nvim-sak

A simple-ish wrapper around sed to approximate select mode from helix/kakoune.

I wanted something like what kakoune has for multi cursor. It's neat. Other plugins that provide multi cursor that I have tried are either slow or are too much mental overhead to use properly. It's not that they are bad though. This feels vim-like to me that I don't even need to think about it.

It goes like this: in motion -> highlight pattern -> replace/accumulate/paste/rotate

How it works

This plugin is a interactive wrapper around sed, with some limitations. Currently provides 5 functions:

<Plug>NvimSakHihglightInMotion 
<Plug>NvimSakInteractiveReplace 
<Plug>NvimSakAccumulate
<Plug>NvimSakInterleave
<Plug>NvimSakRotate
<Plug>NvimSakGenerate

Main ones being

<Plug>NvimSakHihglightInMotion
<Plug>NvimSakInteractiveReplace

It's not mandatory to use them together. Their requirements are visual marks and something in the / register. These can be set otherwise, but they work nicely together. Selection can also be adjusted.

While it would probably just be easier just to make a mapping like :'<,'>s/input()/input()/g and it would get you most of the way there, it's not as nicely behaved. For example '< takes the line of the mark, and in partial line visual selection, whatever you do may have unwanted effects. `< is the mark that has has both line and column, but doesn't really work with sed, for some reason.

• NvimSakHihglightInMotion

  Requires a motion after(ex: sip , sas). Creates a prompt with some completions I have decided are common. Text that matches that pattern, gets highlighted as you write. The search is . repeatable, the last contents of the / register are included with \< and \> around it. A single tab would just add a \w\+ to the pattern. On enter the pattern is put into the register and will highlight whatever matches it in the current visual selection(which would be the endings of the motion. ex: i",ib, a{ ).

  This doesn't really play nice with ignorecase and smartcase. But If it's on or off he the option gets added to the completion list.

  Word under cursor also added to completion list. It is a common pattern, it should be there

• NvimSakInteractiveReplace

  It provides a prompt with a default value of '\0'. That would leave the text unchanged. Delete it and t will delete all occurrences of whatever is in the search register from whatever is surrounded by the visual marks. It functions like a sed command. It is also updates the text while writing. On enter confirms the operation. On <Esc> it cancels the operation.

  If you delete the '\0' and instead the pattern starts with @ it will be interpreted as a :'<'>g/{pattern}/:norm {your_input_here} this is useful.

  While this is arbitrary, It's better than having 2 different commands, though I might change my mind on that.

• NvimSakAccumulate

  Works with the same assumptions as NivmSakInteractiveReplace - visually selected place and pattern in /. It collects every occurrence of the pattern in the + register, each on a new line.

• NvimSakInterleave

  Works with the same assumptions as NvimSakInteractiveReplace - visually selected place and pattern in /. It is the inverse (kind of) of NvimSakAccumulate. For every occurrence of pattern in the visual selection it a line from the + register. If the lines end, it goes through them again until all matches are exhausted. With one it would replace all of them with that one. With one line in the + register it's just replace paste, with more it can be quite useful. Ex: take all the patterns from a selection edit them on the side, then return them to their places with NvimSakInterleave.

• NvimSakRotate

  Works with the same assumptions as NvimSakInteractiveReplace - visually selected place and pattern in /. Rotates the order of each pattern in a visual selection. Ex: (this, other,else) -> (else, this,other), or just general chaos.

• NvimSakGenerate Sometimes you have to do a bunch of the same boiler plate for a variable. A few repeatable lines, but only the var changes. Idea - write a patterna as the second part of a sed command (\0 would be the placeholder for the value). For every line in the '+ register, we substitute that line into the pattern. It has to be a capture group as that is more flexible.

  It is a possible use case for multicursor, and while it can be done with NvimSakInteractiveReplace this is less stressful.

• Tbd

  There are some other useful ones, that I haven't had the time to implement or haven't thought or even had the need for.

Demo

• NvimSakHihglightInMotion + NvimSakInteractiveReplace
• NvimSakAccumulate + NvimSakInterleave
• NvimSakRotate pt1
• NvimSakRotate pt2
• NivmSakGenerate

Some caveats

While achieving my goals for editing they are still powered by sed, so all of its limitations follow. You can't delete with the cursor, wich is a downside, buut you get regexes and capture groups, which are versatile.

Also it is inefficient in it's implementation, the indented use case is small files and small changes. Otherwise I think it will cause too many updates. Still haven't had any problems. For anything big, better just use sed. This thing is kind of for the middle ground and quick dirty work.

By default it uses mark z and register z during normal operation.

Some of my example uses

NvimSakHihglightInMotion

• highlight ls the occurrences of a pattern in a textobject, and also jump between them afterwards. This can be function, block, sentence, end of the line, etc.

NvimSakAccumulate

• This collects all the matches in the selection and puts them separated by a new line in the '+' register
• Not as useful if using just a plain text pattern, but if using a regex is quite useful

NvimSakInteractiveReplace

• Split a line on a certain symbol/s. This is kinda tricky to do with sed sometimes, especially if on the same line and with visual mode patterns.
• Add/remove/prepend/append to pattern.
• Refactoring a variable.
• Execute a :g norm command on lines with the match. - If the replace pattern begins with @, it will be interpreted as the arguments to a :g norm command

Setup

There isn't much for setup. Install with plugin manager of choice. Therre isn't any setup, it should get sourced at startup.

Plug 'rdpopov/nvim-sak'

And these are the keymaps I use.

Lua:

local keymap = vim.api.nvim_set_keymap
keymap('n','s', '<Plug>NvimSakHihglightInMotion',{noremap = true, silent = true, desc="Highlight in current motion"})
keymap('n','<Leader>r', '<Plug>NvimSakInteractiveReplace',{noremap = true, silent = true, desc="Replace in visuial selection"})
keymap('n','<Leader>c', '<Plug>NvimSakAccumulate',{noremap = true, desc="Accumilate strings matching the pattern in visal selection"})
keymap('n','<Leader>i', '<Plug>NvimSakInterleave',{noremap = true, desc="Repace pattern in selection with strings from + registe"})
keymap('n','<Leader>s', '<Plug>NvimSakRotate',{noremap = true, desc="Rotatates the places of the selected pattern in visual selection"})
keymap('v','<Leader>g', '<Plug>NvimSakGenerate',{noremap = true, silent = true, desc="Genrate for each pattern"})

Other useful remaps that combo very well with this plugin:

local keymap = vim.api.nvim_set_keymap
keymap('n',',/', ':nohlsearch<CR>',{noremap = true, silent = true ,desc="Turn temporarily searching highlight off"})
keymap('x','<leader><leader>', ":normal ",{noremap = true, desc="Execute normal mode command over visual selecetion"})
keymap('n','Q', '@q',{noremap = true, silent = true,desc = "Shorthand for executing register q"})