Visual feedback after executing mapping

Question

I have the following mapping in my ~/.vimrc file:

 map <F3> my0v$"+y`y

It works correctly, but I'd like some visual feedback or some other indication to show that I've pressed the key. Any suggestions?

This will copy the line character-wise instead of linewise. However, it will also copy the newline so it feels more linewise. I agree that it would probably be easier to just do yy/Y or :yank and just accept to do a little cleanup on paste/put. — Peter Rincker, Jan 14, 2019 at 17:17

Peter Rincker · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-15 15:05:49Z

You have options:

Explicitly put an :echo at the end of your mapping. map <key> foo:echo "done"<cr>
Use 'showcmd' which will show partial commands. This will give you a slight clue that something happened for multi-key mappings/commands. (Not really helpful here)
Use a plugin like vim-highlightedyank to quickly highlight the last yank

General rule of thumbs for mappings:

Supply a mode for mappings. e.g. nmap for normal mode
Use *noremap variants unless you want remapping to occur or using a <Plug> mapping

This means your mapping would look like:

nnoremap <F3> my0v$"+y`y

Some more thoughts:

This is very similar to "+yy/"+Y, :yank +, or V"+y. There is another newline in the register, but that is easy to reason about.
You may not want the ending newline at all, so use g_ instead of $.
This mutates the y mark. This could be surprising, consider using a :yank or yy/Y
Could "cast" put/paste or change the register type to accomplish the same effect. e.g. nnoremap <f3> "+yy:call setreg('+', @+, 'v')<cr>

Personally, I lean toward using vim-highlightyank and the following mapping:

nnoremap <silent> <f3> "+yy:call setreg('+', @+, 'v')<cr>

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