matchup.vim

⚠️ warning ⚠️ this plugin is unfinished and under heavy active development. It is not ready for use yet!

match-up is a replacement for the venerable vim plugin matchit.vim match-up aims to replicate all of matchit's features, fix a number of its deficiencies and bugs, and add a few totally new features. It also replaces the standard plugin matchparen, allowing all of matchit's words to be highlighted along with the matchpairs ((){}[]).

A major goal of this project is to keep a modern and modular code base. Contributions are welcome!

Table of contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Features
• Options
• FAQ
• Interoperability
• Acknowledgements
• Development

Overview

This plugin

• Extends vim's % motion to language-words like if, else, endif.
• Adds motions g%, [%, ]%, and z%.
• Combines these motions into convenient text objects i% and a%.
• Highlights symbols and words under the cursor which % can work on, and highlights matching symbols and words. Now you can easily tell where % will jump to.

Planned features:

• Adds auto-completion for words and symbols- for example you could automatically insert corresponding a ) or endif.

Installation

If you use vim-plug, then add the following line to your vimrc file:

Plug 'andymass/matchup.vim'

Or use some other plugin manager:

• vundle
• neobundle
• pathogen

Features

	feature	match-up	matchit	matchparen
(a.1)	jump between matching words	👍	👍	❌
(a.2)	jump to open & close words	👍	❓	❌
(a.3)	jump inside	👍	❌	❌
(b.1)	full set of text objects	👍	❓	❌
(c.1)	highlight (), [], & {}	👍	❌	👍
(c.2)	highlight all matches	👍	❌	❌
(c.3)	display matches off-screen	👍	❌	❌
(d.1)	auto-insert open, close, & mid	🚧	❌	❌
(d.2)	completion	🚧	❌	❌
(d.3)	parallel transmutation	👍	❌	❌
(d.4)	split & join	🚧	❌	❌
(e.1)	modern, modular coding style	👍	❌	❌
(e.2)	actively developed	👍	❌	❌

Legend: 👍 supported. 🚧 TODO, planned, or in progress. ❓ poorly implemented, broken, or uncertain. ❌ not possible.

Detailed feature documentation

What do we mean by open, close, mid? Here is a vim-script example:

if l:x == 1
  call one()
else
  call two()
elseif
  call three()
endif

match-up understands the words if, else, elseif, endif and that they form a sequential construct in the vim-script language. The "open" word is if, the "close" word is endif, and the "mid" words are else and elseif. The if/endif pair is called an "open-to-close" block and the if/else, else/elsif, and elseif/endif are called "any" blocks.

(a.1) jump between matching words

• % go forwards to next matching word. If at a close word, cycle back to the corresponding open word.
• {count}% forwards {count} times. Requires let g:matchup_override_Npercent = 1. By default, {count}% goes to the {count} percentage in the file.
• g% go backwards to [count]th previous matching word. If at an open word, cycle around to the corresponding close word.

(a.2) jump to open and close words

• [% go to [count]th previous unmatched open word. Allows navigation to the start of surrounding blocks. This is similar to vim's built-in [( and [{ and is an exclusive motion.
• ]% go to [count]th next unmatched close word. This is an exclusive motion.

(a.3) jump inside

• z% go to inside [count]th nearest inner contained block. This is an inclusive motion.

(b.1) full set of text objects

• i% the inside of an open to close block

• 1i% the inside of an any block

• {count}i% If count is not 1, the inside open-to-close block

• a% an open-to-close block.

• 1a% an any block. Includes mids but does not include open and close.

• {count}a% if {count} is greater than 1, the {count} surrounding open-to-close block.

Note: by default objects involving matchpairs such as (){}[] are performed character-wise, while matchwords such as if/endif are performed line-wise. The -wise can be forced using "v", "V", or ^V Let g:matchup_all_charwise. XXX inclusive, exclusive XXX need () characterwise, others linewise except QUIRKS.

(c.1) highlight (), [], and {}

match-up emulates vim's matchparen to highlight the symbols contained in the matchpairs setting.

(c.2) highlight all matches

To disable match highlighting let g:matchup_matchparen_enabled = 0. If this option is set before the plugin is loaded, it will not disable the matchparen plugin (Planned). To disable highlighting entirely do not load matchparen.

(c.3) display matches off screen

If a open or close which would have been highlighted is on a line positioned outside the current window, the match is shown in the status line. If both the open and close match are off-screen, the close match is preferred.

(d.1) auto-insert open, close, and mid

Planned.

• end-wise style completion: typing CTRL-X <cr> will insert the corresponding end word.

• automatic block insertion: typing CTRL-X CTRL-B to produce block skeletons.

(d.2) auto-completion

Planned.

Typing CTRL-X M will give a menu of possible words.

(d.3) parallel transmutations

In insert mode, after changing text inside a word, matching words will be changed in parallel. As an example,

<pre>
  text
</pre>

Changing pre to div and leaving insert mode will produce:

<div>
  text
</div>

This must be done before leaving insert mode. A corresponding normal mode command is planned.

Planned: g:matchup_auto_transmute, CTRL-G % mapping.

(d.4) split and join

Planned.

Inclusive and exclusive motions

In vim, character motions following operators (such as d for delete and c for change) are either inclusive or exclusive. This means they either include the ending position or not. match-up is designed so that d]% inside a set of parenthesis behaves exactly like d]). For other words, exclusive motions will not include the close word. In this example, where █ is the cursor position,

if █| continue | endif

pressing d]% will produce

if endif

To include the close word, use either dv]% or vd]%. This is vim compatible.

Options

FAQ

• match-up doesn't work

The plugin requires a fairly recent version of vim. Please tell me your vim version and error messages. Try updating vim and see if the problem persists.

• Why does jumping not work for construct X in language Y?

Please open a new issue

• Highlighting is not correct for construct X

match-up uses matchit's filetype-specific data, which may not give enough information to create proper highlights. To fix this, you may need to add a highlight quirk.

For help, please open a new issue and be a specific as possible.

• I'm having performance problems

match-up aims to be as fast as possible. If you see any performance issues, please open a new issue and report g:matchup#perf#times.

• How can I contribute?

Read the contribution guidelines and issue template. Be as precise and detailed as possible when submitting issues and pull requests.

Interoperability

• match-up is not compatible with vimtex and will be disabled automatically when vimtex is detected.
• the end-completion maps conflict with vim-endwise.
• matchit.vim should not be loaded. If it is loaded, it must be loaded before match-up (in this case, matchit is disabled).
• match-up loads matchparen if it is not already loaded.

Acknowledgments

Origins

match-up was originally based on @lervag's vimtex. The concept and style of this plugin and its development are heavily influenced by vimtex.

Other inspirations

• matchit
• matchparen
• vim-endwise
• auto-pairs
• delimitMate
• splitjoin.vim
• vim-surround
• vim-sandwich
• MatchTagAlways

license

Totally new features

• parallel transformations (transmutation) (need to cache matches and see if they change)
  • polymorphic / smart -> if:end,while:end
• native split/join
• quirks
• auto insert

Definitions

Matchword A matchword is an regular expression which defines interesting items to matchup matchup treats specially. For instance, by default ( and ) are paired matchwords. is on the matched to buffer text, becomes a matched word,

Matched word A matched word is an instance of buffer text which matches

Variables

matchup understands the following variables b:match_words a set of b:match_ignorecase b:match_skip loaded_matchit

Existing matchit features, made better:

% v_% between matches g% v_g% backwards between matches [% ]% to nearest unmatched o_a% o_i% delimited text object

Features in matchparen:

matchup emulates matchparen's highlighting for matchpairs Echo invisible pairs

Features not in matchit:

Auto-completion ctrl-x shift completes the nearest unmatched matchword. When n-tuple matchwords are used the last one is inserted.

Highlighting general matchup highlights matches for b:match_words

Jump into z[]% go to the center of the next group of matchwords

Development

TODO

• vim proper doc/
• Add screenshots