Open external URL in Vim vsplit with w3m
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  Last edited: $Date: 2020/05/03 16:57:41 $

  Starting   from  version  8.1  Vim  has  a  terminal
  function. It lets you open a Vim  window  that  acts
  like a terminal.

  With  ":terminal" you open a terminal in the current
  window.

  To create a vertical split, with a terminal  in  the
  newly opened window, use ":vertical terminal".

  With  some  easy  Vim  scripting  you  can  open the
  external URL that  is  under  the  cursor  with  the
  awesome  textmode  browser  w3m in a Vim terminal. I
  liked to have that in a vertical split.

  This is what I came up with:

    function s:vertopen_url()
         normal! "uyiW
         let mycommand = "w3m " . @u
         execute "vertical terminal++close " . mycommand
    endfunction

  This is what this function does:

  * yank the inner Word into the register "u".
  * create a string with "w3m" folowed by a space and
    the url
  * open a vertical split terminal and run this string
    as command

  This works fine, but could use some improvement:

  * The contents of the register "u" are overwritten

  So perhaps we need to  add  something  to  save  the
  contents  of  register  "u"  and  restore  it  after
  calling w3m.

  But for now, this function is good enough.

  Put  this function in a file under ~/.vim/plugin and
  add the following line to this file:

    noremap <Plug>vertopen_url : call <SID>vertopen_url()<CR>

  In your .vimrc  you  can  map  this  function  to  a
  command.  I have binded this function to <leader>x:

    nmap <Leader>x <Plug>vertopen_url

  This it how it works:

  * Go to an URL somewhere in your Vim edit session
  * Put the cursor somewhere on this URL
  * Hit <leader>x
  * Vim opens a window in a vertical split and starts
    w3m with this URL

  ## Thanks to R. Tyler Croy

  Tylor pointed me to the terminal++close option, which
  causes in this use-case Vim to close the terminal
  after the user closes w3m.
  Thanks Tyler !


  Have fun!