How to remap ci$

Question

I am using the plugin vimtex. It offers the functionality (from the introduction of its documentation)

• Text objects
  • ic ac Commands
  • id ad Delimiters
  • ie ae LaTeX environments
  • i$ a$ Inline math structures
  • iP aP Sections

This means that with ci$ I can delete everyithing between two $-signs. I would like to remap this to cim, because it is easier to type. However nnoremap cim ci$ has no effect. What can I do instead?

I notice that this has probably nothing to do with vimtex, but I don't know any other example to illustrate my issue.

Answer 1

Since i$ is a mapping itself (defined by the vimtex plug-in), you need a recursive mapping to be able to use i$ as part of the expansion of your mapping.

So this should work:

nmap cim ci$

But you can also create an operator-pending mode mapping for im, in which case that would work with other operations such as dim or yim and other built-in or custom operations that take a motion:

omap im i$

If vimtex also defines i$ in Visual mode (which is a common pattern), you might want to create the mapping for your alias in Visual mode as well:

xmap im i$

Finally, you may want to define these mappings only for tex files, so consider adding these commands to ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/tex.vim (so it's loaded only for files with FileType tex, and only after the vimtex plug-in has been loaded.)

Finally, you want to use <buffer> to make your mappings local to your buffer, so they're loaded for buffers of that filetype and do not leak into other filetypes:

omap <buffer> im i$
xmap <buffer> im i$

Finally, you might want to modify the b:undo_ftplugin variable to remove these mappings if the filetype-related plug-in actions need to be undone. See :help undo_ftplugin for more details on that.

If you simply want im as an alias to i$ in all cases (assuming other plug-ins might have their own definition for i$), then global mappings for it might be acceptable, they certainly work.

Answer 2

You can also put the following in your .vimrc:

    xmap dsm <plug>(vimtex-env-delete-math)
    xmap csm <plug>(vimtex-env-change-math)
    xmap am  <plug>(vimtex-a$)
    xmap im  <plug>(vimtex-i$)

    omap dsm <plug>(vimtex-env-delete-math)
    omap csm <plug>(vimtex-env-change-math)
    omap am  <plug>(vimtex-a$)
    omap im  <plug>(vimtex-i$)

This plugs the corresponding functions defined by vimtex directly to dsm, csm, am, im. With these mappings a$, i$ etc won't work anymor. Not sure how to make both a$ and am work (without making vim wait when single a or i is pressed in normal mode), but I am guessing you don't need both of them to work.