Smart quotes for Kakoune

This simple Kakoune plugin converts typewriter-style straight quotes to typographically pleasing curly quotes as you type.

'example'  →  ‘example’
"example"  →  “example”
I'm        →  I’m

Installation

Manual

Put a copy of or link to smart-quotes.kak anywhere within ~/.config/kak/autoload/.

plug.kak

Suggested configuration:

plug chambln/kakoune-smart-quotes config %{
    map global insert <a-'> "<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \' ‘ ’<ret>"
    map global insert <a-"> '<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \" “ ”<ret>'
    hook global \
         WinSetOption \
         filetype=(mail|markdown|restructuredtext|git-commit) \
         smart-quotes-enable
}

Usage

Manually enable smart quoting in the current window:

:smart-quotes-enable<ret>

Enable smart quoting for one insert session:

:smart-quotes-mode<ret>i

Always use smart quoting for e.g. reStructuredText:

# ~/.config/kak/kakrc
hook global WinSetOption filetype=restructuredtext smart-quotes-enable

Use Alt to smartly insert a quote:

# ~/.config/kak/kakrc
map global insert <a-'> "<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \' ‘ ’<ret>"
map global insert <a-"> '<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \" “ ”<ret>'

Or use guillemets instead:

# ~/.config/kak/kakrc
map global insert <a-'> "<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \' ‹ › <ret>"
map global insert <a-"> '<a-;>: smart-quotes-insert \" « » <ret>'

Notes

• Repeated keypresses cycle opening, straight, and closing quotes.
• <c-v> bypasses smart-quotes whereas \i does not.
• A contraction at the beginning of a word should have an apostrophe (’), but smart-quotes will erroneously insert an opening quote (‘) instead; e.g.
  • the ‘80s (incorrect) instead of the ’80s (correct),
  • fish ‘n’ chips (incorrect) instead of fish ’n’ chips (correct).