NEATVI

Neatvi is a small vi/ex editor for editing UTF-8 text. It supports syntax highlighting, multiple windows, right-to-left languages, and keymaps.

CONFIGURATION

Edit conf.h to adjust syntax highlighting rules and text direction patterns. To define a new keymap, create a new array in kmap.h, like kmap_fa, and add it to kmaps array in the same header (the first entry of the new array specifies its name). The current keymap may be changed with :cm ex command. When in input mode, ^e activates the English keymap and ^f switches to the alternate keymap (the last keymap specified with :cm).

Sadly, VTE-based terminals such as GNOME's implement a backward-incompatible extension of virtual terminal escape codes to render bidirectional text by default. When using these terminal, the value of LNPREF macro in conf.h needs to be changed to "\33[8l".

COMMANDS

Commands not available in ex(1):

:cm[ap][!] [kmap] Without kmap, prints the current keymap name. When kmap is specified, sets the alternate keymap to kmap and, unless ! is given, switches to this keymap. :ft [filetype] Without filetype, prints the current file type. When filetype is specified, sets the file type of the current ex buffer. :ta[g] tag Jumps to tag (tags file: TAGPATH environment variable or ./tags). :tn[ext] Jumps to the next matching tag. :tp[rev] Jumps to the previous matching tag. :po[p] Pops tag stack. :b[uffer] [buf] Without buf, prints buffer list. Switches to the given buffer if buf is a buffer number or alias. Also, buf can be -, +, !, and ~ to switch to the previous buffer, switch to the next buffer, delete the current buffer, and renumber buffers, respectively. :rs reg Reads dot-terminated lines (similar to :a command) from ex input and copies them to the given yank buffer. :rx reg cmd Like :! command, executes cmd. However, the contents of the specified yank buffer is given to the command as input, and the output of the command is written to that yank buffer. :ec[ho] msg Prints the given message (useful in ex scripts or q-commands).

New key mappings:

• ^a in normal mode: searches for the word under the cursor.
• ^p in insert mode: inserts the contents of the default yank buffer.
• ^rX in insert mode: inserts the contents of yank buffer X.
• zL, zl, zr, and zR in normal mode: changes the value of td option.
• ^e and ^f in insert mode: switches to the English and alternate keymap.
• ze and zf in normal mode: switches to the English and alternate keymap.
• gu, gU, and g~ in normal mode: switches character case.
• ^l in normal mode: updates terminal dimensions (after resizing it).
• ^] and ^t in normal mode: jumps to tag and pops tag stack.
• gf in normal mode: edits the file whose address is under the cursor.
• gl in normal mode: like gf, but it reads line and column numbers too.
• ^ws, ^wo, ^wc, ^wj, ^wk, ^wx in normal mode: manages windows.
• ^wgf, ^wgl, ^w^] in normal mode: executes gf, gl, ^] in a new window.
• zj, zk, zD: equivalent to :b+, :b-, :b !.
• zJ, zK: equivalent to :next, :prev.
• q in normal mode: see quick access section.
• ^a in ex, search, and pipe prompts: inserts from history lines.

Other noteworthy differences with vi(1):

• Neatvi assumes POSIX extended regular expressions (ERE) in search patterns, conf.h variables, and even tags files.
• If paths start with =, they are assumed to be relative to the directory of the current file.
• Neatvi highlights files whose names end with ls as directory listings; the gl command edits the file under the cursor. For instance, git ls-files >ls && neatvi ls.
• Neatvi supports extended yank buffers, like \x.

Note that in :rs command, input lines are read from ex input stream (unlike :a), to make it usable in @ commands and ex scripts (files passed to :so). This allows setting the value of yank buffers in ex files, as the following example shows:

rs a :!git add % .

OPTIONS

To improve Neatvi's performance, shaping, character reordering, and syntax highlighting can be disabled by defining the EXINIT environment variable as "set noshape | set noorder | set nohl | set td=+2".

Options supported in Neatvi:

td, textdirection Current direction context. The following values are meaningful:

• +2: always left-to-right.
• +1: follow conf.h's dircontexts[]; left-to-right for others.
• -1: follow conf.h's dircontexts[]; right-to-left for others.
• -2: always right-to-left. The default value is 0, which assumes left-to-right if the first character of the line is single-byte; otherwise, it follows dircontexts[]. shape If set, Arabic/Farsi letter shaping will be performed. order If set, characters will be reordered based on the rules defined in conf.h. If the value is 1, only lines with at least one multi-byte UTF-8 character are reordered. If it is 2, all lines are reordered. hl, highlight If set, text will be highlighted based on syntax highlighting rules in conf.h. hll, highlightline If set, the current line will be highlighted. lim, linelimit Lines longer than this value are not reordered or highlighted. ru, ruler Indicates when to redraw the status line:
• 0: never.
• 1: always.
• 2: when multiple windows are visible.
• 4: when the current file changes. hist, history Indicates the number of lines remembered for ex, search, and pipe prompts. Zero disables command history. ai, autoindent As in vi(1). aw, autowrite As in vi(1). ic, ignorecase As in vi(1). wa, writeany As in vi(1).

MARKS AND BUFFERS

Special marks:

• • the position of the previous change
• [ the first line of the previous change
• ] the last line of the previous change

Special yank buffers:

• / the previous search keyword
• : the previous ex command
• ! the previous pipe command
• % the name of the current file
• " the default yank buffer
• ; the current line
• . the last vi command

• cursor line number

• ^ cursor line offset
• \/ search history
• \: ex command history
• ! pipe command history

QUICK ACCESS

When q is pressed in normal mode, Neatvi prints the list of buffers at the bottom of the screen and waits for a key. If the key is a digit, it switches to its corresponding buffer. If it is a letter and the extended buffer with that letter is defined, the contents of that buffer is executed. Otherwise, Neatvi executes ECMD (defined in conf.h) with the following parameters: i) the letter, ii) the current file, iii) the current line number, and iv) the current line offset.

What ECMD writes to its standard output, Neatvi executes as ex commands. Q-commands can be used to add interesting features to Neatvi, such as language-dependent IDE features, for instance by connecting to an LSP (language server protocol) server. ecmd.sh is an example ECMD shell script.