ViM: minibufexpl versus bufexplorer plugins

Question

I am thinking of installing a buffer explorer for vim. Both minibufexpl and bufexplorer have very good rating. Can anyone explain the differences or the pros and cons between them. Or is only a matter of taste? Thanks!

Answer 1

I've used both of those plugins. I used minibuf explorer for a long while (couple of years) and it was pretty good except in situations where you have large numbers of buffers open. Then it just becomes confusing and starts to take up alot of screen space.

buffer explorer doesn't give you a constant view of what buffers you have open but it's actually a much more solid (less flaky) plugin and when you switch into buffer explore mode it lets you quickly delete buffers you're not using etc. I like it much more now.

Basically, I'd say minibuf if you don't regularly edit more than 8 files. Buf explorer if you edit tonnes of files at once.

Answer 2

i've used both but moved to fuzzyfinder. minibuf gives you a little window to easily switch between buffers and bufexplorer gives you a window you can invoke to call an open buffer.

Now let me sell you on fuzzyfinder, you invoke the window and start typing to match the name of the file that's open. Could be the buffer id or any part to the full path of the file including the file name. Fuzzyfinder also works with your tags file so you can easily jump to any tag within your project. Also works with directories, markers, and most recently used files. It can also open in a split window, tab, or the current window.

Answer 3

I think that using MiniBufExplorer with a lot of files (more than 8-10) is probably not very efficient since it takes a lot of screen space unless you have a big monitor.

I ran into some issues using MiniBufExplorer with multiple buffer splits open at the same time, and I modified the plugin to get around these limitations.

The part that made the plugin unusable was the fact that there was no indication of what buffer the cursor was currently active in, and it was very easy to get lost while switching buffers. I use H and L to move to the previous/next buffer.

I also updated the plugin so that it always reflects the current buffer's state, wether it's unmodified or modified, without having to switch buffers for the plugin to update.

I think these changes really make MBE much more usable, both in terms of the sheer number of open buffers as well as moving between them, which is important.

You can find the updated changes here: https://github.com/fholgado/minibufexpl.vim