dmacro.nvim

Caution

You need to use neovim 0.10.0 or later.

Text editors have evolved to support input in different ways.

• Word completion based on dictionary data (e.g. CTRL-X completion in Vim)
• Code fragment completion based on dictionary data (e.g. Snippet Completion)
• Contextual, rule-based word completion (e.g. Language Server Protocol)
• Completion of larger code fragments using generative AI (GitHub Copilot)

All of these were hailed as revolutionary when they first appeared. What's the next big assistive feature? I say operation completion. Currently, completion is for new code. But most coding isn't new creation. It's overwriting, like editing or updating. Shouldn't this be supported?

Related works

• dmacro.el
• Dynamic Macro for Visual Studio Code

Example

dmacro.webm

This plugin dynamically defines a macro. You do not need to make any markers for the macro. To define a macro, this plugin detects the reputation as follows:

• If you enter the same key sequence twice (e.g. abcabc), this plugin will define a macro with the key sequence (e.g. abc).

  graph LR
    start(( )) --> a1((a))
    subgraph 1st
    a1 --> b1((b))
    b1 --> c1((c))
    end
    subgraph 2nd
    c1 --> a2((a))
    a2 --> b2((b))
    b2 --> c2((c))
    end
    subgraph 3rd
    c2 --> dmacro(dmacro)
    dmacro -.- a3((a))
    subgraph MacroExecution
    a3 -.- b3((b))
    b3 -.- c3((c))
    end
    end
    c3 --> quit(( ))
  

• If you type the subsequence (e.g. a) of the previous key sequence (e.g. abc), this plugin will define a macro with the rest of the previous sequence (e.g. bc). After expanding the macro, the whole sequence (e.g. abc) will be the macro.

  graph LR
    start(( )) --> a1((a))
    subgraph 1st
    a1 --> b1((b))
    b1 --> c1((c))
    end
    subgraph 2nd
    c1 --> a2((a))
    a2 --> dmacro1(dmacro)
    dmacro1 -.- b2((b))
    subgraph MacroExecution_1
    b2 -.- c2((c))
    end
    end
    subgraph 3rd
    c2 --> dmacro2(dmacro)
    dmacro2 -.- a3((a))
    subgraph MacroExecution_2
    a3 -.- b3((b))
    b3 -.- c3((c))
    end
    end
    c3 --> quit(( ))
  

Usage

You need to call dmacro.setup() at the very early phase; e.g., VimEnter or BufEnter event to start key logging.

require('dmacro').setup({
    dmacro_key = '<C-t>' --  you need to set the dmacro_key
})

Or, you can intensively use dmacro.setup() in the CursorHold event.

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("CursorHold", {
    callback = function()
        require('dmacro').setup()
    end,
    once = true
})
vim.keymap.set({ "i", "n" }, '<C-t>', function() require('dmacro').play_macro() end)
-- vim.keymap.set({ "i", "n" }, '<C-t>', "<Plug>(dmacro-play-macro)")
-- vim.keymap.set({ "i", "n" }, '<C-t>', "<Cmd>lua require('dmacro').play_macro()<CR>")

Licence

This software is released under the MIT licence.