What is Lang-Arg in vim?

Question

I was seeing the docs in :help map-mode where I saw that map! works for Insert and Command-line modes while lmap works on Insert, Command-line, Lang-Arg But I've never heard of Lang-Arg mode. Can you explain to me what that mode is?!

Answer 1

Short answer: This is a feature that allows one to "map" the normal characters on a keyboard to language specific characters, e.g. latin to cryllic or greek.

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From :help language-mapping:

                                                *language-mapping*
":lmap" defines a mapping that applies to:
- Insert mode
- Command-line mode
- when entering a search pattern
- the argument of the commands that accept a text character, such as "r" and
  "f"
- for the input() line
Generally: Whenever a character is to be typed that is part of the text in the
buffer, not a Vim command character.  "Lang-Arg" isn't really another mode,
it's just used here for this situation.

There is more info, so please open the suggested help page to read on. See also:

• :help 'keymap'
• :help 'iminsert'
• :help 45.5

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I did not know this before answering. I did the following steps to find this info:

• :help map-mode
• /Lang-Arg
• nn