Dear “Katevim” users.  Kate’s Vi Mode is steadily improving and I want to take a moment to tell what’s on the horizon for KDE 4.4. There has been quite a few bugs fixed since 4.3, but some major new features have also been introduced:

The Comma Text Object

This is something that I have been missing in Vim. The comma text object makes it easy to modify parameter lists in C-like languages and other comma separated lists. It is basically the area between two commas or between a comma and a bracket. In the line below, the three ranges this text object would cover is highlighted in red.

Comma Text Object

Comma text object ranges. If the cursor is over, say, "arg2", pressing c i , ("change inner comma") would delete "double arg2" and place the cursor between the two commas in insert mode. A very convenient way to change a function's parameter

This has actually been in Kate’s Vi Mode for a while now, but since it has not been announced until now, I guess I am the only one using it. :-)

Limited Normal Mode Mapping Support

It is now possible to add mappings in normal mode (:nnoremap in Vim). There are still some flaws, such as the fact that one cannot map a keypress to “:somecommand<enter>“, but hopefully people who are using dvorak/colemake can make use of the vi mode now.

It is now possible to map keypresses in normal mode

It is now possible to map keypresses in normal mode

Command Line Mode Commands

Yes, really! Kate’s Vi Mode finally support some of the most command commandline mode commands from Vim. What can be done from the Kate editor part is limited by the fact that it can’t control its hosting application, but Kate – the application – has now gotten support for the following commands:

  • q, qa
  • w, wq, wa, wqa
  • x, xa
  • bn, bp
  • new, vnew
  • edit
Kate showing help text for the wq[a] command

Kate showing help text for a command line mode command