120 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
= Modes
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== Description
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Kakoune is a modal editor which means that keys have different effects depending
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on the current mode. Therefore, modes can be conceptualized as a way to group
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related behaviors together during a text editing workflow.
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Kakoune starts in Normal mode. A few keys let users enter other modes
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where they can focus on a specific task before going back to Normal mode.
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Modes are stored in a stack with the top of the stack being the active mode.
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So in some scenarios, the Normal mode may feel *nested* in another one.
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The `ModeChange` hook is triggered each time a mode is popped or pushed
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on this stack. See <<hooks#,`:doc hooks`>>
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To get a comprehensive list of commands available for each modes, see
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<<keys#,`:doc keys`>>. Most of them are described in *info* boxes in
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real-time if the `autoinfo` option is set.
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To customize key mappings in various modes, refer to <<mapping#,`:doc mapping`>>.
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== Builtin modes
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=== Normal mode
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Normal mode is the default mode. It provides commands to manipulate
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selections, such as general movement, text object selection, searching,
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splitting, and commands to manipulate the text underlying the current
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selections, such as yanking, pasting, deleting…
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It also provides commands to enter other modes.
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See normal commands <<keys#movement,`:doc keys movement`>>.
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=== Insert mode
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Insert mode provides an efficient way to interactively write text into
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the buffer. Most keys will insert their corresponding characters before
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every selections cursors. It also provides completion support for inserted
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text along with some commands for basic movement.
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Insert mode can be entered from Normal modes through a set of commands
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such as `i` to insert before selection, `a` to insert after selection,
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`o` to insert in a new line below selections… It can then be exited with
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`<esc>` to return to Normal mode.
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See changes <<keys#changes,`:doc keys changes`>>.
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From Insert mode, `<a-;>` provides a way to temporarily enter a new
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Normal mode for a single command, before returning to Insert mode.
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See insert commands <<keys#insert-mode,`:doc keys insert-mode`>>.
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=== Goto mode
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Goto mode provides commands dedicated to jumping either inside a buffer
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(such as jumping to buffer start/end, window top/bottom) or to another
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(such as jumping to the file whose path is currently selected).
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See goto commands <<keys#goto-commands,`:doc keys goto-commands`>>.
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=== View mode
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View mode provides commands dedicated to controlling the window, such
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as scrolling or centering the main selection cursor.
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See view commands <<keys#view-commands,`:doc keys view-commands`>>.
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=== Menu mode
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Menu mode is entered when a menu is displayed with the `menu` command.
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Mappings are used to filter and select intended items.
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=== Prompt mode
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Mode entered with `:`, `/` or the `prompt` command. During prompt mode a
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line of text is edited and then validated with `<ret>` or abandoned with
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`<esc>`.
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See prompt commands <<keys#prompt-commands,`:doc keys prompt-commands`>>.
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=== Object mode
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Mode entered with `<a-i>`, `<a-a>` and various combinations of `[]{}` keys.
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It aims at crafting semantic selections, often called *text-objects*.
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See object commands <<keys#object-selection,`:doc keys object-selection`>>.
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=== User mode
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Mode entered with `,` (comma key). The user mode is empty by default and is
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the opportunity to store custom mappings with no risk to shadow builtin ones.
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The context of execution is always the Normal mode.
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== User modes
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The following two commands are useful in advanced use cases, when the
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builtin User mode gets too crowded by mappings competing for the same
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key that deserves to be split in more meaningful collections. It's
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mostly useful for plugin authors who want to bind their new commands in
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extensible menus.
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--------------------------------
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declare-user-mode <name>
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--------------------------------
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Declare a new custom mode that can later be referred by the *map* command.
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For example a `grep` custom mode to attach keys like `n` or `p` to skim
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through the output results.
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-------------------------------
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enter-user-mode <name>
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-------------------------------
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Enable the designated mode for the next key. Docstrings are shown in the
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automatic info box to increase discoverability. To keep illustrating
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the aforementioned fictional `grep` mode, a normal mapping on `<a-g>`
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could be used to enter this mode.
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