How can I toggle multiple mappings on/off with a command?

Question

I know how to create normal and command mappings, but I am trying to make a command that toggles between two states, (a) create 3 mappings and (b) reset them using unmap. How can I do this in my vimrc config?

Answer 1

You can use this:

let s:mappingsState=1

command! TM call ToggleMappings()

function! ToggleMappings()
    if s:mappingsState
        nnoremap <F1> :echo "mapping 1"<CR>
        " Or any mapping you want to create
    else
        unmap <F1>
        " Or any key you want to unmap
    endif

    let s:mappingsState = !s:mappingsState
endfunction

This create a variable which will keep track of the state of the mappings, a function which maps or unmaps the keys depending on this state and a command :TM which calls the function.

Answer 2

A long, long, time ago, I've published a plugin aimed at toggling the state of various things (vim settings, mappings, abbreviations...).

AFAIK it still works, but the code is old and quite cumbersome by vim7 standards -- yeah, vim 8 is out, and vim 8.1 not that far away.

To use the (badly named) Trigger.vim plugin,

1. install first my vim library plugin it depends upon, then drop Trigger.vim into your ~/.vim/plugin/ directory.

2. then, the easier way consist in putting all your mappings in a function in a dedicated file ~/.vim/plugin/after/mymappings.vim for instance, and register the toggling with something like:

   " to put in plugin/mymappings.vim, 
   " expecting the mappings are defined in the function FRabbrInit()
   call Trigger_Function('<Plug>(do-toggle-fr-abbreviations)', 'FRabbrInit', expand('<sfile>:p'), 0, 0 )
   
   nmap <Plug>(toggle-fr-abbreviations) <Plug>(do-toggle-fr-abbreviations)
   if !hasmapto('<Plug>(toggle-fr-abbreviations)', 'n')
       nmap <silent> <unique> <leader>tfa <Plug>(toggle-fr-abbreviations)
   endif
   

See my plugin/fr-abbr.vim plugin for a complete (and very old-school) example.

Someday I should move these functions into an autoload plugin and simplify a few things.