Quickfix Best Practice

AsyncRun uses quickfix window to show job outputs, in order to see the outputs in realtime, you need open quickfix window at first by using :copen (see :help copen).

A better way is to use :botright copen when you have multiple vertical splitted windows.

You can leave quickfix window always open or you can make a function to toggle it when you need it.

Some times when you are opening the quickfix window, you just want to read the content in it. But :copen will move current window to the quickfix window, so you need save current window id before :copen and move to previous window after :copen finished.

Spliting a new window in vim will get previous window scrolled, which is annoying when you toggle quickfix window frequently. You can use vim builtin winsaveview() / winrestview() to prevent previous window scroll before and after :copen.

So there are some vimscript to write, if you want to use quickfix efficiently. Fortunately, there is an asyncrun#quickfix_toggle(height) function for you to toggle quickfix window in a convenience way.

Use F9 to toggle quickfix window rapidly:

:noremap <F9> :call asyncrun#quickfix_toggle(8)<cr>

This function will:

• Open a new quickfix window if it hasn't been open in the current tab page.
• Close a quickfix window if it has already been open in the current tab page.
• Jump back to previous window when open/close the quickfix window
• Avoid automatic scroll in previous window when open a new quickfix window

Now you can have your F9 to toggle quickfix window open or close rapidly.