Flexible viewer for any documentation source (help/man/perldoc/etc.) for any file type inside Vim in easy to use, consistent, smart and configurable way.

• You can configure how (keys/commands) documentation will be open. By default it will replace standard mapping for key K and command :help plus add mapping for <F1> key and new commands :man, :doc, etc.

• You can configure where (buffer/window/tab) documentation will be open. Can open new docs in one dedicated (K) or new (<F1>) buffer/window/tab. Support all work styles:

  • full screen (no tabs, one window, open files/docs are in hidden buffers),

  • windowed (no tabs, many windows with open files/docs),

  • tabbed full screen (many tabs, each with one window, open files/docs are in different tabs),

  • tabbed (many tabs with many windows inside tabs).

• You can easily navigate to next/previous topic while viewing documentation using <C-]> and <C-T> (or alternative keys <CR> and <BS>), just like you use tags for navigation within source code and Vim’s help.

• Even closing documentation buffer/window/tab is easier, smarter and more configurable than ever before. :)

• Smart detection of documentation source and topic when opening documentation for <cword> (word under cursor) - can use current syntax highlight (to find topic’s context) and surrounding text (when topic doesn’t include important special symbols because of iskeyword value).

• Smart completion for available documentation topics when opening documentation using command (just like Vim’s :help command works). (Some documentation sources may not support this.)

• Supported documentation sources:

  • man pages

  • Vim’s help

  • custom documentation in vim help format: (CSS 2.1, CMake, LaTeX, …)

  • perldoc

  • godoc

  • pydoc (python)

  • pman (php)

  • OS Inferno man pages

  • ri (ruby)

  • bash’s help

  • GNU info (smart support for: awk, make, m4, automake)

• Support for new documentation sources and file types can be easily added by external plugins or within ~/.vimrc file.

• You can have several documentation sources for same file type, and choose which one should be used on-the-fly.

• Can be used as console man page viewer instead of /usr/bin/man.

Tested only in Linux, but should work in any *NIX.

Download .zip/.vmb from http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3893