history for dot operator

[Enno]

Is there, perhaps via a Plugin, a way to recover the second last text editing operation in normal mode ? The dot '.' operator keeps only the last operation.

[Ben Fritz]

On Friday, November 14, 2014 5:44:45 AM UTC-6, Enno wrote:
> Is there, perhaps via a Plugin, a way to recover the second last text editing operation in normal mode ? The dot '.' operator keeps only the last operation.

Nope. This would not be possible, unless every single key is remapped in every single mode, or if somehow macros were being recorded constantly. But what are you trying to accomplish, exactly? I.e. why do you want this or what problem are you encountering?

[Enno]

Hello Ben,

It's my lack of foresight. Let's say I search for "Loch Ness", have a couple of matches, and replace the first match by "Love Nest" by placing my cursor on `v` and typing `ceve<esc>ert`. Then on the next match, I cannot repeat this operation by placing my cursor on `v` and hitting `.` because this is `rt`.

It would be nice go back and forth between the last edit operations by <c-p>/<c-n> say right after hitting `.` to compensate for this lack of foresight. But perhaps there is a better way from the outset to handle this.

Enno

[Ben Fritz]

I think, as soon as I realize "whoops, I needed to repeat more than one thing!" I'd record a macro. The effort needs to be repeated one extra time but after that you can just run the macro.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Macros

[Efraim Yawitz]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 5:10 PM, Ben Fritz <fritzo...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Friday, November 14, 2014 5:44:45 AM UTC-6, Enno wrote:
> Is there, perhaps via a Plugin, a way to recover the second last text editing operation in normal mode ? The dot '.' operator keeps only the last operation.

Nope. This would not be possible, unless every single key is remapped in every single mode, or if somehow macros were being recorded constantly.

Actually, maybe he should just record continuously, say type qz and work for a while and then type q and spit out the z reg to somewhere and take what he likes from it.  Doesn't sound like it would take a lot of resources.

[kls....@gmail.com]

or maybe a plugin that stores an array of 5-10 "last used" operations and updates this FILO list each time one exists insert mode. One could access these edit operations with, say, `N<leader>.` where `N` is the index of the operation.

[Bram Moolenaar]

Plugins having to install a lot of maps to be able to know what was
typed before the key that triggers an action is clumsy.

How about Vim keeping a list of the last N typed keys?
Suppose there is a function keyhistory(1), where the argument is how far
back you look.

I wonder how that would be used in a plugin.

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[Enno]

For the implementation of the dot operator VIM keeps track where an editing operation starts and ends in the stream of characters the user types.

This information together with keyhistory(N) allows to build a plugin that keeps a history of the last editing operations.

[kls....@gmail.com]

wasn't implying that it has to install a lot of maps, just one map is enough the N is just used as an index, much like the way "1z=" takes the first suggestion to fix a spelling error.

Or maybe i don't understand what you're meaning by what you said

[Enno]

Supposedly the installation of maps refers to a lot of keys having to be remapped to keep track of the edit operation history and not to the keys that eventually access this history.