How can I tell vim to compile a document on save?

Question

I'd like that vim automatically compiles a lout document (similar to LaTeX) every time I save the document.

Is there a possibility to add such functionality to save? (Preferably without using anything else than :w to save.)

Answer 1

You can do that with an autocommand. I don't have one that loads automatically, but if I know I'm going to be going through the edit-compile-edit cycle for a while with one file, I'll execute something like this at the Vim command line:

:au BufWritePost * make

You can replace make with whatever build or run command is appropriate.