I am trying to write a mapping to use vim Commentary. Right now my .vimrc has the following line:
vnoremap gg <PLUG>Commentary
However, when I open a document to edit pressing gg only makes the terminal flash. Using the default mapping gc works as expected.
I can see that the mapping is loaded by vim by running :map gg which returns
v gg * <Plug>Commentary
The terminal flashes because gg puts the cursor on the first line of the buffer and you are already there.
<Plug>Commentary is a "plug mapping", a special kind of mapping used by plugin developers as an alternative to exposing the guts of the plugin. Since they are mappings, they can only be consumed in recursive mappings (nmap, xmap, etc.). They can't be used in non-recursive mappings (nnoremap, xnoremap, etc.) at all.
Therefore, your mapping should look like this:
xmap gg <Plug>Commentary
Note that I have used xmap, here, which restricts the mapping to visual mode. You don't really want to trigger it while typing egg in select mode.
But that's one part of the problem. Your mapping is a visual mode mapping so you can't expect it to work in normal mode.
For gg to do what you want in normal mode, you would need another mapping:
nmap gg <Plug>Commentary
Note that the plugin provides gc in one additional mode: operator-pending mode, so you will have to do it as well for the sake of completeness:
omap gg <Plug>Commentary
That said, overriding default commands is not exactly a good idea, especially common ones like gg. That is, unless you are an advanced user who uses some other command to do the same but that seems unlikely, here.
Related
I often write LaTeX using Vim. And I have been taught that one can comment a number of selected lines (in visual mode) using the following command:
:'<,'>s!^!%!
And similarly, one may uncomment lines in visual mode by using this command:
:'<,'>s!^%!!
Here, '%' denotes the commenting symbol for LaTeX. But I would very much like to make a shortcut to make it easier for myself to use these commands. For instance a keybinding or some sort of function so that I do not have to remember this syntax. How does one do that?
First, there are several commenter plugins, that do this very well, and those are generic (and often extensible) so that they work for any filetype, not just Latex:
NERD Commenter plugin
tComment plugin
commentary.vim plugin
are just a few popular plugins.
Custom mapping
That said, it's a good learning experience to develop a mapping on your own. Here's how:
First, mappings are just instructions that when certain key(s) are pressed, Vim translates them into other keys (on the right-hand side). Your mapping is for visual mode, so the command is :vmap. What do you normally do? You select the lines to be commented, and press :; Vim automatically inserts the '<,'> for you. You write the :s command, and conclude by pressing Enter.
Translation:
vmap <Leader>c :s!^!%!<CR>
The <Leader> is a configurable, unused key, defaulting to backslash. So, your mapping is invoked by pressing \ and then C. Put that into your ~/.vimrc to make it permanent, and you're done. Wait! There's more.
Advanced mappings
First, you should use :vnoremap; it makes the mapping immune to remapping and recursion.
Second, that mapping is global, but it applies only to the Latex filetype. So, it should apply only to Latex buffers; there's the <buffer> modifier for that.
You can define that for certain filetypes by prepending :autocmd Filetype tex ..., and put that into your ~/.vimrc. But that gets unwieldy as you add mappings and other settings for various filetypes. Better put the commands into ~/.vim/ftplugin/tex_mappings.vim. (This requires that you have :filetype plugin on.)
vnoremap <buffer> <Leader>c :s!^!%!<CR>
Technically, you should use <LocalLeader> instead of <Leader>. They default to the same key, but the distinction allows to use a different prefix key for buffer-local mappings (only if you need / like).
Let's add the alternative mapping for uncommenting, triggered via \ and Shift + C:
vnoremap <buffer> <LocalLeader>c :s!^!%!<CR>
vnoremap <buffer> <LocalLeader>C :s!^%!!<CR>
Note that you could combine both into one, using :help sub-replace-expression with a conditional expression. If anything here is over your head, don't worry. You should be using one of the mentioned plugins, anyway :-)
If I want to remap <C-s> to :w<CR> I'd have to do something like this
nnoremap <C-s> :w<CR>
inoremap <C-s> <Esc>:w<CR>
since insert mode would requre escaping to normal mode before entering the command (sure, another <Esc> wouldn't kill anything, but it's ugly, my terminal bell goes off and with all the other modes available [n, i, v, s, x, c and o] there are plenty of cases where extra <Esc> wouldn't cut it).
Is there an easy way to map a command "for all modes" in Vim?
You can get quite close by taking advantage of the CTRL-\ CTRL-N command. CTRL-\ CTRL-N goes to Normal mode from any mode.
We can define just two mappings with identical right-hand side to cover Normal, Visual, Select, Operator-pending, Insert, and Command-line mode.
noremap <C-S> <C-\><C-N>:write<CR>
noremap! <C-S> <C-\><C-N>:write<CR>
See :h CTRL-\_CTRL-N.
There is no easy "One mapping to rule them all" way to do such a thing. On the plus side when you do make all your mappings you put them in your ~/.vimrc and forget about it.
However I must say it is the Vim Way to do a save from normal mode (as a matter a fact do most thing from normal mode). If you did it form insert mode for example you would be breaking up your undo block if you wanted to exit from insert mode, save, and then reinsert insert mode (See :h i_Ctrl-o). Not to mention such a mapping may affect the . command which is super handy.
You may also want to avoid the <c-s> key on the terminal because it will often trigger terminal's software flow control (XON/XOFF). You can disable this for your terminal by using stty -ixon.
I'd like to map F2 in VIM so that it first saves the file with :w and then calls a script /home/user/proj/script.sh that will upload the changed files to the server.
I already tried
:map F2 :w<cr>|:! /home/user/proj/script.sh
but that doesn't work.
Please tell my why this isn't working and help me to get this working.
Try :noremap <F2> :<c-u>update <bar> !/home/user/proj/script.sh<cr>.
noremap vs. map
This creates a non-recursive mapping. See Wikia - Mappings keys in Vim
I just assumed this, because it's what people want most of the time. :-)
update vs. write
Only save the file if there were actual changes. See: :help :update.
<bar> vs. |
:help map_bar
<c-u>?
You used a generic mapping, instead of one for a certain mode, like nmap for normal mode mappings. Thus the mapping could also be triggered in visual mode. If you select something in visual mode and hit :, you'll see the commandline is prefixed with a range. But you don't want that in your case and <c-u> clears the commandline.
<cr> at the end?
Your mapping drops into the commandline mode and inserts 2 things separated by <bar>. Afterwards it has to execute what it has written, thus you need to append a <cr>.
I am trying to map my space key to make the Vim go into insert mode from normal mode.
The reason I want to do this is because sometimes I forget that I'm in normal mode and start typing as if I'm in insert mode. When I press the space key in between or even in the start of the page, it moves down and something or the other types due to the possibility of a press a or i in what I just typed.
So to avoid this I want to map my space key to insert mode from normal mode as we press i to do so.
I tried the following:
map space :i
map <space> :i
But these doesnt seem to work.
You're mixing up the modes in your mappings; that's an important concept in Vim. Though there's a :startinsert Ex command in Vim (where your mapping would indeed start with a :), it's more straightforward to use the normal mode i command:
:nnoremap <Space> i
You only want a normal mode mapping here, so :nmap, not :map; cp. :help map-modes. And see :help key-notation for why it's written <Space>.
Finally: You should always use :noremap; it makes the mapping immune to remapping and recursion.
strange requirement, but, you have your reason. :)
try this line out:
nnoremap <space> i
Is there any key combination that simulate the Del in Vim insert mode? For the Backspace, there is the Ctrl-H which is very convenient, and make it easier than pushing the far away Backspace button.
Take a look at http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/insert.html There are a few more built-in key combinations for various tasks.
Also you can set your own mappings using .vimrc for example your given example is just
imap ^H <Left><Del>
On my vim installation, Del in insert mode Just Works. :help i_<Del>
If Del isn't doing what you want, you can try :fixdel. :help :fixdel has a good explanation of what that tries to fix.
If you simply wanted to simulate Del via another Ctrl-key mapping (e.g. Ctrl-D), I'd recommend the following mapping:
imap <C-D> <C-O>x
Ctrl-O in insert mode will allow you to run a single normal mode command and automatically return back to insert mode. x deletes the key under the cursor.
You can map keys yourself in vim, including insert mode. The following article reveals more details:
Mapping keys in VIM