Malformed signatures for `exec` functions

[savq]

I'm having trouble with calling Neovim.exec and Neovim.exec_lua. It seems the functions are not being generated properly.

Calling methods on Neovim.exec returns a single method with the signature:

[1] exec(a_src::Union{String, Vector{UInt8}}, a_output::Bool) in Neovim

With the following code:

using Neovim
nvim = nvim_env()

Neovim.exec("echo 1+1", false)        # follow the signature

Neovim.exec(nvim, "echo 1+1", false)  # Pass the client (as with other methods)

The first call will signal the following error:

ERROR: type String has no field client

Whereas the second will fail with:

ERROR: MethodError: no method matching exec(::NvimClient{Base.PipeEndpoint}, ::String, ::Bool)

Is this the way to send messages from Julia to vimscript? What am I doing wrong here?

(This might also be a problem with other functions, I'm not sure)

---

To add more context, I'm currently trying to do some evaluations in Julia, but I want to do the "UI" in vimscript or Lua, so I need a way to send messages to Julia, let the runtime spawn multiple tasks, and then let each task send back a message that can be used in a vimscript/Lua function.

Any help is appreciated

[smolck]

Hmm, I'll have to look into why the functions aren't being properly generated (unless you want to do so, in which case feel free!) but as a workaround you should be able to use send_request, e.g. the following should work:

using Neovim
nvim = nvim_env()

function nvim_exec(nvim :: NvimClient, src :: String, output :: Bool)
    return Neovim.send_request(nvim, "nvim_exec", [src, output])
end

function nvim_exec_lua(nvim :: NvimClient, code :: String, args :: Any[])
    return Neovim.send_request(nvim, "nvim_exec_lua", vcat([code], args))
end

nvim_exec(nvim, "echo 1+1", false)
# This should work I think: nvim_exec_lua(nvim, "print(1 + 1)", [])

[savq]

send_request works, thanks!

The nvim_exec_lua doesn't work tho. The type of args should be Vector{Any}, but after fixing that it still fails, everything else seems fine, I'm not sure about what fails there… I'll keep using vimscript alternative for now.

[smolck]

The nvim_exec_lua doesn't work tho. The type of args should be Vector{Any}, but after fixing that it still fails, everything else seems fine, I'm not sure about what fails there… I'll keep using vimscript alternative for now.

Hmm, really? I tried Neovim.send_request(nvim, "nvim_exec_lua", ["print(1 + 1)", []]) after connecting to a running instance of Neovim via nvim_connect and it worked fine for me . . . .

Also, my bad on the args type there; I'm not very familiar with Julia's different types since I don't really use Julia 😅

[savq]

Checked again, and I think the problem was with the vcat. The args should stay in a separate array. Here's the function that's working for me:

function nvim_exec_lua(nvim::NvimClient, code::String, args::Vector)
    Neovim.send_request(nvim, "nvim_exec_lua", [code, args])
end

And for convenience, a method with no args:

function nvim_exec_lua(nvim::NvimClient, code::String)
    Neovim.send_request(nvim, "nvim_exec_lua", [code, []])
end

my bad on the args type there; I'm not very familiar with Julia's different types since I don't really use Julia 😅

Nah, don't worry. I use Julia mostly for smaller scripts so I don't even annotate the types 🤷‍♂️