Completion style like Vim

Completion style like Vim

[Michael Treibton]

Hi all,

I'm wondering how i can get vim-like completion with zsh, and even if
it's possible?

For those who don't know, vim allows completion to happen on one line,
so if I have entered the following commands:

foobar hello
bar baz hello
zsh is cool
zsh is really cool

... and I were to type in:

zsh is

and then press the up or down arrow keys, I would see as completion:

zsh is cool
zsh is really cool

which would be cycled through on the single line -- that is, without
presenting the completion menu.

Is something like this possible with zsh (and I assume zle?)  Note
that I already use the following bindings:

bindkey '\e[5~' beginning-of-buffer-or-history
bindkey '\e[6~' end-of-buffer-or-history
bindkey "^[n" history-search-forward
bindkey "^[p" history-search-backward

Which don't quite do what I want.

Is this possible at all?  I hope I've explained this well enough.

Thanks!

Michael

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Michael Treibton wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering how i can get vim-like completion with zsh, and even if 
> it's possible?
>
> For those who don't know, vim allows completion to happen on one line, 
> so if I have entered the following commands:
>
> foobar hello
> bar baz hello
> zsh is cool
> zsh is really cool
>
> ... and I were to type in:
>
> zsh is
>
> and then press the up or down arrow keys, I would see as completion:
>
> zsh is cool
> zsh is really cool
>
> which would be cycled through on the single line -- that is, without 
> presenting the completion menu.
>
> Is something like this possible with zsh (and I assume zle?)  Note 
> that I already use the following bindings:
>
> bindkey '\e[5~' beginning-of-buffer-or-history
> bindkey '\e[6~' end-of-buffer-or-history
> bindkey "^[n" history-search-forward
> bindkey "^[p" history-search-backward
>
> Which don't quite do what I want.
>
> Is this possible at all?  I hope I've explained this well enough.

That's not how my Vim completion works.  (Big fan of the popupmenu and 
supertab.)  I guess you like i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L?  I much prefer 
i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O for the general case, falling back to i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I. 
(Both of which I access via '<Tab>'.)

>From your description, though, I think you're looking for:

history-beginning-search-{forward,backward}

(Someone complained about the name recently, but the gist of 
'beginning-' is that it searches from the beginning of the line entered 
thus far.)

-- 
Best,
Ben

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

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[attempt two -- not sure if the original ever hit the current zsh-users 
address]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Matt Wozniski wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:09 PM, Benjamin R. Haskell wrote:
> > On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Michael Treibton wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > I'm wondering how i can get vim-like completion with zsh, and even 
> > > if it's possible?
> > > 
> > > For those who don't know, vim allows completion to happen on one 
> > > line, so if I have entered the following commands:
> > > 
> > > foobar hello
> > > bar baz hello
> > > zsh is cool
> > > zsh is really cool
> > > 
> > > ... and I were to type in:
> > > 
> > > zsh is
> > > 
> > > and then press the up or down arrow keys, I would see as 
> > > completion:
> > > 
> > > zsh is cool
> > > zsh is really cool
> > 
> > That's not how my Vim completion works.  (Big fan of the popupmenu 
> > and supertab.)  I guess you like i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L?  I much prefer 
> > i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O for the general case, falling back to 
> > i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I. (Both of which I access via '<Tab>'.)
> 
> Michael was describing how it works in command-line mode, not insert 
> mode.
> 

Ah, yep.  There's the disconnect.  I do too much with Vim's 
insert-completion to think of that as "completion".

In any case, the following seems to work like Vim's command-line 
completion:

bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward

^[[A == up arrow, ^[[B == down.  Sounds like you want ^n and ^p, too.

-- 
Best,
Ben

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Michael Treibton]

Ben --

[ Sorry about the off-list reply -- that's gmail being a pain.
Hopefully I've sorted that now. ]

On 16 November 2010 21:21, Benjamin R. Haskell <zsh@benizi.com> wrote:
> [attempt two -- not sure if the original ever hit the current zsh-users
> address]
>
> On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Matt Wozniski wrote:
>> Michael was describing how it works in command-line mode, not insert
>> mode.

Thanks, Matt.  Apologies for not being very clear before.   I suppose
to me it was obvious what I meant by "completion" in terms of ":" mode
in VIm.  But it looks like we're all singing from the same hymn sheet
now.  :)

>
> Ah, yep.  There's the disconnect.  I do too much with Vim's
> insert-completion to think of that as "completion".
>
> In any case, the following seems to work like Vim's command-line
> completion:
>
> bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
> bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward
>
> ^[[A == up arrow, ^[[B == down.  Sounds like you want ^n and ^p, too.

Thanks, Ben.  This works exactly as I want, except for one thing --
the cursor position.

Let's say I have this in my history:

get_foo
get_bar

... and assume also that I've got your bindings configured (which I do) as:

bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward

If I type in (at the zsh prompt):

get_

and press the up-arrow key and down-arrow key, the cursor position
remains after the underscore.  Ideally, I'd love it if the cursor,
when pressed in either up or down direction could complete the line,
*and* move to the end of the line, because now, I find myself having
to do this:

get_

press "up-arrow", and then press "End", because actually I made a typo
at the end of the line I need to correct and/or was missing some
options from the command in the first place.  With my previous
bindings for those arrow-keys, this cursor-position was not a problem.

I have no doubt zsh can do this, and I am learning about it all the
time -- and I appreciate your help and Matt's so far.  So any insights
you might have are warmly appreciated.  :)

TIA,

Michael

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Michael Treibton]

Hi all --

On 17 November 2010 22:43, Michael Treibton <mtreibton@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Ben --
>
> [ Sorry about the off-list reply -- that's gmail being a pain.
> Hopefully I've sorted that now. ]
>
> On 16 November 2010 21:21, Benjamin R. Haskell <zsh@benizi.com> wrote:
>> [attempt two -- not sure if the original ever hit the current zsh-users
>> address]
>>
>> On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Matt Wozniski wrote:
>>> Michael was describing how it works in command-line mode, not insert
>>> mode.
>
> Thanks, Matt.  Apologies for not being very clear before.   I suppose
> to me it was obvious what I meant by "completion" in terms of ":" mode
> in VIm.  But it looks like we're all singing from the same hymn sheet
> now.  :)
>
>>
>> Ah, yep.  There's the disconnect.  I do too much with Vim's
>> insert-completion to think of that as "completion".
>>
>> In any case, the following seems to work like Vim's command-line
>> completion:
>>
>> bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
>> bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward
>>
>> ^[[A == up arrow, ^[[B == down.  Sounds like you want ^n and ^p, too.
>
> Thanks, Ben.  This works exactly as I want, except for one thing --
> the cursor position.
>
> Let's say I have this in my history:
>
> get_foo
> get_bar
>
> ... and assume also that I've got your bindings configured (which I do) as:
>
> bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
> bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward
>
> If I type in (at the zsh prompt):
>
> get_
>
> and press the up-arrow key and down-arrow key, the cursor position
> remains after the underscore.  Ideally, I'd love it if the cursor,
> when pressed in either up or down direction could complete the line,
> *and* move to the end of the line, because now, I find myself having
> to do this:
>
> get_
>
> press "up-arrow", and then press "End", because actually I made a typo
> at the end of the line I need to correct and/or was missing some
> options from the command in the first place.  With my previous
> bindings for those arrow-keys, this cursor-position was not a problem.
>
> I have no doubt zsh can do this, and I am learning about it all the
> time -- and I appreciate your help and Matt's so far.  So any insights
> you might have are warmly appreciated.  :)

Was there any ideas on this, may I ask?

TIA,

Michael

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

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On Thu, 20 Jan 2011, Michael Treibton wrote:

> On 17 November 2010 22:43, Michael Treibton wrote:
>> Ben --
>>
>> [ Sorry about the off-list reply -- that's gmail being a pain.
>> Hopefully I've sorted that now. ]

No problem.


>> On 16 November 2010 21:21, Benjamin R. Haskell wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> In any case, the following seems to work like Vim's command-line 
>>> completion:
>>>
>>> bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
>>> bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward
>>>
>>> ^[[A == up arrow, ^[[B == down.  Sounds like you want ^n and ^p, 
>>> too.
>>
>> Thanks, Ben.  This works exactly as I want, except for one thing -- 
>> the cursor position.
>>
>> Let's say I have this in my history:
>>
>> get_foo
>> get_bar
>>
>> ... and assume also that I've got your bindings configured (which I 
>> do) as:
>>
>> bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
>> bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward
>>
>> If I type in (at the zsh prompt):
>>
>> get_
>>
>> and press the up-arrow key and down-arrow key, the cursor position 
>> remains after the underscore.  Ideally, I'd love it if the cursor, 
>> when pressed in either up or down direction could complete the line, 
>> *and* move to the end of the line, because now, I find myself having 
>> to do this:
>>
>> get_
>>
>> press "up-arrow", and then press "End", because actually I made a 
>> typo at the end of the line I need to correct and/or was missing some 
>> options from the command in the first place.  With my previous 
>> bindings for those arrow-keys, this cursor-position was not a 
>> problem.
>>
>> I have no doubt zsh can do this, and I am learning about it all the 
>> time -- and I appreciate your help and Matt's so far.  So any 
>> insights you might have are warmly appreciated.  :)
>
> Was there any ideas on this, may I ask?
>

Sorry.  I never saw this for some reason...

I'm not sure there's a nice way to do this.  I think 
history-beginning-search-* uses everything preceding the cursor as the 
search.  So, if you push the cursor to EOL, your search changes, which 
might not be desirable:

e.g. history contains:

abcdef 123456
abcghi
abcdef

abc_ + the search would end up with: abcdef_ (cursor at end of line). 
Then 'abcghi' would be skipped in a successive search, even though it 
matches the original (abc), because it doesn't start with the new search 
(abcdef).

Something more clever, that would maybe:

1. reset the 'search term' on accept-line
2. on first run, keep track of the 'search term'
3. run history-beginning-search-*

_might_ do the trick.

-- 
Best,
Ben

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Michael Treibton]

Hi,

On 20 January 2011 22:02, Benjamin R. Haskell <zsh@benizi.com> wrote:
> Sorry.  I never saw this for some reason...

That's OK.  I like to leave time enough before asking again.  :)

> I'm not sure there's a nice way to do this.  I think
> history-beginning-search-* uses everything preceding the cursor as the
> search.  So, if you push the cursor to EOL, your search changes, which might
> not be desirable:
>
> e.g. history contains:
>
> abcdef 123456
> abcghi
> abcdef
>
> abc_ + the search would end up with: abcdef_ (cursor at end of line). Then
> 'abcghi' would be skipped in a successive search, even though it matches the
> original (abc), because it doesn't start with the new search (abcdef).
>
> Something more clever, that would maybe:
>
> 1. reset the 'search term' on accept-line
> 2. on first run, keep track of the 'search term'
> 3. run history-beginning-search-*

How might I go about implementing this?  My zsh knowledge is not too
good to implement steps 1-3 as you suggest.  Sorry, Ben.  :)

Michael

Re: Completion style like Vim

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 20, 10:14pm, Michael Treibton wrote:
}
} On 20 January 2011 22:02, Benjamin R. Haskell <zsh@benizi.com> wrote:
} >
} > Something more clever, that would maybe:
} >
} > 1. reset the 'search term' on accept-line
} > 2. on first run, keep track of the 'search term'
} > 3. run history-beginning-search-*
} 
} How might I go about implementing this?  My zsh knowledge is not too
} good to implement steps 1-3 as you suggest.  Sorry, Ben.  :)

I think perhaps you just want the history-search-end widget which is
included in the zsh distribution?

"man zshcontrib" or "info zsh" and search for history-search-end:

    This function implements the widgets [which] work by first calling
    the corresponding builtin widget and then moving the cursor to the
    end of the line. The original cursor position is remembered and
    restored before calling the builtin widget a second time, so that
    the same search is repeated to look farther through the history.

--