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I always have problems selecting visual areas with the normal! command in vim. Against all I expected, the following doesn't work:
function! s:foo()
normal! v/\S\<cr>
endfunction
nnoremap <silent> a :<c-u>call <sid>foo()<cr>
It just selects nothing. normal! doesn't seem to work with /. Have I reached the limit of vim's capabilities or am I just doing something wrong?
Rather than using vim key-descriptions (such as <CR> or <C-v>) you'll have to enter the literal key you want to press. \<CR> looks like it means "Press the enter key" it really means "Search for \< start of word, followed by the text CR>
To do a literal newline character instead of <cr>, try pressing <C-v><cr>. This will appear as ^M. That works for me.
< of <esc>. All these different kinds of newlines still trip me up...
:normal! v/\S^M? (With ^M entered <C-v><cr>)
Jun 19, 2016 at 0:10