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vim-pencil

“Extending Vim to better support writing prose and documentation”

Features of this plugin:

Configures Vim for word processing, with key mappings, undo points, etc.
Agnostic on hard line endings versus soft wrapping
Use for editing markdown, textile, documentation, etc.
Can detect wrapping approach via modeline

Why such a minimalistic approach? There are several Vim plugins for writing that take a comprehensive approach, including changing not only the functional behavior of the editor, but also visual aspects such as colorscheme and font. This plugin heads in the opposite direction, focusing narrowly on the few tweaks needed to smooth the path to writing prose in Vim.

Where you need more features, you can tailor your environment by installing those plugins that meet your specific needs.

Why use Vim for writing?

While programmers will extol the many virtues of Vim in writing code, few will appreciate its powerful text manipulation capabilities for writing documentation and prose.

But with plenty of word processing tools available, including those which specifically cater to writers, why use a programmer’s editor like Vim for writing?

There are good reasons NOT to use Vim for writing:

Primitive in certain respects (no WYSIWYG or proportionally spaced characters, e.g.)
A modal editor with a steep learning curve
Time and effort to configure to your needs

But then again Vim offers a unique editing environment not matched by other writing tools:

Your hands rest in a neutral ‘home’ position, only rarely straying to reach for mouse, track pad, or arrow keys
Minimal chording, with many mnemonic-friendly commands
Sophisticated capabilities for navigating and manipulating text
Highly configurable to suit your needs, with many plugins available

Installation

Install using Pathogen, Vundle, Neobundle, or your favorite Vim package manager.

(Suggestion for those who are new to Vim: you should first work through one of the Vim tutorials listed at the bottom of this document. Then, once you are comfortable with the basics of Vim, consider installing this plugin.)

Configuration

Hard breaks or soft wrapping?

Where do you stand on hard line breaks versus soft line wrapping?

Typically, coders will have the most experience with the former, and writers the latter. But whatever your background, chances are that you will be living in a mixed environment where you must contend with both. This plugin doesn't force you to choose a side—each buffer is configured independently.

In most cases you can set a default to suit your preference and let auto-detection figure out what to do. Add to your .vimrc:

let g:pencil#wrapModeDefault = 'hard'   " or 'soft'
augroup pencil
  autocmd!
  autocmd FileType markdown call pencil#init()
  autocmd FileType textile call pencil#init()
  autocmd FileType text call pencil#init({'wrap': 'hard'})
augroup END

In the example above, for files of type markdown and textile, this plugin will auto-detect the wrapping approach, with hard as the default. But for files of type text, it will always use hard line endings.

Commands

Because auto-detect doesn’t always work correctly, you can invoke commands to set the behavior for the current buffer:

PencilSoft - configure for soft wrapping
PencilHard - configure for hard line endings
PencilToggle - if off, enables with detection; if on, turns off
PencilOff - removing mappings and restore global settings

Optionally, you can map to keys in your .vimrc:

nmap <silent> <leader>ws :PencilSoft<cr>
nmap <silent> <leader>wh :PencilHard<cr>
nmap <silent> <leader>ww :PencilToggle<cr>
nmap <silent> <leader>w0 :PencilOff<cr>

Also, more commands in ‘Automatic Formatting’ below.

Additional settings

You can configure the default textwidth for Hard mode, when none is set or available via modeline:

let g:pencil#textwidth = 74

joinspaces determines number of spaces after period (0=1 space, 1=2 spaces)

let g:pencil#joinspaces=0

Automatic formatting

(This feature affects ‘hard’ line break mode only.)

When using hard line breaks, Vim’s autoformat feature can offer many of the same benefits as soft wrapping lines. But autoformat can cause havoc when editing outside of paragraphs of sentences. Occasionally, you will need to disable it.

To set the default behavior, add to your .vimrc:

let g:pencil#autoformat = 1      " 1=enable, 0=disable

You can override this default during initialization, as in:

let g:pencil#wrapModeDefault = 'soft'
augroup pencil
  autocmd!
  autocmd FileType text call pencil#init({'wrap': 'hard', 'autoformat': 0})
  ...
augroup END

You can also toggle it as needed with a command:

PencilFormatAuto - enables autoformat
PencilFormatManual - disables autoformat
PencilFormatToggle

Or bind to keys in your .vimrc:

nmap <silent> <leader>wa :PencilFormatAuto<cr>
nmap <silent> <leader>wm :PencilFormatManual<cr>
nmap <silent> <leader>wf :PencilFormatToggle<cr>

Again, when using soft line wrapping, Vim’s autoformat feature does not apply.

Auto-detection via modeline

At the bottom of this document is a strange code:

<!-- vim: set tw=74 :-->

This is a ‘modeline’ that tells Vim to run the following command upon loading this file into a buffer:

:set textwidth=74

That’s a strong hint to this plugin that we should assume hard line endings, regardless of whether or not soft wrapping is the default editing mode for files of type ‘markdown’.

To provide a hint for detection, you can add a modeline to the last line of your documents. For more details:

:help modeline

Note that even if the modelines feature is disabled (such as for security reasons) the textwidth will still be set by this plugin.

Future development

If you’ve spotted a problem or have an idea on improving this plugin, please post it to the github project issue page.

<!-- vim: set tw=74 :-->

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