Vim abbreviation also applies to search (bug?) - vim

I think I just found a Vim bug, but before bothering Bram Moolenaar about it, I thought I'd check here if my understanding of Vim command syntax is right.
In my .vimrc, I have
cnoreabbrev W w
cnoreabbrev Q q
because I tend to hold shift depressed when typing :w or :q, giving :W or :Q. However, when I now try to search for W or Q with /W, ?Q, etc., Vim finds occurrences of w or q instead. I find this surprising since I thought I had only abbreviated commands, not a search strings. Removing the two lines from my .vimrc gives the desired behavior.
Is this a bug or a feature of cnoreabbrev? It occurs both in the Debian-packaged Vim 7.3.923 and in the current Mercurial tip.

Command line abbreviations are notorious for causing subtle bugs that the user did not intend. The type of aliases that you are trying to create should probably be converted to commands.
command W w
command Q q
I leave the completion, bang arguments, and range arguments as an exercise for the reader.
However if you really do want to use cnoreabbrev you need to do it carefully. I typically make an expression abbreviation that checks getcmdtype() and checks the value of the command line as well via getcmdline(). Example below
cnoreabbrev <expr> W getcmdtype() == ':' && getcmdline() ==# 'W' ? 'w' : 'W'
If you don't want to create the logic yourself you can use a plugin by Hari Krishna Dara call cmdalias.
For more help see:
:h Command-line-mode
:h :command
:h :map-expression
:h getcmdtype()
:h getcmdline()

I won't say it is bug, it is a ..... feature. :D
what you did is create an ab, only in command-line mode.
/ (search) will bring you in command-line mode too. that's why the ab worked there as well.
:h vim-modes
you can see:
Command-line mode In Command-line mode (also called Cmdline mode) you
Cmdline mode can enter one line of text at the bottom of the
window. This is for the Ex commands, ":", the pattern
search commands, "?" and "/", and the filter command,
"!".
so
This is for the Ex commands, ":", the pattern
search commands, "?" and "/", and the filter command,
"!".

Feature.
If you hit space after ?Q you will see is changed to ?q
My way of fixing it is actually just to define a user command. (Since it starts with a capital anyways it works)
command! Q q
command! W w

Related

vim: how to set custom lowercased vim commands? [duplicate]

I want to set :x in vim gui-mode to delete buffer because I always kill the whole gvim, which is kind of annoying. I know i can specifically set gui problems with if has("gui running") but don't know how to remap :x
thanks in advance
ps.: maybe the tag/term remap is wrong but I don't know the correct term, that's why google didn't provide any help at all.
I find the safest alternative is to use an expression abbreviation:
cnoreabbrev <expr> x getcmdtype() == ":" && getcmdline() == 'x' ? 'bd' : 'x'
This will ensure the abbreviation will only be expanded to bd when :x is used otherwise just expand to x.
For more help:
:h map-<expr>
:h getcmdtype()
:h getcmdline()
Upon further inspection there appears to be a plugin that does exactly this by Hari Krishna Dara called cmdalias.vim. It uses a variation of the technique above.
This is not as easy as it looks. :map won't work with commands and :command only accepts commands that start with an uppercase letter. But you can use :cabbrev:
if has("gui_running")
cabbrev x bd
endif
UPDATE: :cmap could actually be used: :cmap x bd, but it doesn't work right: each occurrence of x in a command is immediately replaced by bd.
EDIT: This question is a duplicate of Can I (re)map Ex commands in vim?.

Use capital Q also to quit Vim

Tried using the following in my .vimrc, but somehow it isn't working. Also, is there any down sides to using "Q" also along side the usual q to quit the editor. Apparently, I find stumbling on this issue a lot, but don't see this tweak is most .vimrcs.
noremap Q :quit<CR>
If you want to quit Vim with :Q, a simple mapping won't do, because you then won't be able to type Q in the command-line (which is the mode you would have to map, using :cnoremap).
You can either just define an uppercase command:
:command! -bar -bang Q quit<bang>
or use the technique described in aliasing a command in vim, which also works for lower-case. Or have a look at cmdalias.vim - Create aliases for Vim commands.
If you want to quit vim with :Q just add this to your vimrc
:command Q q

How to jump to a search in a mapped :normal command?

What do you need to properly jump to a matched search result?
To reproduce, make a macro with a search in it after you've run vim -u NONE to ensure there's no vimrc interfering. You'll need to make a file with at least 2 lines and put the cursor on the line without the text TEST_TEXT.
map x :norm gg/TEST_TEXT^MIthis
My intention is that when I press x, it goes to the top of the file, looks for TEST_TEXT and then puts this at the start of the line that matches the search. The ^M is a literal newline, achieved with the CtrlQ+Enter keypress. What's happening instead is either nothing happens, or the text gets entered on the same line as when I called the macro.
If I just run the :norm gg/TEST_TEXT^MIthis command without mapping it to a key, the command executes successfully.
I had an initially longer command involving a separate file and the tcomment plugin, but I've gotten it narrowed down to this.
What is the correct sequence of keys to pull this off once I've mapped it to a key?
The problem is that the ^M concludes the :normal Ex command, so your search command is aborted instead of executed. The Ithis is then executed outside of :normal.
In fact, you don't need :normal here at all. And, it's easier and more readable to use the special key notation with mappings:
:map x gg/TEST_TEXT<CR>Ithis
If you really wanted to use :normal, you'd have to wrap this in :execute, like this:
:map x :exe "norm gg/TEST_TEXT\<lt>CR>Ithis"<CR>
Bonus tips
You should use :noremap; it makes the mapping immune to remapping and recursion.
Better restrict the mapping to normal mode, as in its current form, it won't behave as expected in visual and operator-pending mode: :nnoremap
This clobbers the last search pattern and its highlighting. Use of lower-level functions like search() is recommended instead.
There are many ways of doing this however this is my preferred method:
nnoremap x :0/TEST_TEXT/norm! Itest<esc>
Explanation:
:{range}norm! {cmd} - execute normal commands, {cmd}, on a range of lines,{range}.
! on :normal means the commands will not be remapped.
The range 0/TEST_TEXT start before the first line and then finds the first matching line.
I have a few issues with your current mapping:
You are not specifying noremap. You usually want to use noremap
It would be best to specifiy a mode like normal mode, e.g. nnoremap
It is usually best to use <cr> notation with mappings
You are using :normal when your command is already in normal mode but not using any of the ex command features, e.g. a range.
For more help see:
:h :map
:h :norm
:h range
try this mapping:
nnoremap x gg/TEST_TEXT<cr>Ithis<esc>
note that, if you map x on this operation, you lost the original x feature.

Why isn't this Vim mapping working?

noremap :hsp :botright new
noremap :vsp :botright vnew
"Not an editor command: hsp"
I'm probably googling the wrong thing, but I can't find many results on aliasing vim commands. I can find tons of info about mapping keys to commands like my one for tabs:
noremap <C-t> :tabnew<CR>
But can't find commands mapped to other commands.
What you're doing is simulating a command with a mapping. You're saying that when you press the 4 keys :hsv in normal mode, it should type out the keys :botright new (which would need a <CR> to run, as others have said), but it's not actually making the command hsv. You could make an actual command with a user command (:h user-commands). These must start with a capital letter, though.
:command Hsp botright new
:command Vsp botright vnew
Now you can type :Hsp and hit enter to run the command botright new.
Did you try command abbreviation?
ca hsp botright new
ca vsp botright vnew
You will have to initialize the expansion of the abbreviation by hitting the space key afterwards. Depending on the global vim configuration, expansion also happens automatically just when enter is pressed.
with your same mapping, I cannot get the Not an editor command: hsp error message with my vim (v7.4).
Your mapping works fine, but you don't have <cr> at the end, so when you press :hsp in normal mode, your mapping will switch to commandline mode, and put the mapped command there, without executing it. You have to manually press Enter.
#XZS's answer works, but keep in mind that it is an abbreviation(ab), not a mapping. ab is not command aliases, it is not exactly same as mapping. For example, you have to press another key (like space) after hsp to trigger the ab. also, you cannot ab some special keys, this would be another limitation of ab.
There is c(nore)map for command mapping.
e.g. you could have:
cnoremap hsp botright new
with above line, as same as your original one, you have to manually press Enter, if you want it to be executed, you need add <CR> at the end of the line.
I think if I do this, I would create mapping.
Creating command alias can be tricky:
Using a simple cabbrev and/or cmap will cause expansions and mappings to fire in unexpected places like during searches with / and in the middle of filenames.
cmap's will have a visible delay in outputting to the screen which is why cabbrev is often used.
However there are a few ways to create a proper alias:
Create a command via :command.
e.g. command W w
command's first letter must be a uppercase letter
must supply -nargs, -bar, -complete, and -range options according to the needs of your alias
Expression :cabbrev to guard the abbreviation from expanding in in proper places.
expression mapping use the <expr> option
verify getcmdtype() is equal to :
verify the abbreviation is at the beginning of command line via getcmdline() or getcmdpos()
e.g. cnoreabbrev <expr> W getcmdtype() == ':' && getcmdline() ==# 'W' ? 'w' : 'W'
Use :Alias via the cmdalias.vim plugin by Hari Krishna Dara
e.g. Alias W w
uses an expression cabbrev under the covers similar to the technique above

Automatically expand fold when going to a line number

Is there a way to unfold code when going to a line number? For instance I type :35 where line 35 is folded, then I have to unfold that section manually to actually get to that line. I would like to type :35and have that code then unfolded automatically and my cursor put on line 35 without any further key presses.
If you use the 35G command instead of :35, you can achieve this with the following mapping:
"[count]G Also open fold under cursor when supplying [count] (i.e.
" jumping to a particular line, not the end of the
" buffer). Use [count]|gg| if you don't want this.
nnoremap <expr> G (v:count ? 'Gzv' : 'G')
For :35 itself, this would be hard to achieve. You would have to intercept the <CR> via a :cmap <expr>, check the typed command via getcmdtype() and getcmdline(), and, if it's a number, manipulate the command, i.e. append normal! zv to it; like this:
cmap <expr> <CR> getcmdtype() == ':' && getcmdline() =~ '^\d\+$' ? 'normal! zv<CR>' : '<CR>'
zv. From :help zv:
View cursor line: Open just enough folds to make the line in
which the cursor is located not folded.
While this command could probably be triggered automatically in some way, I have not come across it yet. Using the command as-is has served me well, though.
Define a new command mapping. In this example, I chose \gz:
:nmap \gz gg<Bar>zO

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