Support the sentence text object

[RhvdG]

Authors using apps like iA Writer will appreciate support for the sentence text object (cas, cis, das etcetera).

[godbout]

will do. thanks!

current list of available motions when it comes to apps providing proper AX data like iA Writer: https://docs.kindavim.app/implementation/accessibility-strategy

i'll put that on the top of the TODOs. most probably will start investigating next week. will keep you updated.

[godbout]

good news. started the investigation and there's already internal motions to go to the beginning of a sentence backward and to the beginning of a sentence forward. those are used for the ( and ) motions in both Normal Mode and Visual Mode. because i create automated tests for all the possible cases, that requires quite a lot of time and thinking. the fact that those motions already exist gonna make building the final moves faster! (btw if interested the automated tests are open source: https://github.com/godbout/AccessibilityStrategyTestApp the one regarding the Text Objects specifically here: https://github.com/godbout/AccessibilityStrategyTestApp/tree/master/AccessibilityStrategyTestAppTests/TextObjects/Texts/FileTextTests.)

so i have now to create an internal innerSentence and aSentence text-objects, that i'll use for all the final motions. might release separately because Visual Mode is way more tricky (need to pay attention and calculate where is the head of the selection and where is the anchor—in which direction you're going—etc.). i need to investigate more to see exactly how Vim behaves, but it seems 1) there's no native motion to go to the end of a sentence 2) going to the end of a sentence seems to be done by going to the beginning of a sentence forward and then backing up with b or ge/gE which would mean that all the internal motions needed are already there. creating all the cis, das etc. would be about combining those low level internal motions. still a lot of work and tests to create, but definitely better than starting from nothing!

the dev and tests will be updated live in the open source tests project talked about above.

[godbout]

funny story, the reason why kV is sleeping from 5am to 1pm without a coffee is because those were my sleeping hours when i started digging into this :D spent two years building all those internal motions etc. from scratch. researching in Vim to find all edge cases etc. i haven't built any new motion for quite a bit now and getting back into it bring back great old memories :D exciting stuff!

[RhvdG]

It's much appreciated! I'm switching from Bear back to iA Writer (with Antinote for quickly capturing thoughts, some of which are later promoted to documents in iA Writer's tree), and kindaVim finally gives me most of the Vim magic I was always pining for in iA Writer.

[godbout]

my pleasure. i LOVE working on those. the two years spent building all those motions from scratch, studying Vim, the moves, the docs, the bugs, the special cases? pure bliss. so thank you! definitely better than circumventing macOS bugs, reporting to Apple and hearing nothing, and dealing with licenses and payments lol

[godbout]

btw found a bug in ) while investigating. should stop on empty lines (just a linefeed, not blank lines with spaces etc.) but doesn't. ( works fine. will fix for next release.

[godbout]

btw found a bug in ) while investigating. should stop on empty lines (just a linefeed, not blank lines with spaces etc.) but doesn't. ( works fine. will fix for next release.

actually it wasn't stopping on sentences ending with a ., ! or ?. was stopping if the sentence was ending on a linefeed. fixed for next release. but found another bug lol. blank lines and empty lines should be skipped EXCEPT when there's a mix of both. currently kV skips all the time. should be fixed also for next release. that'll make the is and as text-objects much more solid!

[godbout]

@RhvdG ok up to date with the sentence ) and ( motions. gonna start the innerSentence is and aSentence as text objects. once this is done i can make cis, das, yis, Visual as etc. they all gonna take quite some time to get done properly, so my questions for you:

1. which one would you rather have first? is or as
2. which operator would you rather have first? c, d, y, Visual?

that'll help me prioritize. those will be release by small batch every couple of weeks i think.

[RhvdG]

Good news! You read my mind, just this morning I was thinking about it. To me, cas is by far the most important one, followed at some distance by cis. All the others are equally (and less) important.

[godbout]

was hoping it was is 🤣 as is more tricky coz sometimes you need to grab the blanks before, sometimes after 😭

will keep you updated. found some AX bugs on Tahoe on the OS level so i need to check this out first, report, and see what i can do. but the sentence are coming right after.

[RhvdG]

I'm happy to keep you busy :-)

Just now, I tried c/word and d?word etcetera... no luck! Those are high on my wish list as an academic author, too. Meanwhile, kindaVim amazes and delights me every day.

[godbout]

I'm happy to keep you busy :-)

always having something i can't wait to be doing but adding new long term motions for kV is always a lot of fun. and meaning!

Just now, I tried c/word and d?word etcetera... no luck! Those are high on my wish list as an academic author, too. Meanwhile, kindaVim amazes and delights me every day.

wait wot. you mean stuff like cw, dW etc.? those ones are all done: https://docs.kindavim.app/implementation/accessibility-strategy
are you trying to use them on an app that doesn't support the macOS Accessibility? if then some moves will not be available yeah: https://docs.kindavim.app/implementation/keyboard-strategy (although cw and dw are for example)

[RhvdG]

What I mean is c/dragon where everything from the cursor to the first instance of the word "dragon" would be removed before switching tot insert mode. I can't get this to work in kV. Am I overlooking something?

I'm thinking this is a very tough motion to implement...

Tested this in iA Writer, which I guess is fully Accessibility-mode.

[godbout]

What I mean is c/dragon where everything from the cursor to the first instance of the word "dragon" would be removed before switching tot insert mode. I can't get this to work in kV. Am I overlooking something?

OH like literally / and ? something 😂 fuck i think i wasn't even aware of this??? like it makes sense but i guess i never got used to it or something and forgot about it. i use mostly t T f F. yeah i can definitely see how this should be available. very useful.

I'm thinking this is a very tough motion to implement...

hmm not really sure. / and ? themselves are already done. i have should have the range of the text, so it's just about applying the operators on them. added to the TODO. i'll see if i can squeeze them quickly.

Tested this in iA Writer, which I guess is fully Accessibility-mode.

yeah my bad. i understand now. thanks!

[godbout]

this year is gonna be so fun 😍