VimbreWriter

(Unfortunately, vimbrewriter, formerly vibreoffice, was in an experimental stage, and the creator seanyeh no longer has much time to work on it. So I guess I'm learning Visual basic to pick up the mantel)

VimbreWriter is an extension for LibreOffice and OpenOffice that brings key bindings from vi/vim to your office suite. It is a continuation of the experimental vibreoffice project, written in StarBasic.

Features

• Modes: Normal, Insert, Visual, Visual Line.
• Movement: h, j, k, l, w, b, e, $, ^, G, gg, {, }, C-d, C-u
• Editing: d, c, y, p, x, r, o, O.
• Compound Commands: dd, cc, dw, cw
• Search: f,F, t,T (inline), / (find), \ (find & replace dialog).
• Undo/Redo: u, C-r.

Installation

From Release

Download the latest .oxt extension file and open it with LibreOffice/OpenOffice, or go to Tools -> Extension Manager to add it.

From Source

You can build and install the extension yourself using the provided Makefile.

# Build the extension (creates .oxt in dist/)
VIMBREWRITER_VERSION="0.0.1" make extension

# Install directly (requires unopkg)
VIMBREWRITER_VERSION="0.0.1" make install

To enable/disable VimbreWriter, go to Tools -> Add-Ons -> VimbreWriter.

Developer Guidelines

Changing Code

The core logic resides in @src/vimbrewriter.vbs. This is a Visual Basic script.

• Logic: All key handling, state management (Modes), and document manipulation happen here.
• Conventions: Maintain the existing indentation and variable naming style

Testing

Use the Makefile to streamline the testing loop.

# Builds the testing extension, kills running LibreOffice instances,
# installs the extension, and opens the test document.
# uninstalls after quitting soffice
make testing

Warning: make testing will kill soffice.bin. Save your work in other documents before running.

Formatting

• run make lint
• Keep indentation consistent (spaces/tabs as per existing file).

Bindings (Compact)

Key	Action	Key	Action
h j k l	Left, Down, Up, Right	i I a A	Insert (before/line start/after/line end)
w W b B	Next/Prev Word	o O	Open line below/above
e	End of word	x	Delete char
^ $	Start/End of line	r	Replace char
gg G	Top/Bottom of doc	u C-r	Undo / Redo
f t	Find char inline	v V	Visual / Visual Line Mode
{ }	Prev/Next Paragraph	/	Find
( )	Prev/Next Sentence	\	Find & Replace Dialog
d c y	Delete, Change, Yank	p P	Paste after/before

Note: Operators like d, c, y work with motions (e.g., dw, cw).

Known differences/issues

• tag block deletion doesn't work, but I don't believe it's necessary, especially given the iu and au functionality.
• Movement will differ between Vi and LibreOffice. The goal is close enough.
• Unlike vi/vim, movement keys will wrap to the next line
• Due to line wrapping, you may find your cursor move a bit for commands that that would otherwise leave you in the same position (such as dd) this has mostly been mitigated but a side effect is dd will not deleted entire paragraphs

I found a bug/How do I help

• If you find a bug or have a suggestion follow these simple steps:
  • check if there's a pre-existing issue
    • If there is and the issue is closed, I didn't want to deal with it
      • either create a pull request or create an issue
    • If there is and it's open, give information on that issue!
  • No issue? Create one!
  • If you know how to program, create a pull request
    • It is best to create an issue first, or explain what the code is doing
  • profit

License

vimbrewriter is released under the MIT License.