I love the simplicity of composing commands that have semantic meaning. Like, for example cib reads like a sentence change in brackets - wonderful.
But why does vim need to copy the old contents into my clipboard? Nowhere in that command have I suggested I want to copy it and the problem goes much deeper.
dw diw etc all copy to the my clipboard/register as well. Why? It seems like this abandons the semantic value of these commands and I would say it is unexpected behaviour.
Am I using these commands wrong, or is there some way to completely disable this feature? Currently I have done a few remappings like this:
nnoremap dd "_dd
nnoremap cc "_cc
but I would like to not do that for every single possible combination of non-explicit copying.
By default, most of the commands you're talking about use the unnamed register, ". It sounds like you're dealing with the clipboard being overwritten for all these things too, which can be a symptom of setting clipboard to unnamed or unnamed_plus.
To go back to standard, you can probably do set clipboard=, if the output of set clipboard? is one of those two options.
*'clipboard'* *'cb'*
'clipboard' 'cb' string (default "autoselect,exclude:cons\|linux"
for X-windows, "" otherwise)
global
{not in Vi}
{only in GUI versions or when the |+xterm_clipboard|
feature is included}
This option is a list of comma separated names.
These names are recognized:
*clipboard-unnamed*
unnamed When included, Vim will use the clipboard register '*'
for all yank, delete, change and put operations which
would normally go to the unnamed register. When a
register is explicitly specified, it will always be
used regardless of whether "unnamed" is in 'clipboard'
or not. The clipboard register can always be
explicitly accessed using the "* notation. Also see
|gui-clipboard|.
*clipboard-unnamedplus*
unnamedplus A variant of the "unnamed" flag which uses the
clipboard register '+' (|quoteplus|) instead of
register '*' for all yank, delete, change and put
operations which would normally go to the unnamed
register. When "unnamed" is also included to the
option, yank operations (but not delete, change or
put) will additionally copy the text into register
'*'.
Only available with the |+X11| feature.
Availability can be checked with:
if has('unnamedplus')
I'll offer a dissenting view, and suggest that you are likely using Vim non-idiomatically. This is in no way unexpected behaviour. Are you using cib as a preparation for pasting, so that cib screws it up? Do vibp instead.
dw diw etc all copy to the my clipboard/register as well. Why? It seems like this abandons the semantic value of these commands and I would say it is unexpected behaviour.
d then p is the normal Vim idiom for cut-and-paste (i.e. move text). This is an operation I do every day, multiple times per day, and it would be really annoying if d did not also yank. You seem to think d is equivalent of Del on other text editors; it is rather the equivalent of ctrl-x (cut). To cancel this, you'd do "_d as you said; I find that I hardly ever need it.
As an advanced example, the default semantics of c and visual-mode p makes it trivial to exchange two objects; for example:
I drank all their food and ate all their whiskey.
Go to "drank", diw (delete the word and yank it), go to "ate", viwp (select a word and paste over it, yanking the previous content), ctrl-o to go back to where "drank" was and P (paste before cursor):
I ate all their food and drank all their whiskey.
(I also have a plugin which defines "function parameter" as a text object, so I use the same idiom in coding if I mix up, or refactor, the parameter order.)
The only thing I want to prevent more commonly is yank-on-paste in visual mode (so that I can paste the same content multiple times); for this, I use
xnoremap <expr> P '"_d"'.v:register.'P'
(from here). This only remaps P in visual mode (which is otherwise identical to p in visual mode). Neither p nor P outside visual mode yank, so it's a non-issue.
Related
I'm going through http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/chapters/04.html
and the exercise wants me to make in normal mode upcase the current word.
I did:
nnoremap <c-u> mmgUaw`m<esc>
and I'm using a mark (the m mark) to prevent the cursor from moving.
I don't like this solution because what should be a purely functional change ends up changing the global state of vim (by setting up a mark).
Is there a better way to do this, or is there a mark (or a set of marks) that should only be used by commands/mappings and not interactively (because commands/mappings change it/them)?
This is the best I came up with:
nnoremap <c-u> i<esc>guiw`^
to utilize the last position of the cursor in insert mode.
The example from the Vim help uses the s register itself, so your approach isn't necessarily a bad one (i.e. if the mapping is just for your own use then you can just pick a register you don't use for anything else).
Having said that, the special backtick (`) register might be better here, since it's local to the buffer and is meant to store the most recent jump point anyway.
I've been using vim for somewhat longer than a year now and during this time I have never feel really comfortable with the way vim works with yanking and pasting text (or maybe it is just me not using it in the most efficient way)
For example, I have the word "World" yanked onto a register, and I want to paste it after "Hello". (Note that there are no spaces on either of the words). So, what I would do is
Hello
|
Place cursor here, and press "p". Then, what I will end up with is
HelloWorld
So, in order to avoid this, I have always to swith into insert mode, insert a espace, and go back into normal mode (or either make sure that the yanked word has a space before it). Be as it may, this is quite annoying behaviour I can't think of a solution for... Am I missing something here?
Suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks
option zero
just live with what you have now.
option one
create a mapping for your workflow. for example
nnoremap <leader>p i<space><esc>p
option two
:set ve=all
then you could move your cursor to anywhere and paste
option three
you could in insert mode use <c-o> do normal mode stuff or <c-r> to get register values
I recommend option zero
You can use the Smartput : Adjust spaces and commas when putting text plugin for that. It modifies the p / P commands (this can be toggled on / off).
I've recently stumbled upon this useful feature:
nnoremap D "_d
Allowing me to do "Dd" or "D$" in order to delete things without overriding the default buffer. However,
nnoremap V "_v
doesn't seem to do the trick when I try and replace text by selecting and pasting over it.
Any suggestions on how I accomplish that?
Thanks in advance.
I don't quite understand what you are trying to achieve.
d is an operator, so you can decide to put the result of the delete operation into a given register; the _ register in your case.
However v is not an operator, it is only a command to switch from normal to visual mode. So I don't think that "_v makes much sense.
You might be thinking of another operator like c (change), y(yank) or p (paste)
To get the full list of operators, type :help operators
You should have a look at :help registers, you might find what you want, it describes all the registers and how they behave.
short extract :
"" is the default register
"0 always contains the content of the latest "yank"
"1 always contains the content of the latest "delete" or "change"
The other numbered registers are used to keep the history of your previous actions.
So rather than avoiding to delete the default register when you are deleting you might use :
"0p when pasting to be sure to paste the last yanked text and not what you have just deleted.
Edit : Add some Vim speak
A buffer is the in-memory text of the file you are editing. It contains the whole file. :ls will display a list of open buffers.
A register is a buffer (for lack of better word) where your deleted or copied text goes. It could be a word, a line, etc. :reg will display the content of all your registers.
Community Wiki
As the documentation of the yank system shows (thanks Michal), The Vim yank system seems to be more intricate then a standard clipboard. I therefore think it beneficial if vim veterans could perhaps show us some different styles of making use of this mechanism. particularly with the usage of vim for complicated projects without the use of a heavyweight IDE (say C++ ?).
Original Question
Now that I am using vim for everything I type, rather then just for configuring servers, I wan't to sort out the following trivialities. I tried to formulate Google search queries but the results didn't address my questions :D.
Question one: How do I yank and replace multiple times ?
Once I have something in the yank history (if that is what its called) and then highlight and use the 'p' char in command mode the replaced text is put at the front of the yank history; therefore subsequent replace operations do not use the the text I intended. I imagine this to be a usefull feature under certain circumstances but I do not have a need for it in my workflow.
Question two: How do I type text without causing the line to ripple forward ?
I use hard-tab stops to allign my code in a certain way -- e.g.,
FunctionNameX ( lala * land );
FunctionNameProto ( );
When I figure out what needs to go into the second function, how do I insert it without move the text up ?
Question three Is there a way of having a uniform yank history across gvim instances on the same machine ? I have > 1 monitors. Just wondering, atm I am using highlight + mouse middle click.
Answer one: A relevant, if not particularly encouraging, qoute from the Vim docs (see :help put-Visual-mode):
When using a put command like |p| or |P| in Visual mode, Vim will try to
replace the selected text with the contents of the register. Whether this
works well depends on the type of selection and the type of the text in the
register. With blockwise selection it also depends on the size of the block
and whether the corners are on an existing character. (Implementation detail:
it actually works by first putting the register after the selection and then
deleting the selection.)
The previously selected text is put in the unnamed register. If you want to
put the same text into a Visual selection several times you need to use
another register. E.g., yank the text to copy, Visually select the text to
replace and use "0p . You can repeat this as many times as you like, the
unnamed register will be changed each time.
Answer two: R (the capital 'R') puts you in replace mode.
I'm missing answer three, I'm afraid.
Answer three: Not quite matching the "uniform yank history" spec, but "+y yanks to clipboard and "+p pastes from clipboard if a clipboard is available.
Yank into a buffer
:y b
yanks into buffer b
And
:p b
places it.
I think there are more named buffers available.
I use vim (Actually gvim on windows) as my main text editor. In my work flow I have to copy sentences to/from various external sources, therefore I use clipboard=unnamed to save me key strokes (p instead of "*p).
I copy text from an outer source and I want to paste it over two different places in vim. I mark the first one (v) and then use p to paste over it. The problem is that at this point I lose the original buffer and can't paste it in the second place. It does not exist in the unnamed buffer, the * buffer or the numbered buffers. My guess is that pasting over selection is putting the "pasted over" text in the unnamed buffer.
How can I paste my original string in two locations? i.e. prevent it from getting lost from the buffers.
Thanks.
Try this:
:vmap p "_xP
vmap means to make a mapping that only applies in visual mode.
p is the key to create the mapping for.
"_ is the black hole register. This is used in any situation where you want to delete text without affecting any registers.
xP means delete the selected text, then paste before the resulting cursor position.
You could set up a mapping to ease your pain:
:vmap <F5> "zxP
This will delete the visually selected text, but put it in a different register, so the clipboard isn't affected. Change <F5> to whatever is easiest for you.
I don't know if I misunderstand you but I tried what you are doing and I have no problem in doing that with the + drop-register.
My workflow:
copy a sentence in an external application (ie. browser)
visual select a sentence in vim and replaced it with "+p or p (with clipboard=unnamed set)
visually select another sentence and replace it with "+p
Sadly when pasting the second time you have to explicitly paste from the + register. Therefore I would recommend a mapping for p/P instead of using clipboard=unnamed
nmap p "+p
Try using
:registers
to see the contents of the different registers.
I don't know how to do that on Windows. With KDE, the clipboard has a history that you can select from, so you could do the paste, select the previous selection from the clipboard, and paste in the new location.
That said, it sounds like it might make more sense for you to have it in only one location, then write a script to take that input and create the output you need. Can you elaborate more on what it is you are trying to accomplish?
Check the value of the 'guioptions' options. Make sure the 'a' flag is not set. Also, check that the 'clipboard' option and verify that neither the 'unnamed' or 'autoselect' flags are set.
:set go-=a
:set clipboard-=unnamed