vindent.vim

vindent.vim is Vim/Neovim plugin that provides indentation related motions and text objects:

1. Motions: jump to specific positions defined by indentations.
   • Jump to previous/next line with same, less, more, or different indentation.
   • Jump to previous/next text block with same indentation.
   • Jump to start/end of the current text block of same indentation.
2. Text Objects: selects specific lines defined by indentations.
   • Select a text block of same (or specified level of) indentation.
   • Select text block and a previous line with less indentation. (useful with Python function definitions)
   • Select text block, a previous, and a next line with less indentation. (useful with Lua function definitions)

This plugin is inspired by vim-indentwise and vim-indent-object. vindent.vim is essentially a combination and reimplementation of the two plugins, but improved! Here are some of the improvements and reasons why you should switch to vindent.vim:

• Motions work nicely with prepending {count}s and normal commands such as d, c, and y. Works just like a native vim motion!
• More customizability! Chose for yourself if "empty lines" or "lines with more indentation" should be considered as text-block boundaries.
• Reimplemented with only about 250 lines of vimscript, where only about 100 lines are core implementation!

Installation

Install using your favourite plugin manager, or use Vim's built-in package support:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/jessekelighine/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/jessekelighine/start
git clone https://github.com/jessekelighine/vindent.vim

Usage and Quick Start

vindent.vim comes with no default keybindings. Here is a recommended set of keybindings to put in your .vimrc/init.vim:

let g:vindent_motion_OO_prev   = '[=' " jump to prev block of same indent.
let g:vindent_motion_OO_next   = ']=' " jump to next block of same indent.
let g:vindent_motion_more_prev = '[+' " jump to prev line with more indent.
let g:vindent_motion_more_next = ']+' " jump to next line with more indent.
let g:vindent_motion_less_prev = '[-' " jump to prev line with less indent.
let g:vindent_motion_less_next = ']-' " jump to next line with less indent.
let g:vindent_motion_diff_prev = '[;' " jump to prev line with different indent.
let g:vindent_motion_diff_next = '];' " jump to next line with different indent.
let g:vindent_motion_XX_ss     = '[p' " jump to start of the current block scope.
let g:vindent_motion_XX_se     = ']p' " jump to end   of the current block scope.
let g:vindent_object_XX_ii     = 'ii' " select current block.
let g:vindent_object_XX_ai     = 'ai' " select current block + one extra line  at beginning.
let g:vindent_object_XX_aI     = 'aI' " select current block + two extra lines at beginning and end.
let g:vindent_jumps            = 1    " make vindent motion count as a |jump-motion| (works with |jumplist|).

Note: Be sure to put the key-bindings BEFORE the plugins are loaded, e.g., before

• packloadall from Vim/NeoVim (:h plugin),
• call plug#begin() from vim-plug,
• lua require("init") from NeoVim (if you load plugins with something like packer.nvim or lazy.nvim in init.lua)
• If you use init.lua exclusively, wrap the above in vim.cmd and put it before something like require("lazy").setup from lazy.nvim or require('packer').startup from packer.nvim. (See this comment for example)

With these keybindings, you can now...

1. Vindent Motions:
   • Jump to previous/next block with same indentation with [=/]=. (examples)
   • Jump to previous/next line with less indentation with [-/]-. (examples)
   • Jump to previous/next line with more indentation with [+/]+. (examples)
   • Jump to previous/next line with different indentation with [;/];. (examples)
   • Jump to start/end of text block with [p/]p. (examples)
2. Vindent Text Objects: Select text block with ii (in indent),ai (an indent), and aI (an Indent). (examples)

Feel free to customize the keybindings. If you wish not to use a certain functionality, simply leave the corresponding variable undefined.

Explanations and Examples

Vindent Motion: line-wise

These motions are very self explanatory: move to the previous or next line with either same, less, more, or different indentation. These motions operates on entire lines if it is prepended with a normal command such as d or c or y.

For example, assume that the keybindings in Usage are used and consider the following python code:

 1 def SumTo():
 2     print("Hello, what do you want to sum?")
 3     count = int(input("integer:"))
 4
 5     total = 0
 6     for i in range(count+1):
 7         total += i
 8
 9     print(f"This is your total: {total}")
10     return(total)

• If cursor is on line 3, [- moves it to line 1.
• If cursor is on line 7, 2[- moves it to line 1.
• If cursor is on line 10, [+ moves it to line 7.
• If cursor is on line 1, 2]+ moves it to line 7.

See doc section vindent_Motion for more detail and examples.

Vindent Motion: block-wise

These motions move the cursor to the previous or next text block with the same indentation. All vindent motions and objects that operates block-wise contains a two character string of O's and X's in their names. This string indicates how the motion or object defines a "text block". More precisely, they are all named vindent_motion_<A1><A2>_<A3> or vindent_object_<A1><A2>_<A3> where...

• <A1> indicates whether "empty lines" are IGNORED when finding the boundaries of a "text block".
• <A2> indicates whether "lines with more indentation" are IGNORED when finding the boundaries of a "text block".
• <A3> indicates the type of motion or text object.

That is,

<A1><A2>	"Empty lines" ignored?	"More-indented lines" ignored?
OO	No	No
XO	Yes	No
OX	No	Yes
XX	Yes	Yes

Here are some examples to clear things up. Assume that the keybindings in Usage are used and consider the following code:

 1 function! SumTo(number)
 2     let l:sum = 0
 3     for l:time in range(a:number)
 4         echom "This is the" l:time "time."
 5         let l:sum = l:count + l:time
 6     endfor
 7
 8     echom "The sum is" l:sum
 9     return "Hi" . a:name
10 endfunction

If the cursor is on line 2, then pressing ]= 2 times moves the cursor to line 6 and 8. This is because ]= is mapped to g:vindent_motion_OO_next, in which OO indicates that "empty lines" and "more-indented lines" are all considered to be boundaries of a text block (NOT ignored).

If the cursor is on line 2, then pressing ]p moves the cursor to line 9. This is because ]p is mapped to g:vindent_motion_XX_se, in which XX indicates that "empty lines" and "more-indented lines" are all ignored, thus line 2 to line 9 is considered to be one text block.

Note:

• I believe g:vindent_motion_OO_prev and g:vindent_motion_OO_next is what most people want, since every breakage of continuous lines with same indentation are considered a boundary. But feel free to change OO to whatever setting you find the most useful.
• A similar statement is true for g:vindent_motion_XX_ss and g:vindent_motion_XX_se.
• Please refer to doc for more details.

Vindent Text Object

The text objects are:

Text Object	Mnemonics	Description
ii	in indent	select text block of same indentation.
ai	an indent	select text block of same indentation and a previous line with less indentation.
aI	an Indent	select text block of same indentation and a previous and a next line with less indentation.

Similar to block-wise motions, you can specify what is considered to be the same block by changing the O's and X's in the variable name.

The text objects can take counts, which indicates how make levels up (of indents) should be selected. Assume that the keybindings in Usage are used and consider following code:

 1 function! SumTo(number)
 2
 3     let l:sum = 0
 4     for l:time in range(a:number)
 5         echom "This is the" l:time "time."
 6         let l:sum += l:time
 7     endfor
 8
 9     echom "The sum is" l:sum
10     return l:sum
11 endfunction

• If the cursor is on line 3, vii selects lines 3--10.
• If the cursor is on line 3, vai selects lines 1--10.
• If the cursor is on line 3, vaI selects lines 1--11.
• If the cursor is on line 5, v2ii selects lines 3--10. (one indent level up)
• If the cursor is on line 5, v2ai selects lines 1--10. (one indent level up, and then search for a previous line with less indentation)

If you think pressing 2 for "one indent level up" is not very intuitive, you can put let g:vindent_count = 0 in your .vimrc/init.vim. This setting would change how {count}'s are handled as such:

• If the cursor is on line 5, v1ii selects lines 3--10. (one indent level up)
• If the cursor is on line 5, v1ai selects lines 1--10. (one indent level up, and then search for a previous line with less indentation)

For more details please refer to the doc, section vindent_Text_Object.

Global Settings

Here are some gobal settings. Simply set the variables with the keybindings as shown in Usage. You can use the corresponding command listed above to toggle the settings on the fly.

Setting/Variable	Value	Description	Command to Toggle Setting
g:vindent_begin	0 or 1 (default: 1)	whether to move cursor to the beginning of line after a vindent motion	:VindentBegin
g:vindent_count	0 or 1 (default: 1)	see the end of section Vindent Text Objects
g:vindent_jumps	0 or 1 (default: 0)	whether a vindent motion is added to the jumplist	:VindentJumps
g:vindent_noisy	0 or 1 (default: 0)	whether vindent motion throws an error if the cursor does not move	:VindentNoisy
g:vindent_infer	0 or 1 (default: 0)	whether vindent tries to infer indentation of empty lines by context	:VindentInfer
g:vindent_block_ending	a list of strings (default: undefined)	tells vindent.vim which patterns are considered to be end of code blocks when trying to infer indentation of empty lines (see below)

If g:vindent_infer is set to 1 and g:vindent_block_ending is left undefined, then vindent will guess the indentation of empty lines by using the max indentation of nearby lines; If g:vindent_block_ending is also defined, then vindent will try to infer indentation by checking whether the current empty line is at the edge of a code block. An example of g:vindent_block_ending would be:

let g:vindent_block_ending = [ ')', ']', '}', 'end', 'else', 'elif' ]

For more details please refer to the doc, section vindent_Miscellaneous.

Licence

Distributed under the same terms as Vim itself. See :help license.