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Background:

  • Vim :help states that a section begins after a form-feed (^L) in the first column [*].
  • In normal mode ]] or [[ can be used to navigate to the next or previous section (respectively).
  • However, it also stops at the next/previous { in the first column.

[*] I am ignoring that a section also starts at some troff macros

My problem:

  • I want to navigate between sections only, i.e., I want motions like ]] and [[ that only stop at the beginning of a section.

Questions:

  1. Is there already a built-in motion that solves my problem?
  2. Sure, I could just map some key combination to /^<C-L><CR>), but is there a better way? In particular, I don't like the idea of it messing with my search history.

PS:

  • To be honest, my real problem is that sometimes it is easier for me (and gcc!) to work with one HUGE file instead of splitting into several translation units. So I divide it into sections and I want to jump fast between sections without stopping at each function block. If you have a better approach, I would appreciate a suggestion as a comment.
  • Even though I am mainly editing C files, I guess I wouldn't care (that much) if a solution overrides the default behavior of [[ and ]]. Not overriding would be a plus, though.

1 Answer 1

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Yes, one problem with [[ and ]] is that they kind of try to do several things at the same time. Another problem is that redefining what a section is is not exactly simple.

Now, :help [[ hints at making your own mappings and there are a few default ftplugins that map [[ and ]] to work in a specific way. So you should probably consider something like this:

" in after/ftplugin/c.vim
nnoremap <buffer> [[ <Cmd>call search("^\<C-l>", 'b')<CR>
nnoremap <buffer> ]] <Cmd>call search("^\<C-l>")<CR>

Note the use of :help search(), which doesn't pollute register /.

If you want to use them outside of C, remove the <buffer> attribute and put them in your vimrc:

" in .vimrc
nnoremap [[ <Cmd>call search("^\<C-l>", 'b')<CR>
nnoremap ]] <Cmd>call search("^\<C-l>")<CR>
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  • Worked perfectly without polluting register /. I did have to replace <Cmd> with : but I imagine <Cmd> is a new notation not available on 8.2 (sorry I have no reputation to upvote you) Apr 11 at 19:17

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