vim-scroll-barnacle

a scrollbar for vim in the terminal

Features

• unicode characters for high-resolution
• mouse click support
• customizable colors and glyphs

Install

• vundle: Plugin 'sslivkoff/vim-scroll-barnacle'
• vim-plug: Plug 'sslivkoff/vim-scroll-barnacle'

Usage

Functions

• change scrollbar state with
  • :ScrollbarToggle
  • :ScrollbarOn
  • :ScrollbarOff
• can bind to keys e.g. nnoremap <silent> <F1> :ScrollbarToggle<cr>

Configuration

• can put these in your vimrc, e.g. let g:sb_default_behavior = "always"
• g:sb_default_behavior whether scrollbar is on by default (default = "overflow")
  • "always": scrollbar always on
  • "overflow": scrollbar on when buffer does not fit in window
  • "never": scrollbar off by default
• g:sb_bar_style style to use for scrollbar (default = "solid")
  • "solid" solid scrollbar using ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█
  • "left dot" dot scrollbar using ⠁⠂⠄⡀⠃⠆⡄⠇⡆⡇
  • "right dot" dot scrollbar using ⠈⠐⠠⢀⠘⠰⢠⠸⢰⢸
  • "double dot" dot scrollbar using ⠉⠒⠤⣀⠛⠶⣤⠿⣶⣿
• g:sb_patch_mouse whether to patch mouse for mouse click events (default = 1)
  • see section below
• g:sb_patch_keys whether to patch certain keys for scroll events (default = 1)
• Scrollbar highlight group
  • change scrollbar color using the Scrollbar highlight group
  • e.g.
    • highlight Scrollbar guifg=grey
    • highlight link Scrollbar Normal [default]
    • highlight link Scrollbar Comment

Implementation

• uses floating window, window has filetype scrollbar
• gifine and vim-smoothie used for creating the gif in this readme
• weclome to suggestions, bug reports, and pull requests

Shortcomings

• Neovim only for now
  • some nvim_* functions in the neovim api were crucial for functionality and efficiency
  • suggestions on how to port to vim welcome
• Can only mouse click, not mouse drag
  • The vim mouse api is very limited
  • Clicking requires patching <LeftMouse> input
  • Can disable this patching with let g:sb_patch_mouse = 0
• Vim does not emit scroll events directly
  • Most actions that affect the scrollbar can be detected indirectly using vim events (e.g. CursorMove and VimResize)
  • However, some scroll actions are not detectable with events
  • ScrollBarnacle patches these key combinations so that they can affect the scrollbar: zz, zt, zb, <C-e>, <C-y>, <ScrollWheelUp>, <ScrollWheelDown>
  • You can disable this patching with let g:sb_patch_keys = 0
• Does not work with tabs
  • This is because there is no way to close floating windows in a tab when it is closed. Attempting to close the window results in an error.
  • A neovim patch is in the works, see issue and WIP PR

Related Projects

• https://github.com/lornix/vim-scrollbar
• https://github.com/gcavallanti/vim-noscrollbar
• https://github.com/drzel/vim-line-no-indicator