ctags blog post, yey

_posts/2016-11-29-universal-ctags.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Modern Vim tags/autocomplete with Universal Ctags
+tags:
+- ctags
+- unix
+- ada
+- vim
+---
+
+For years [Vim](http://vim.org) has been both my editor and "IDE" of choice
+across all projects, spanning multiple platforms, toolkits and programming
+languages.
+
+![Omnicomplete](/images/post-images/universal-ctags/omnicomplete-ruby.png)
+
+Two features that take Vim from a pleasant editor, to practically an IDE, which
+I regularly use, are:
+
+1. [Omni completion](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Omni_completion) (core)
+1. [Tagbar](https://majutsushi.github.io/tagbar/) (plugin)
+
+Both become infinitely more useful with the addition of
+"[ctags](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctags)". For almost as many years as I
+have been using Vim , I have been relying on "[exuberant
+ctags](http://ctags.sourceforge.net/)" which, although readily available for all
+practical Linux distributions, is dead as a doornail.
+
+Old, slow, and lacking in language support, I found trying out _alternative_
+editors and even big scary IDEs!
+
+Recently I discovered *[Universal CTags](http://ctags.io/)*, a continuation of
+the dormant "exhuberant ctags" project, now located on GitHub with dozens of
+[updates and fixes](http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/news.html). While it's not
+in the package repositories just yet, it's easy enough to [build and install
+locally](http://docs.ctags.io/en/latest/building.html).
+
+I recommend trying it out, along with some of the excellent ctags-related
+functionality you can enable in Vim to make it more than just a text editor.
+
+
+
+![Tagbar](/images/post-images/universal-ctags/tagbar-ruby.png)
+
+
+*Note:* The colorscheme from the screenshots above is [xoria256](https://github.com/vim-scripts/xoria256.vim)