Here is the main section of my VIM pages : the one exposing my ftplugins.

You don't know what ftplugins are, you can ask VIM for what they are : :h ftplugin. In short : they are VIM scripts that are loaded (sourced by VIM) only when we edit a file of a specific (file)type. So, C++ special settings won't get loaded when editing a LaTeX file, and vice versa.
To my opinion, they are one of the major new feature in the version 6 of VIM. They enable us to have a clean and as complete configuration as we wish for. They are the welcomed death of unmaintanale .vimrcs -- no more autocommands used to detect filetypes and define mappings, settings, load files, etc. in consequence. It become transparent.

Summary :

• The generic and used by many bracketing facilities -- not a filetype plugin ;
• e-mail editing ftplugins,
• HTML editing ftplugins,
• LaTeX editing ftplugin,
• C & C++ programmation ftplugins,
• VIM scripting language ftplugin,
• ASX files ftplugin.

I don't known where to start ... Let's say that when you insert a parenthesis, a bracket, a quote or anything like that, you may wish you have not to worry about the corresponding closing character. The two following files are dedicated to the management of this problem.

Note: As they are plugins, they are meant to be placed into one of your {runtimepath}/plugin/ directories.

bracketing.base.vim <raw file> 17th  June  2004	A first solution has been proposed by Stephen Riehm. You could find the whole package with an important documentation and other remarks on Benji Fisher's homepage. Stephen Riehm introduces several language-independant mappings to manage brackets-like characters. He also introduces two interesting global mappings : !mark! and !jump!. They are used to mark (with text markers) positions within the file edited and jump to them. As I do not expect the same things from a bracketing system when I am developing in C++ or writing LaTeX documents, I have conducted a little modification on the original system. I added the possibility to dynamically change the text markers used -- «» is fine to me except within French LaTeX documents. It is achieved through two buffer relative variables (options) : b:marker_open and b:marker_close. I keep the same default values than the ones chosen by Stephen Riehm. All the other mappings have been conserved if you wish to use this file as Stephen Riehm planned to. I have also added some other features : The option g:marker_prefers_select (default 1) determines if the text (comment) within a marker should be echoed or if the whole marker should be selected (like "SELECT-mode") -- from a Gergely Kontra's idea. Beware one thing : the SELECT-mode is considered to be a declension of the VISUAL-mode. Hence all the i*map won't expand in SELECT-mode! The i*abbr will still expand. The option g:marker_select_empty_marks (default 1) determines whether an empty marker should be selected or deleted when a !jump! is encountered. Only works if g:marker_prefers_select is set. The next marker is searched according to the 'wrapscan' option (:h wrapscan). We can jump backward to the previous marker thanks to !jumpB! and Robert Kelly IV. BTW, I map !mark! to <M-Insert>, !jump! to <M-Delete>and !jumpB! to <M-S-Delete>. If you'd rather use another keybinding, then add into your .vimrc something like : imap <C-J> <Plug>MarkersJumpF map <C-J> <Plug>MarkersJumpF imap <C-K> <Plug>MarkersJumpB map <C-K> <Plug>MarkersJumpB imap <C-<> <Plug>MarkersMark vmap <C-<> <Plug>MarkersMark Requires : VIM 6.0+, and misc_map.vim. Prefer to download them with common_brackets.vim and their documentation as a single tarball archive: lh-map-tools.tar.gz and
common_brackets.vim <raw file> 17th  June  2004	This file eases the insertion of brackets pairs. It is used by quite all my consequent ftplugins. Through a set of (boolean) buffer-relative options -- cf. the implementation and the different other language ftplugins -- , it enables and configures bracketing mappings. The bracket-like pairs supported are : "Brackets" pairs associated option callback functions parenthesis : ( and ) b:cb_parent brackets : [ and ] b:cb_bracket curly-brackets : { and } b:cb_acco comparison signs : < and > b:cb_cmp b:cb_ltFn & b:cb_gtFn single-quotes : ' and ' b:cb_quotes double-quotes : " and " b:cb_Dquotes b:cb_DqFn dollars : $ and $ for LaTeX mathematical mode b:cb_mathMode The different mappings, described in the following paragraphs, are activated only when the corresponding buffer relative options b:cb_ are set to 1. These options are not meant to be changed dynamically, but to be set once within ftplugins. Some behaviors can be tuned much more finely with callback functions : b:cb_DqFn for double quotes, b:cb_ltFn for '<' and b:cb_gtFn for '>'. Cf. ML_set.vim and vim_set.vim for examples. How it works When we hit (in insert mode) the starting character of a pair, the second one is automatically inserted. In visual (resp. normal) mode the opening character can be hit once -- except for quotes and dollars that have to be hit twice -- in order to insert the pair around the visual area (resp. current word). Pressing the second character from the pair puts the cursor just after the next occurrence of this character (and in insert mode). But you'd better use !jump! in conjunction with the markers. Dynamic (de-)activation When Triggers.vim is installed, the macros defined here can be activated and deactivated as a whole by pressing <F9>. In insert-mode, two operating modes are provided : one very classic and one that takes advantage of my variation of Stephen Riehm's markers when the buffer relative option b:usemarks is set to 1. In that latter case, markers are also inserted at the end of the pair of brackets. The option can be toggled by hitting the trigger <M-F9> -- if Triggers.vim is installed. Accessibility For personal and technical (the meta-mappings do not suit to the layout of my French keyboard) reasons, I prefer to use the opening character of a bracket-like structure in order to insert the whole structure. In insert and normal modes, it is also possible to hit <Meta> + the opening character to insert the corresponding structure around the current/previous word -- this is not fully supported on French keyboards and is incompatible with Stephen Riehm's default meta-mappings. Brackets Manipulations I have stolen some functions from auctex.vim, and integrated them into common_brackets.vim because they are not useful only to LaTeX editing : When in insert-mode a backslash is under the cursor, and we hit the opening character of a pair of "brackets", another backslash is added before the closing "bracket". In normal-mode, we can : delete a pair of brackets : with <M-b>x or <M-b><Delete> change a pair of brackets to parenthesis : with <M-b>( change a pair of brackets to square ones : with <M-b>[ change a pair of brackets to curly ones : with <M-b>{ toggle the backslash on a pair of brackets : with <M-b>\ Actually, by default, there is only one mapping (to <M-b>) that makes VIM enter a brackets manipulation mode (much like <CTRL-X>). From there, you can hit 'x', '<delete>', '(', '[', '{', or '<F1>' that will behave like exposed earlier, or display a little help message. If you don't want of this brackets manipulation mode, in your .vimrc enforce g:cb_want_mode to 0. It values 1 by default. Again, if you don't like the default keybinding, with vim 6.0+ you can change them into your .vimrc with something like : noremap <silent> <C-L>b :call BracketsManipMode("\<C-L>b")<cr> if g:cb_want_mode is left to 1, otherwise define : map <C-L>bx <Plug>DeleteBrackets map <C-L>b<del> <Plug>DeleteBrackets map <C-L>b( <Plug>ChangeToRoundBrackets map <C-L>b[ <Plug>ChangeToSquareBrackets map <C-L>b{ <Plug>ChangeToCurlyBrackets map <C-L>b\ <Plug>ToggleBackslash Dependencies Requires VIM 6.0+ bracketing.base.vim, misc_map.vim, and Triggers.vim (facultative). Prefer to download them with bracketing.base.vim and their documentation as a single tarball archive: lh-map-tools.tar.gz and
lh-map-tools.tar.gz VIM 6.x	The two previous scripts archived with misc_map.vim and their documentation.
lh-map-tools.txt	The VIM documentation associated to the tarball archive.

Some other formats

vim_set.vim <raw file> 17th  June  2004 help on : <C-F1>	Some macros useful for editing .vimrc and other VIM files. Beware, several are contextual. Requires VIM 6.0+, help.vim (facultative), misc_map.vim, and menu-map.vim.
asx_set.vim <raw file> 23rd  July  2002	Two little mappings to create .asx files. Suppose that you have several movies named foo* in your current folder. To create an ASX file, invokes gvim foo.asx, and within VIM, enter =dir and then =fin. Delete the undesired entries, save and exit.

Back to the VIM Page

hermitte at free.fr