ia doesn't handle nested braces when arguments are put each on it's own line

[nikitabobko]

foo(
    arg1,
    bar(),
    arg3
)

Put the cursor on bar and type vIa
Expected:

foo(
    arg1,
    <selection>bar()</selection>,
    arg3
)

Actual: nothing is selected

[nikitabobko]

Just an observation that such an example works as expected if you put the cursor on arg2, but if you put it on bar then it doesn't work

foo(
    arg1,
    arg2
        .bar(),
    arg3
)

[wellle]

That's because it's working on the empty argument inside of bar(<here>). But Vim doesn't allow you to select an empty selection (unfortunately). For example try cIa and it should put your cursor inside of that argument. To work on the whole outer argument bar() try v2Ia. ✌️

[nikitabobko]

Thanks for the explanation. I would say that this behavior is misleading and I would rather prefer the one I suggested. But even if we assume that the current one is the correct behavior then the behavior is inconsistent. In case of one line call: foo(arg1, bar(baz), arg) via it selects bar(baz). But in multiline case:

foo(
  arg1,
  bar(baz),
  arg3
)

it selects baz

[Hubro]

The issue seems to be that the argument text object prioritizes to seek over using the current cursor position, but only if the argument list is spread over multiple lines. This is definitely inconsistent with other text objects.

If you compare it to the pairs text object:

foo(
    bar(
        zod
    )
)

If your cursor is on the "b" in "bar" and you press vi) it will select:

foo(
<selection>
    bar(
        zod
    )
</selection>
)

If the pairs text object acted like the argument text object here, it would instead select:

foo(
    bar(
<selection>
        zod
</selection>
    )
)