created by

Matt Spear

script type

utility

description

There are a ton of existing abbreviation packages, but none were quite right.  This one provides some unique features: 1. Doesn't expand the abbreviation in specified areas 2. Doesn't expand the abbreviation unless a tab was pressed 3. Placeholder will not compile in most languages 4. Includes mappings to quickly select the next placeholder, accept defaults, or delete current placeholder. Usage:     Exports:         Eatchar() - removes any trailing spaces from abbreviations         ExpandIfSafe(from, to) - expands a:from to a:to if not in a specified block (strings, comments, character, doxygen, bibbrace currently)         Iab(ab, full) - define an abbreviation from a:ab to a:full which expands if safe         IabSelectNext - Finds the next placeholder and selects it         IabSelectDefault - Selects the default option     Maps:         ,, - Select the next placeholder         ,' - Select the default for the current placeholder         ,. - Delete the current placeholder     Example:         Iab('for', 'for(«$1:unsigned i = 0»; «$2:i < «$3»»; «$4:++i»)<CR>{<CR>«$5»<CR>}')         will define an abbreviation for for.  Now typing for<TAB> will expand to:         for(«$1:unsigned i = 0»; «$2:i < «$3»»; «$4:++i»)         {             «$5»         }         with «$1:unsigned i = 0» being selected.  Now typing ,' will change it to unsigned i = 0; and select the $2 branch (Note the numbers are not traversed in order, but instead are merely for marking placeholders.  In a future version this may change).  As it is in select mode typing any character will replace the placeholder.  If a placeholder is unwanted one can press ,., and to traverse use ,,.         Finally, note that abbreviations only expand if the last key was a tab, this ensures typing for<SPACE> will not expand. Customization:     At the moment the only customization is via source modification.  The most likely lines to be modified are: 1) 89-96 to change the mappings, and 2) 44 to change what are the unsafe syntax and what character is used for expansion (currently this must be a non-control character). Alternatives:     snippetsEmu - vimscript #1318     snipMate - vimscript #2540     code-snippet - vimscript #2086     The first two do much more than this, and I had issues with both, e.g. they seemed to have troubles when inserting a snippet inside the middle of a snippet.  The latter is more like this, but differs in its behavior, namely they use the (very neat) trick of mapping a special key (<S-CR>) to execute the expansion, instead this script uses the (also hopefully neat) trick of checking the last character entered and only expanding when the last character is a tab.

install details

Copy to <.vim>/plugin/

Click on the package to download.

package	script version	date	Vim version	user	release notes
iabassist.vim	0.02	2010-08-22	7.0	Matt Spear	Fixed some small issues: 1) selecting default no longer overwrites the default register, 2) Some code simplification, 3) changed the mappings to ,X instead of ;X.
iabassist.vim	0.01	2009-06-22	7.0	Matt Spear	Initial upload

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