Run a macro without having it set as last macro (@@)

Question

I have @@ mapped to Space. This can be really convenient.

Sometimes I want to combine a macro with another. So maybe I need to record q as @:/jump to run my last regex substitution and move to the next place I probably want to run it. Then @q and press Space until I'm happy.

Unfortunately if you run @q, during the macro the @@ repeat will be set to @:. Is there a way to run @: without setting it to @@ while recording the macro for q?

In this toy example, instead of combining macros I could copy the substitution into a register and paste it during the q recording, but that requires more foresight, and a bit of fiddling.

Edit:

I guess as far as combining @: goes, I can always use :%s/\v//gc... There are situations I've wanted to combine macros that have nothing to do with regex though. Only option I can think of so far to do what I want is remap Space to always be @q, instead of the last macro, which might be okay since that's 80% of the time what I mean.

Answer 1

Is there a way to run @: without setting it to @@ while recording the macro for q?

Yes:

For normal 'character' registers:

:call feedkeys(@a)

": needs special handling:

:call feedkeys(':' . @: . "\<CR>")

If you use this often, you may want to map it:

" for @:
:noremap @- :<C-u>call feedkeys(':' . @: . "<Bslash><lt>CR>")<CR>

" for normal char registers
:noremap @_ :<C-u>call feedkeys(@)<Left>

" more complex version of the latter, improved to not need a final <CR>
noremap @_ :<C-u>call FeedReg()<CR>
function! FeedReg()
  echo 'Enter register name character:'
  let reg=nr2char(getchar())
  call feedkeys(getreg(reg))
endfunction

Answer 2

Is there a way to run @: without setting it to @@ while recording the macro for q?

Yes:

:<C-p><CR>

(or equivalently

:<Up><CR>

.)