Tip: #1373 - Get shortened messages from using echomsg
Created: October 31, 2006 3:35 Complexity: intermediate Author: Yakov Lerner Version: n/a Karma: 2/3 Imported from: Tip#1373
vim has ability to display long echo-messages such that they are truncated in the middle to fit the line ('...' will appear in the line). But it's tricky to turn this capabilty on.
To turn this shortening on, you need two steps:
1) set shortmess+=T " add T flag to 'shortmess' option
2) use the following form of echo:
- exe "norm :echomsg repeat('a',&co+10)\n"
- exe "norm :echomsg LongMessage\n"
Or use the function ShortEcho() below.
The 1st step (set shortmess+=T) is straightforward, you might already have T in 'shortmess' option already.
The 2nd step is tricky. ':echo' does not shorten long messages. ':echomsg', by itself, does not shorten long messages. Only when :echomsg is used under :norm, it truncates long messages. And don't forget trailing \n when using 'exe norm'.
function! ShortEcho(msg)
" regular :echomsg is supposed to shorten long messages when shortmess+=T but it does not.
" under "norm echomsg", echomsg does shorten long messages.
let saved=&shortmess
set shortmess+=T
exe "norm :echomsg a:msg\n"
let &shortmess=saved
endfunction