Vim: available key pairs in normal mode…

gistfile1.md

Vim: available key pairs in normal mode

All lowercase

The operators c, d, and y expect a motion, like w, e, etc. The second character in the following pairs is not a motion so it is a NOP and nothing is overridden if we use them in mappings.

cd cm co cp cq cr cs cu cx cy cz

dc dm dq dr ds du dx dy dz

yc yd ym yo yp yq yr ys yu yx yz

v is not an operator but it has similar semantics. There are fewer available pairs, though, because it is possible to use an operator right after v.

vm vo vq vv vz

Vi didn't have anything assigned to g so Vim kind of treated the namespace as a dumpster for new two-characters commands. Here are the pairs that are left:

gb gc gl gs gy

z was free, too, and it got the same treatment, with an even worse outcome:

zq

All UPPERCASE

[WIP]

ZA ZB ZC ZD ZE ZF ZG ZH ZI ZJ ZK ZL ZM ZN ZO ZP ZR ZS ZT ZU ZV ZW ZX ZY

Mixed case

[WIP]

What about cs and ds?

Popular plugins which use some of them:

• commentary: gc
• surround: ys, cs and, ds
• abolish: cr
• exchange: cx
• lion: gl

Formerly

• unimpaired: co (see commit tpope/vim-unimpaired@3a77590)

The article Follow My Leader by Drew Neil about custom vim mappings points this out as well. See also his slides https://speakerdeck.com/nelstrom/follow-my-leader (slide 9 and 10) from a talk he gave about this. The video of the talk on vimeo is unfortunately no longer available.

zp zy

those have just been added for yanking / pasting without padding

Thank you @chrisbra.

@kiryph, thank you for pointing cs and ds out.

I don't think that cv, dv and yv are available since operators can be followed by v to make the motions they operate on linewise/charwise. vc, vd, vp, vr, vs, vu, vx and vy aren't available either (they're operators used in visual mode), and can be useful when preceded by a count (since that selects count times as many characters as the previous selection in the same visual mode).

@jchros all good points.