vim question...

Paul B. Mahol onemda at gmail.com
Mon Jun 15 07:24:59 UTC 2009


On 6/15/09, Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote:
>
>
> 	the main reason i don't use vim is because of its [u]ndo
> 	command.  as most of you can understand, there are a whole slew
> 	of times when i need to undo something.  too often in vim,
> 	hitting 'u' --- sometimes > once accidentally --- has resulted in
> 	a small disaster.  [[i have too many current/recent copies of
> 	my working files to do TOO much damage!]]  Anyway, is there a
> 	means of setting the undo key to mimic vi/nvi?

>From vim help:

2. Two ways of undo                                     *undo-two-ways*

How undo and redo commands work depends on the 'u' flag in 'cpoptions'.
There is the Vim way ('u' excluded) and the vi-compatible way ('u' included).
In the Vim way, "uu" undoes two changes.  In the Vi-compatible way, "uu" does
nothing (undoes an undo).

'u' excluded, the Vim way:
You can go back in time with the undo command.  You can then go forward again
with the redo command.  If you make a new change after the undo command,
the redo will not be possible anymore.

'u' included, the Vi-compatible way:
The undo command undoes the previous change, and also the previous undo command.
The redo command repeats the previous undo command.  It does NOT repeat a
change command, use "." for that.

Examples        Vim way                 Vi-compatible way       ~
"uu"            two times undo          no-op
"u CTRL-R"      no-op                   two times undo

Rationale:  Nvi uses the "." command instead of CTRL-R.  Unfortunately, this
            is not Vi compatible.  For example "dwdwu." in Vi deletes two
            words, in Nvi it does nothing.


Anyway this topic is offtopic.
-- 
Paul


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