Why am I getting a popup message when I hover on any word of a Ruby file?

Question

If I hover the mouse on any word of a Ruby file, I get a tooltip message.

A screenshot of that popup message is at popup message.

cat ~/.gvimrc returns:

function! SyntaxBalloon()
    let synID   = synID(v:beval_lnum, v:beval_col, 0)
    let groupID = synIDtrans(synID)
    let name    = synIDattr(synID, "name")
    let group   = synIDattr(groupID, "name")
    return name . "\n" . group
endfunction

set balloonexpr=SyntaxBalloon()
set ballooneval

"how syntax highlighting groups for word under cursor
nmap <F2> :call <SID>SynStack()<CR>
function! <SID>SynStack()
    if !exists("*synstack")
        return
    endif
    echo map(synstack(line('.'), col('.')), 'synIDattr(v:val, "name")')
endfunc

Answer 1

The cleanest simplest way is to put this in your .vimrc:

• :set noballooneval

Place it after you initialize Syntastic and Pathogen, if you use those plugins.

In some instances people have had problems with setting noballooneval, there's a few work-arounds:

• If something is overwriting your noballooneval setting you can use :verb set ballooneval? to watch changes to it.
• :set balloondelay=100000
• :setlocal balloonexpr=
• Find the offending line in the plugin you're using and comment it out (grep for balloon).
• If you are building your own Vim, balloon_eval is a compile-time configuration option, you can use that to enable or disable the feature.

References:

• https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/blob/master/runtime/ftplugin/ruby.vim#L62
• http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/debugger.html#balloon-eval
• http://icy.io/osx/macvim-ruby-balloon-issue

See also: I get this window while editing Ruby Files in Vim. What is it?

Answer 2

You're are using vim-ruby I guess. Well, this plugin defined a balloonexpr. You can read it here. Personally I find it quite annoying so I have disabled it with:

setlocal balloonexpr=

in my .vim/after/ftplugin/ruby.vim file.

Answer 3

If you're using MacVim, the built-in netrw plugin will overwrite your set noballooneval setting. You have to do this:

" Disable hover tooltips
set noballooneval
let g:netrw_nobeval = 1

Answer 4

What you see in the tooltip is the default output of ri when run without arguments.

I think I saw an almost identical problem here a few weeks ago: a ri vim script/macro that somehow didn't send the correct argument (word under cursor) to ri.

You should hunt down the script/plugin/macro/autocommand that is supposed to interact with ri and see if:

1. It effectively grabs the word under cursor.
2. Actually sends it to ri.
3. Uses the right API to talk to ri.

Do you use Janus or some other "distro"?