Compiling/Executing a program with One Key Press in Vim/Gvim

Eventhough there are more than one way to compile/execute programs in Vim/Gvim, the normal method to compile and execute C,C++,Java,Python programs are:

C:

 !gcc % -o %:r
 !./%:r

C++:

!g++ % -o %:r
!./%:r

Python:

!python %

Java:

!javac %
!java %:r

To do all these things you've to type the commands repeatedly everytime you want to compile and execute. To prove the laziness of a programmer, there's a way to do all these things by pressing a single key in Vim/Gvim.

First of all check if you have ~/.vimrc, if you don't have create one using this command :
nano ~/.vimrc

Now after creating this, put the following commands in your .vimrc :

autocmd filetype python nnoremap <F4> :w <bar> exec '!python '.shellescape('%')<CR>
autocmd filetype c nnoremap <F5> :w <bar> exec '!gcc '.shellescape('%').' -o '.shellescape('%:r').' && ./'.shellescape('%:r')<CR>
autocmd filetype cpp nnoremap <F6> :w <bar> exec '!g++ '.shellescape('%').' -o '.shellescape('%:r').' && ./'.shellescape('%:r')<CR>
autocmd filetype java nnoremap <F7> :w <bar> exec '!javac '.shellescape('%').' && java '.shellescape('%:r')<CR>

Here's a screenshot of compiling a program in Vim/Gvim :

If you want to know the execution time of your program too, then use the following code instead of the previous one :

autocmd filetype python nnoremap <F4> :w <bar> exec '!time python '.shellescape('%')<CR>
autocmd filetype c nnoremap <F5> :w <bar> exec '!gcc '.shellescape('%').' -o '.shellescape('%:r').' && time ./'.shellescape('%:r')<CR>
autocmd filetype cpp nnoremap <F6> :w <bar> exec '!g++ '.shellescape('%').' -o '.shellescape('%:r').' && time ./'.shellescape('%:r')<CR>
autocmd filetype java nnoremap <F7> :w <bar> exec '!javac '.shellescape('%').' && time java '.shellescape('%:r')<CR>

To compile and execute the programs, press:
F4 for Python
F5 for C
F6 for C++
F7 for Java


You can change the default key-mappings, just make sure that it didn't conflict with the original Vim/Gvim key-mappings.
That's it enjoy your programming in Vim.

Posted by Devajit Asem at | 10:16 PM