This Vim plug-in collects all grammar mistakes (of the currently open file) found by LanguageTool into the quickfix (or local) list from which they can be jumped to.

Setup

If you already have LanguageTool installed and start it in the command line by an executable, say /usr/bin/langtool, then add to your vimrc the line

let g:langtool_cmd = '/usr/bin/langtool'

Otherwise, download and unpack LanguageTool, say into the folder ~/LanguageTool, and add to your vimrc the line

let g:langtool_jar = '~/LanguageTool/languagetool-commandline.jar'

where the right-hand side, ~/LanguageTool/languagetool-commandline.jar, is the path of the file languagetool-commandline.jar.

Usage

The command

:LangTool

populates the location-list with all grammar mistakes found by LanguageTool. The location-list window that lists all compiler messages can then be opened by :lwindow; their locations can be jumped to by :ln respectively :lp (or use vim-unimpaired's mappings ]l and [l.)

LanguageTool runs in the background by Vim's job feature, provided an :(L)Make command exists, such as

• that of tasks.vim, or

• that of vim-dispatch, or

• that defined by

  command! -bang -nargs=* -complete=file Make AsyncRun<bang> -auto=make -program=make -strip <args>

  with AsyncRun.vim installed (see also Hints below).

The (quickfix) window that lists all compiler messages can then be opened by :cwindow; their locations can be jumped to by :cn respectively :cp (or use vim-unimpaired's mappings ]q and [q.).

To automatically open the location-list window after LangTool, add autocmd QuickFixCmdPost lmake lwindow to your vimrc, respectively autocmd QuickFixCmdPost make cwindow if the :Make command exists. To automatically run LangTool after saving the modifications to a text, mail or markdown file, add to your vimrc:

    autocmd FileType text,mail,markdown autocmd BufWrite <buffer=abuf> LangTool

Configuration

Command-line parameters can be passed to LanguageTool by the global variable g:langtool_parameters and the buffer-local variable b:langtool_parameters. By default

let g:langtool_parameters = ''

and

let b:langtool_parameters = '--autoDetect'

For example, the mother tongue can be set and (categories of) rules enabled and disabled by adding to your vimrc

let s:enablecategories = 'CREATIVE_WRITING,WIKIPEDIA' .
let s:enable = 'PASSIVE_VOICE,TIRED_INTENSIFIERS'
let s:disable = 'REPEATED_WORDS,REPEATED_WORDS_3X'

let g:langtool_parameters = ' --mothertongue de' .
      \ ' --enablecategories ' . s:enablecategories .
      \ ' --enable ' . s:enable .
      \ ' --disable ' . s:disable

:LangTool sets the language that LanguageTool will use to that used by Vim to spellcheck by

let b:langtool_parameters = '--language ' . &l:spelllang

To avoid that the file is saved before LanguageTool checks it for mistakes,

let g:langtool_save = 0

Hints

To avoid empty lines in the quickfix list, add let g:asyncrun_trim = 1 to your vimrc.

Other options, such as g:asyncrun_save might be of interest.

Comparison to Alternative Plug-ins

This Vim plug-in is simpler than vim-LanguageTool and vim-grammarous. In particular, it lets Vim parse the LanguageTool output to stdout via an appropriate value of &errorformat; see :help errorformat. (Whereas both cited plug-ins implement their proper parser for the deprecated XML output format of LanguageTool.)