Announcing ‘mini.ai’

Extend and create a/i textobjects (like ‘targets.vim’, but in Lua and a bit different)

Originally posted on Reddit

Hello, Neovim users!

I am incredibly happy to announce mini.ai - module #20 of mini.nvim for extending and creating a/i textobjects (like in di( or va"). It enhances some builtin textobjects (like a(, a), a', and more), creates new ones (like a*, a<Space>, af, a?, and more), and allows user to create their own.

Features:

• Customizable creation of a/i textobjects using Lua patterns and functions. Supports:

  • Dot-repeat.
  • v:count.
  • Different search methods (cover, cover_or_next, cover_or_prev, cover_or_nearest). Edit: now there is also next, prev (power an/in/al/il textobjects), and nearest.
  • Consecutive application (update selection without leaving Visual mode).
  • Aliases for multiple textobjects.

• Comprehensive builtin textobjects (they are shown in video):

  • Balanced brackets (with and without whitespace) plus alias.
  • Balanced quotes plus alias.
  • Derived from user prompt.
  • Tag.
  • Function call.
  • Argument.
  • Default for punctuation, digit, or whitespace single character.

• Motions for jumping to left/right edge of textobject.

• As a part of all ‘mini.nvim’ modules’ functionality, runtime configuration settings can be set locally to a buffer. This leads to ability of defining custom textobjects only for certain conditions (like per filetype).

More information can be found in help file. Here are some examples of which textobjects can be defined with ‘mini.ai’.

This was the first module request I got for ‘mini.nvim’, and I happy to finally implement it. Initially I planned this to have the same “backend” as mini.surround. But then I got an idea about slight change in textobject definition and algorithm, which enabled many more powerful textobjects (like aliases, etc.). After ‘mini.ai’ is publicly beta-tested, I plan to move its logic to ‘mini.surround’ (which will lead to some graceful soft deprecation of current custom textobject definition).

Try it out and tell me your thoughts! Either here or in dedicated beta-testing issue. I am especially interested in your thoughts about default textobjects (more info in beta-testing issue).

Also simply sharing information about ‘mini.nvim’ plugin is a huge help. Thanks!