A vim wrapper that allow you to use it for a pager, man reader, etc.

less

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -eu

cache_file="/tmp/pager.cache"
[[ ! -p "$cache_file" ]] && touch "$cache_file" && trap "rm $cache_file" 0
cat > "$cache_file"
vim -R -c "terminal cat $cache_file"

vim -R --not-a-term -c "terminal cat $cache_file" -c "only" -

-c "only" to close windows other than the one containing the terminal output
- to silence the Vim: Warning: Input is not from a terminal and moreover, without this, the terminal gets rather messed up!
--not-a-term to silence the Vim: Reading from stdin...

or even better:

vim -R -c "call term_start('cat $cache_file', {'hidden': 1, 'term_finish': 'open', 'term_opencmd': 'buffer %d'})" -

this feels much nicer when used as MANPAGER
the former command leaves us at the bottom of the man page, this one puts us at the top, just like less.

Thanks for the starting point by the way!