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Tip 1054 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2005 · complexity intermediate · author Nigeria · version 6.0


I was getting frustrated with the default undo behavior in Vim because sometimes one of my "changes" would be very long (many lines), and I would want to undo one line at a time. So I came up with the idea to change the behavior with the following code that can be inserted into your vimrc:

function! EnterStuff()
  let theLine = getline(line("."))
  let pos = col("'^")
  execute "normal mqu\<C-r>`q"
  if(pos > len(theLine))
    startinsert!
  else
    if(pos > 1)
      normal l
    endif
    startinsert
  endif
endfunction

function! ChangeUndoMode(theNum)
  if(a:theNum == 1)
    inoremap <C-w> <C-w>^O^[
    inoremap <CR> <Esc>:call EnterStuff()<CR><CR>
  elseif(a:theNum == 2)
    inoremap <C-w> <C-w>^O^[
    inoremap <BS> <BS>^O^[
    inoremap <DEL> <DEL>^O^[
    inoremap <CR> <Esc>:call EnterStuff()<CR><CR>
  else
    iunmap <C-w>
    iunmap <BS>
    iunmap <DEL>
    iunmap <CR>
  endif
endfunction
call ChangeUndoMode(1)
nmap \sun :call ChangeUndoMode(1)<CR>
nmap \gun :call ChangeUndoMode(2)<CR>
nmap \bun :call ChangeUndoMode(3)<CR>

Be sure to write "^O^[" as two characters: ctrl-o and ESC.

So the above code works fairly well. <C-w>, <BS>, <DEL>, <CR> all add to the undo list. The <CR> one took me a long time to figure out. The way it is done in the above code is the only way I know that doesn't mess up indentation. ^O^[ automatically screws up indentation.

Comments[]

You can use <c-g>u to break the undo chain:

inoremap <BS> <c-g>u<BS>
inoremap <CR> <c-g>u<CR>
inoremap <del> <c-g>u<del>
inoremap <c-w> <c-g>u<c-w>

should have the same effects.


One more thing you can do is hit <End> while typing a sentence to end the undo sequence. The only reason <C-g>u is needed in the above example is because it doesn't screw up auto-indentation. Normally though, hitting <End> is a great way to end the undo sequence.


My <End> does not break the undo chain. I had to explicitly imap it to do so:

inoremap <End> <C-g>u<End>

The <C-G>u trick seems not to be mentioned in gvim 6.1 docs and does not work either with this version.


Be careful: "<C-g>u<Space>" breaks abbreviations induced by a <Space>


Very odd. Try

:imap <Space> <Space><C-g>u

to make abbrevs work. Do not try

:imap <Space> <C-g>u<Space>

Vim will hang after using Space (use <C-c> to stop).


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