorerVersionWarn=0       " Do not warn if version conflict.
The default is 1.

===============================================================================
CHANGE LOG                                              *bufexplorer-changelog*

7.6.0    February 17, 2025
     What's Changed
     - Another Major patch implemented by Dr. Michael Henry.
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/119
       * Sorting by fullname now depends only on the buffer's absolute path
         using a new sorting mechanism. Other sort modes have been converted to
         use this mechanism as well.
       * Display of directory buffers is now suppressed when
         g:bufExplorerShowDirectories == 0 as described in the BufExplorer
         documentation.
       * Path calculations for the elements in s:types have been normalized.
         fullpath now has simplify() applied to normalize paths like
         dir/../file. Trailing path separators for directories have been
         removed. The shortname <DIRECTORY> for directories has been
         eliminated; instead, the directory's basename is used as is done for
         files (except for root directories, where the trailing path separator
         cannot be removed; a shortname of . is used for this case). A new
         element, homepath, has been added to s.types; this is fullpath
         shortened for paths in $HOME and without the trailing path separator.
         Other displayable paths (path, relativepath, relativename) are
         similarly shortened for paths in $HOME.
       * Textual substitution of $HOME -> ~ in paths has been eliminated. This
         substitution could occur anywhere in the path, not just at the start,
         causing undesirable anomalies. Shortening for paths in $HOME is now
         done via homename and associated variables from s:types.
       * If the devicons plugin is installed, a buffer's buf.isdir status has
         been added as a parameter passed to that plugin, allowing the plugin
         to supply a directory icon for buffer directories.
       * Avoid calculating buffer details until they are needed for display.
         Users who don't want to see unlisted buffers shouldn't have to pay
         for the expensive work of calculating buffer details for unlisted
         buffers, only to have that information ignored. This resolves
         bufexplorer is slow to open with many unlisted buffers.
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/issues/20
7.5.0    February 16, 2025
     What's Changed
     - Major patch implemented by Dr. Michael Henry.
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/118
       Significant rework and restructuring of the s:SelectBuffer() method to
       demonstrate behaviors described in Github issue #117.
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/issues/117
       This patch includes fixes which also resolves:
       - Github issue #81. Previous buffer duplicated in split after openning
         new buffer in tab.
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/issues/81
       - Github issue #65. bv plus t does weird things.
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/issues/65
       - Github issue #52. Find Active Window not working as expected.
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/issues/52
7.4.28   November 5, 2024
       - Thanks to GitHub user jsvia, for the addition of the new
         bufExplorerShowTerminal feature.  Please refer to the documentation
         for complete information.
7.4.27   May 30, 2024
       - Thanks to GitHub user NotNormallyAGitUser, for the recommendation to
         change the display of the relative path to replace $HOME with "~".
         This save valuable screen real estate.
7.4.26   May 01, 2023
     What's Changed
       - wipe explorer buffer on hide by @basharh in
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/111
     New Contributors
       - @basharh made their first contribution in
         https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/111
     Full Changelog
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/compare/v.7.4.25...v7.4.26
7.4.25   September 20, 2022
     What's Changed
     - Fix MRU sort order after loading vim session by @mmrwoods in
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/107
     New Contributors
     - @mmrwoods made their first contribution in
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/pull/107
     Full Changelog
       https://github.com/jlanzarotta/bufexplorer/compare/v7.4.24...v.7.4.25
7.4.24   May 03, 2022
      Updated copyright notice.
7.4.23   January 23, 2022
      Merged in changes from benoit-pierre that fixes an error thrown when vim
      is in read-only mode.
      Merged in changes from tartansandal that implements the use of an
      independent variable to track window splitting since s:splitMode != ''
      no longer implies that a split was triggered.
7.4.22   January 5,2022
    - Merged in change from nadean that fixed an issue that if you use either
      split mode, you could no longer use the regular non-split mode.  This was
      because the split mode set s:splitMode and that variable was never reset
      to "" to allow you run without split mode.
7.4.21   December 8, 2018
    - Merged in changes from adelarsq that introduced ryanoasis/vim-devicons
      support.  If the global g:loaded_webdevicons has been set, bufexplorer
      will now load the associated dev icons for each buffer.
7.4.20   January 18, 2017
    - Thanks to jpflouret for supplying code that can remove the warning
      messages if you using this plugin on an older version of Vim.  The
      global variable is g:bufExplorerVersionWarn.
7.4.19   September 18, 2017
    - Merged all changes from github back into this version and tried to sync
      to the correct version number.
7.4.18 - Github.
7.4.17 - Github.
7.4.16   August 14, 2017
    - Thanks to Yubo Su for the patch that adds 'f, F, V, and v' commands.
      With this change, the original 'f' command was remapped to 'a'.

      The set of commands that can be used during exploring are:
      F - Open selected buffer in another window above the current.
      f - Open selected buffer in another window below the current.
      V - Open the selected buffer in another window on the left of the
          current.
      v - Open the selected buffer in another window on the right of the
          current.
7.4.15   May 01, 2017
    - Finally applied the patch submitted by justfalter.  This patch is a
      backward-compatible fix for the "invalid tab range" bug.
7.4.14   April 10, 2017
    - As suggested by adelarsq way back on January 5th, 2016, a filetype has
      been added.  There is now 'filetype=bufexplorer'.
7.4.13   March 08, 2017
    - Thanks to devakivamsi for pointing out that even though bufexplorer
      turns off line numbers by default within its own window, this did not
      work correctly when using WinManager.  This has now been corrected.
7.4.12   September 30, 2016
    - Thanks again to Martin Vuille for several more fixes related to making
      bufexplorer more tab-friendly.
7.4.11   September, 20, 2016
    - Thanks to Martin Vuille for reworking the per-tab buffer listing code.
      Fix for g:bufExplorerShowTabBuffer is not working correctly and other
      "gliches" when the ShotTabBuffer option is enabled.  For example old
      code would not correctly handle adding/deleting a tab that wasn't the
      highest-numbered tab.
7.4.10   August 26, 2016
    - Thanks to buddylindsey for fixing a misspelling in the docs.
7.4.9    April 01, 2016
    - Thanks to ivegotasthma for supplying a patch to fix a major issue with
      plugin performance when lots of buffers are open.
    - Thanks to ershov for the patch to fix grouping of files in ambiguous
      sort modes.
    - Thanks to PhilRunninger for changing documentation to use <Leader>, in
      place of '\'.
7.4.8    January 27, 2015
    - Thanks to Marius Gedminas for fixing up the documentation and correcting
      various typos.
7.4.7    January 20, 2015
    - Thanks goes out to Phil Runninger for added the ability to toggle the
      bufexplorer list on and off using the :ToggleBufExplorer command, the
      map <Leader>bt, and the function ToggleBufExplorer().
7.4.6    November 03, 2014
    - Not sure how, but the file format was converted to Dos instead of Unix.
      I converted the file back to Unix.
7.4.5    October 24, 2014
    - Dr Michael Henry suggested to change all noremap commands to nnoremap.
      Using noremap is unnecessarily broad and can cause problems, especially
      for select mode.
7.4.4    August 19, 2014
    - Revert change where bufexplorer windows was closed even if the target
      buffer has not been loaded yet.
7.4.3    August 13, 2014
    - Ivan Ukhov fixed issue with deleting the last window.  This update also
      fixes as well as another.  If you have say, NERDtree open on the left
      side and bufexplorer on the right, that bufexplorer would close NERDtree
      erroneously thinking that it is closing itself.
    - Radoslaw Burny fixed a few bugs that surfaced when bufexplorer is used
      within winmanager.
7.4.2    October 22, 2013
    - Added global option g:bufExplorerDisableDefaultKeyMapping.  This option
      controls weather the default key mappings (\be, \bs, and \bv) are
      enabled or not.  See documentation for more information.
7.4.1    October 11, 2013
    - First update related to Vim 7.4.
    - Changed license text.
    - Fixed issue with 'hidden'.  If 'hidden' is set, make sure that
      g:bufExplorerFindActive is set to 0.  Otherwise, when using \bs or \bv,
      and selecting a buffer, the original buffer will be switched to instead
      of being opened in the newly created windows.
    - Added new 'b' mapping when the bufExplorer window is opened.  When 'b'
      is pressed, the user is prompted for the buffer number to switch to, and
      is is then switched to when <CR> is pressed.  This allows for somewhat
      faster buffer switching instead of using the j and k keys or the mouse
      to select the buffer to switch to.
    - Removed 'set nolist' from the Initialize() function as well as the
      restore of the 'list' setting in the CleanUp() function.  These were
      causing issues when multiple new files were opened from the command
      line.  Furthermore, there was really no reason, that I can remember, to
      why the 'list' setting was saved, modified, and restored anyways.
    - Fixed issue with WinManager integration code not working correctly
      anymore.
    - Brought back the xnoremap setup for the 'd' and 'D' keys.  These were
      removed for some reason after version 7.2.8.
    - Thanks to all the contributors and testers.
7.3.6    May 06, 2013
    - Removed the 'drop' window command that was causing issue with the
      argument-list being modified after the BufExplorer windows was
      displayed.
7.3.5    February 08, 2013
    - Michael Henry added the ability to view "No Name" buffers.  This
      functionality was lost since version 7.3.0.  He also did some removal of
      "dead" code and cleaned up the code to handle filenames with embedded
      '"'.
7.3.4    January 28, 2013
    - Thanks go out to John Szakmeister for finding and fixing a bug in the
      RebuildBufferList method.  The keepjumps line that clears the list could
      potentially reference a backwards range.
7.3.3    January 14, 2013
    - Major cleanup and reorganization of the change log.
    - We welcome the return of g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize and
      g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize.  When setting these values, anything less
      than or equal to 0 causes the split windows size to be determined by
      Vim.  If for example you want your new horizontal split window 10 rows
      high, set g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize = 10 in your .vimrc.  Similar would
      be done if wanting a vertical split except you would use the
      g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize variable instead.
7.3.2    December 24, 2012
    - Thanks go out to Michael Henry for pointing out that I completely
      missed yet another function, ReverseSortSelect(), during the
      refactoring.  This function has now returned.
7.3.1    December 06, 2012
    - Thanks go out to Brett Rasmussen for pointing out that the feature
      added way back in version 7.2.3 by Yuriy Ershov to automatically
      reposition the cursor to the line containing the active buffer, was
      no longer in the plugin.  That bit of code has been re-added and
      all is well.
7.3.0    October 09, 2012
    - It has been quite a while since I published a new version and this
      is the first version since Vim 7.3 was released.  I have put some
      time into reworking and cleaning up the code as well as various bug
      fixes.  Overall, I am hopeful that I not forgotten or lost a feature.
    - Thanks to Tim Johnson for testing out this new version.
    - I have hopefully allowed for better mapping of the main public
      methods as is explained in the |bufexplorer-customization| section
      of the documentation.
    - Add new 'B', 'o', and 'S' key mappings.
7.2.8    November 08, 2010
    - Thanks to Charles Campbell for integrating bufexplorer with GDBMGR.
      http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/index.html#GDBMGR
7.2.7    April 26, 2010
    - My 1st attempt to fix the "cache" issue where buffers information
      has changed but the cache/display does not reflect those changes.
      More work still needs to be done.
7.2.6    February 12, 2010
    - Thanks to Michael Henry for pointing out that I totally forgot to
      update the inline help to reflect the previous change to the 'd'
      and 'D' keys. Opps!
7.2.5    February 10, 2010
    - Philip Morant suggested switching the command (bwipe) associated
      with the 'd' key with the command (bdelete) associated with the 'D'
      key. This made sense since the 'd' key is more likely to be used
      compared to the 'D' key.
7.2.4    January 14, 2010
    - I did not implement the patch provided by Godefroid Chapelle
      correctly. I missed one line which happened to be the most important
      one :)
7.2.3    December 15, 2009
    - Hopefully I have not left anyone or anything out :)
    - Thanks to David Fishburn for helping me out with a much needed
      code overhaul as well as some awesome performance enhancements.
    - David also reworked the handling of tabs.
    - Thanks to Vladimir Dobriakov for making the suggestions on
      enhancing the documentation to include a better explaination of
      what is contained in the main bufexplorer window.
    - Thanks to Yuriy Ershov for added code that when the bufexplorer
      window is opened, the cursor is now positioned at the line with the
      active buffer (useful in non-MRU sort modes).
    - Yuriy also added the abiltiy to cycle through the sort fields in
      reverse order.
    - Thanks to Michael Henry for supplying a patch that allows
      bufexplorer to be opened even when there is one buffer or less.
    - Thanks to Godefroid Chapelle for supplying a patch that fixed
      MRU sort order after loading a session.
7.2.2    November 19, 2008
    - Thanks to David L. Dight for spotting and fixing an issue when using
      ctrl^. bufexplorer would incorrectly handle the previous buffer so
      that when ctrl^ was pressed the incorrect file was opened.
7.2.1    September 03, 2008
    - Thanks to Dimitar for spotting and fixing a feature that was
      inadvertently left out of the previous version. The feature was when
      bufexplorer was used together with WinManager, you could use the tab
      key to open a buffer in a split window.
7.2.0    August 15, 2008
    - For all those missing the \bs and \bv commands, these have now
      returned. Thanks to Phil O'Connell for asking for the return of
      these missing features and helping test out this version.
    - Fixed problem with the bufExplorerFindActive code not working
      correctly.
    - Fixed an incompatibility between bufexplorer and netrw that caused
      buffers to be incorrectly removed from the MRU list.
7.1.7    December 21, 2007
    - TaCahiroy fixed several issues related to opening a buffer in a tab.
7.1.6    December 01, 2007
    - Removed ff=unix from modeline in bufexplorer.txt. Found by Bill
      McCarthy.
7.1.5    November 30, 2007
    - Could not open unnamed buffers. Fixed by TaCahiroy.
7.1.4    November 16, 2007
    - Sometimes when a file's path has 'white space' in it, extra buffers
      would be created containing each piece of the path. i.e:
      opening c:\document and settings\test.txt would create a buffer
      named "and" and a buffer named "Documents". This was reported and
      fixed by TaCa Yoss.
7.1.3    November 15, 2007
    - Added code to allow only one instance of the plugin to run at a time.
      Thanks Dennis Hostetler.
7.1.2    November 07, 2007
    - Dave Larson added handling of tabs.
    - Dave Larson removed \bs and \bv commands because these are easier for
      the used to create horizontal and vertical windows.
    - Fixed a jumplist issue spotted by JiangJun. I overlooked the
      'jumplist' and with a couple calls to 'keepjumps', everything is fine
      again.
    - Went back to using just a plugin file, instead of both an autoload
      and plugin file. The splitting of the file caused issues with other
      plugins.  So if you have a prior version of bufexplorer that has an
      autoload file, please remove autoload\bufexplorer and
      plugin\bufexplorer before installing this new version.
    - Fixed E493 error spotted by Thomas Arendsen Hein.
    - Minor cosmetic changes.
    - Minor help file changes.
7.1.1    August 02, 2007
    - A problem spotted by Thomas Arendsen Hein.  When running Vim
      (7.1.94), error E493 was being thrown.
    * Added 'D' for 'delete' buffer as the 'd' command was a 'wipe' buffer.
7.1.0    August 01, 2007
    - Another 'major' update, some by Dave Larson, some by me.
    - Making use of 'autoload' now to make the plugin load quicker.
    - Removed '\bs' and '\bv'. These are now controlled by the user. The
      user can issue a ':sp' or ':vs' to create a horizontal or vertical
      split window and then issue a '\be'
    - Added handling of tabs.
7.0.17   July 24, 2007
    - Fixed issue with 'drop' command.
    - Various enhancements and improvements.
7.0.16   May 15, 2007
    - Fixed issue reported by Liu Jiaping on non Windows systems, which was
      ...
      Open file1, open file2, modify file1, open bufexplorer, you get the
      following error:

      --------8<--------
      Error detected while processing function
      <SNR>14_StartBufExplorer..<SNR>14_SplitOpen:
      line    4:
      E37: No write since last change (add ! to override)

      But the worse thing is, when I want to save the current buffer and
      type ':w', I get another error message:
      E382: Cannot write, 'buftype' option is set
      --------8<--------

7.0.15   April 27, 2007
    - Thanks to Mark Smithfield for suggesting bufexplorer needed to handle
      the ':args' command.
7.0.14   March 23, 2007
    - Thanks to Randall Hansen for removing the requirement of terminal
      versions to be recompiled with 'gui' support so the 'drop' command
      would work. The 'drop' command is really not needed in terminal
      versions.
7.0.13   February 23, 2007
    - Fixed integration with WinManager.
    - Thanks to Dave Eggum for another update.
      * Fix: The detailed help didn't display the mapping for toggling
        the split type, even though the split type is displayed.
      * Fixed incorrect description in the detailed help for toggling
        relative or full paths.
      * Deprecated s:ExtractBufferNbr(). Vim's str2nr() does the same
        thing.
      * Created a s:Set() function that sets a variable only if it hasn't
        already been defined. It's useful for initializing all those
        default settings.
      * Removed checks for repetitive command definitions. They were
        unnecessary.
      * Made the help highlighting a little more fancy.
      * Minor reverse compatibility issue: Changed ambiguous setting
        names to be more descriptive of what they do (also makes the code
        easier to follow):
            Changed bufExplorerSortDirection to bufExplorerReverseSort
            Changed bufExplorerSplitType to bufExplorerSplitVertical
            Changed bufExplorerOpenMode to bufExplorerUseCurrentWindow
      * When the BufExplorer window closes, all the file-local marks are
        now deleted. This may have the benefit of cleaning up some of the
        jumplist.
      * Changed the name of the parameter for StartBufExplorer from
        "split" to "open". The parameter is a string which specifies how
        the buffer will be open, not if it is split or not.
      * Deprecated DoAnyMoreBuffersExist() - it is a one line function
        only used in one spot.
      * Created four functions (SplitOpen(), RebuildBufferList(),
        UpdateHelpStatus() and ReSortListing()) all with one purpose - to
        reduce repeated code.
      * Changed the name of AddHeader() to CreateHelp() to be more
        descriptive of what it does. It now returns an array instead of
        updating the window directly. This has the benefit of making the
        code more efficient since the text the function returns is used a
        little differently in the two places the function is called.
      * Other minor simplifications.
7.0.12   November 30, 2006
    - MAJOR Update.  This version will ONLY run with Vim version 7.0 or
      greater.
    - Dave Eggum has made some 'significant' updates to this latest
      version:
      * Added BufExplorerGetAltBuf() global function to be used in the
        user's rulerformat.
      * Added g:bufExplorerSplitRight option.
      * Added g:bufExplorerShowRelativePath option with mapping.
      * Added current line highlighting.
      * The split type can now be changed whether bufexplorer is opened
        in split mode or not.
      * Various major and minor bug fixes and speed improvements.
      * Sort by extension.
    - Other improvements/changes:
      * Changed the help key from '?' to <F1> to be more 'standard'.
      * Fixed splitting of vertical bufexplorer window.
    - Hopefully I have not forgot something :)
7.0.11   March 10, 2006
    - Fixed a couple of highlighting bugs, reported by David Eggum.
    - Dave Eggum also changed passive voice to active on a couple of
      warning messages.
7.0.10   March 02, 2006
    - Fixed bug report by Xiangjiang Ma. If the 'ssl' option is set,
      the slash character used when displaying the path was incorrect.
7.0.9    February 28, 2006
    - Martin Grenfell found and eliminated an annoying bug in the
      bufexplorer/winmanager integration. The bug was were an
      annoying message would be displayed when a window was split or
      a new file was opened in a new window. Thanks Martin!
7.0.8    January 18, 2006
    - Thanks to Mike Li for catching a bug in the WinManager integration.
      The bug was related to the incorrect displaying of the buffer
      explorer's window title.
7.0.7    December 19, 2005
    - Thanks to Jeremy Cowgar for adding a new enhancement. This
      enhancement allows the user to press 'S', that is capital S, which
      will open the buffer under the cursor in a newly created split
      window.
7.0.6    November 18, 2005
    - Thanks to Larry Zhang for finding a bug in the "split" buffer code.
      If you force set g:bufExplorerSplitType='v' in your vimrc, and if you
      tried to do a \bs to split the bufexplorer window, it would always
      split horizontal, not vertical.
    - Larry Zhang also found that I had a typeo in that the variable
      g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize was all lower case in the documentation
      which was incorrect.
7.0.5    October 18, 2005
    - Thanks to Mun Johl for pointing out a bug that if a buffer was
      modified, the '+' was not showing up correctly.
7.0.4    October 03, 2005
    - Fixed a problem discovered first by Xiangjiang Ma. Well since I've
      been using vim 7.0 and not 6.3, I started using a function (getftype)
      that is not in 6.3. So for backward compatibility, I conditionaly use
      this function now.  Thus, the g:bufExplorerShowDirectories feature is
      only available when using vim 7.0 and above.
7.0.3    September 30, 2005
    - Thanks to Erwin Waterlander for finding a problem when the last
      buffer was deleted. This issue got me to rewrite the buffer display
      logic (which I've wanted to do for sometime now).
    - Also great thanks to Dave Eggum for coming up with idea for
      g:bufExplorerShowDirectories. Read the above information about this
      feature.
7.0.2    March 25, 2005
    - Thanks to Thomas Arendsen Hein for finding a problem when a user
      has the default help turned off and then brought up the explorer. An
      E493 would be displayed.
7.0.1    March 10, 2005
    - Thanks to Erwin Waterlander for finding a couple problems.
      The first problem allowed a modified buffer to be deleted.  Opps! The
      second problem occurred when several files were opened, BufExplorer
      was started, the current buffer was deleted using the 'd' option, and
      then BufExplorer was exited. The deleted buffer was still visible
      while it is not in the buffers list. Opps again!
7.0.0    March 10, 205
    - Thanks to Shankar R. for suggesting to add the ability to set
      the fixed width (g:bufExplorerSplitVertSize) of a new window
      when opening bufexplorer vertically and fixed height
      (g:bufExplorerSplitHorzSize) of a new window when opening
      bufexplorer horizontally. By default, the windows are normally
      split to use half the existing width or height.
6.3.0    July 23, 2004
    - Added keepjumps so that the jumps list would not get cluttered with
      bufexplorer related stuff.
6.2.3    April 15, 2004
    - Thanks to Jay Logan for finding a bug in the vertical split position
      of the code. When selecting that the window was to be split
      vertically by doing a '\bv', from then on, all splits, i.e. '\bs',
      were split vertically, even though g:bufExplorerSplitType was not set
      to 'v'.
6.2.2    January 09, 2004
    - Thanks to Patrik Modesto for adding a small improvement. For some
      reason his bufexplorer window was always showing up folded. He added
      'setlocal nofoldenable' and it was fixed.
6.2.1    October 09, 2003
    - Thanks goes out to Takashi Matsuo for added the 'fullPath' sorting
      logic and option.
6.2.0    June 13, 2003
    - Thanks goes out to Simon Johann-Ganter for spotting and fixing a
      problem in that the last search pattern is overridden by the search
      pattern for blank lines.
6.1.6    May 05, 2003
    - Thanks to Artem Chuprina for finding a pesky bug that has been around
      for sometime now. The <esc> key mapping was causing the buffer
      explored to close prematurely when vim was run in an xterm. The <esc>
      key mapping is now removed.
6.1.5    April 28, 2003
    - Thanks to Khorev Sergey. Added option to show default help or not.
6.1.4    March 18, 2003
    - Thanks goes out to Valery Kondakoff for suggesting the addition of
      setlocal nonumber and foldcolumn=0. This allows for line numbering
      and folding to be turned off temporarily while in the explorer.
6.1.3    March 11, 2003
    - Added folding.
    - Did some code cleanup.
    - Added the ability to force the newly split window to be temporarily
      vertical, which was suggested by Thomas Glanzmann.
6.1.2    November 05, 2002
    - Now pressing the <esc> key will quit, just like 'q'.
    - Added folds to hide winmanager configuration.
    - If anyone had the 'C' option in their cpoptions they would receive
      a E10 error on startup of BufExplorer. cpo is now saved, updated and
      restored. Thanks to Charles E Campbell, Jr.
    - Attempted to make sure there can only be one BufExplorer window open
      at a time.
6.1.1    March 28, 2002
    - Thanks to Brian D. Goodwin for adding toupper to FileNameCmp. This
      way buffers sorted by name will be in the correct order regardless of
      case.
6.0.16   March 14, 2002
    - Thanks to Andre Pang for the original patch/idea to get bufexplorer
      to work in insertmode/modeless mode (evim).
    - Added Initialize and Cleanup autocommands to handle commands that
      need to be performed when starting or leaving bufexplorer.
6.0.15   February 20, 2002
    - Srinath Avadhanulax added a patch for winmanager.vim.
6.0.14   February 19, 2002
    - Fix a few more bug that I thought I already had fixed.
    - Thanks to Eric Bloodworth for adding 'Open Mode/Edit in Place'.
    - Added vertical splitting.
6.0.13   February 05, 2002
    - Thanks to Charles E Campbell, Jr. for pointing out some embarrassing
      typos that I had in the documentation. I guess I need to run the
      spell checker more :o)
6.0.12   February 04, 2002
    - Thanks to Madoka Machitani, for the tip on adding the augroup command
      around the MRUList autocommands.
6.0.11   January 26, 2002
    - Fixed bug report by Xiangjiang Ma. '"=' was being added to the search
      history which messed up hlsearch.
6.0.10   January 14, 2002
    - Added the necessary hooks so that the Srinath Avadhanula's
      winmanager.vim script could more easily integrate with this script.
    - Tried to improve performance.
6.0.9    December 17, 2001
    - Added MRU (Most Recently Used) sort ordering.
6.0.8    December 03, 2001
    - Was not resetting the showcmd command correctly.
    - Added nifty help file.
6.0.7    November 19, 2001
    - Thanks to Brett Carlane for some great enhancements. Some are added,
      some are not, yet. Added highlighting of current and alternate
      filenames. Added splitting of path/filename toggle. Reworked
      ShowBuffers().
    - Changed my email address.
6.0.6    September 05, 2001
    - Copyright notice added. Needed this so that it could be distributed
      with Debian Linux.
    - Fixed problem with the SortListing() function failing when there was
      only one buffer to display.
6.0.5    August 10, 2001
    - Fixed problems reported by David Pascoe, in that you where unable to
      hit 'd' on a buffer that belonged to a files that no longer existed
      and that the 'yank' buffer was being overridden by the help text when
      the bufexplorer was opened.
6.0.4    July, 31, 2001
    - Thanks to Charles Campbell, Jr. for making this plugin more plugin
      *compliant*, adding default keymappings of <Leader>be and <Leader>bs
      as well as fixing the 'w:sortDirLabel not being defined' bug.
6.0.3    July 30, 2001
    - Added sorting capabilities. Sort taken from explorer.vim.
6.0.2    July 25, 2001
    - Can't remember.
6.0.1    Sometime before July 25, 2001
    - Initial release.

===============================================================================
TODO                                                         *bufexplorer-todo*

- Add ability to open a buffer in a horizontal or vertical split after the
  initial bufexplorer window is opened.

===============================================================================
CREDITS                                                   *bufexplorer-credits*

Author: Jeff Lanzarotta <my name at gmail dot com>

Credit must go out to Bram Moolenaar (RIP) and all the Vim developers for
making the world's best editor (IMHO). I also want to thank everyone who
helped and gave me suggestions. I wouldn't want to leave anyone out so I
won't list names.

===============================================================================
COPYRIGHT                                               *bufexplorer-copyright*

Copyright (c) 2001-2024, Jeff Lanzarotta
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
  this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
  and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

* Neither the name of the {organization} nor the names of its contributors may
  be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
  specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

===============================================================================
vim:tw=78:noet:wrap:ts=4:ft=help:norl: