MacVim: create new file from command line by using `alias mvim="open -a macvim"`

Question

When I use vim newfilename to open a file and this file does not exit, vim will create a new file with the name newfilename.

However, MacVim does not work in this way --- i.e. mvim newfilename (alias mvim="open -a macvim") will lead to an error: newfilename does not exist

Is there a way to configure MacVim such that mvim newfilename (alias mvim="open -a macvim") will create a new file and open it?

Answer 1

I'm guessing the error message comes from open, not from vim. You can replace your alias with a function;

mvim () {
    local f
    for f; do
        test -e "$f" || touch "$f"
    done
    open -a macvim "$@"
}

This will create empty files if necessary before opening them.

edit Didn't see @Peter Lyons' comment about this; credit should go to him for first suggesting this solution. I'll be happy to remove this answer if Peter wants to submit his.