Make the ViEditVisually function more flexible by allowing $env:VISUAL / $env:EDITOR to contain an executable name *with options*
Prerequisites
- [X] Write a descriptive title.
Description of the new feature/enhancement
Currently $env:VISUAL / $env:EDITOR may only contain an executable name or path, not also options.
However, to make your favorite editor act properly with this feature - a blocking invocation that returns control to the terminal when the window is closed - options may be required.
For instance, VSCode (Visual Studio Code) requires code --new-window --wait <file> ...
Therefore, you must currently create a helper (non-PowerShell) shell script / batch file in order to incorporate the necessary option, which is a lot of ceremony.
To address that, the interpretation of $env:VISUAL / $env:EDITOR could be extended to allow specifying a command line (prefix) as follows:
Proposed technical implementation details (optional)
-
First, as currently, see if the value as a whole refers to an executable (typically via
$env:PATH) and, if so, use that. -
If not, see if the first whitespace-separated / double-quoted token refers to an executable, and use that, passing all remaining tokens through as options (arguments).
-
If not, as currently, beep to indicate that no (valid) editor is configured.
For instance, this would allow users to set $env:VISUAL as follows for VSCode:
$env:VISUAL = 'code --new-window --wait'
Note: Git, which also respects these environment variables, already supports this.