Website/content/blog/013-writing-prose-in-vim.md

---
title: Writing Prose in Vim
tags:
  - Vim
description: Vim is a popular text editor among programmers, it is not limited to programming though. In this blog I will discuss how I write just about everything in vim
date: 2021-10-06
---

If you know me at all, you probably know I am a fan of vim. I have written [more
than a few](/tag/vim.html) blog posts on it already.

Most vim users use vim for programming. That is, after all, what most people use
plain text editors for. However, since learning vim, I have tried to use it for
as much as I can. Everything from emails to blog posts to letters. Of course,
programming as well, but certainly not only that.

"Why?", you might ask. Because it makes my life easier. I have said before that
Vim is not as difficult as many vim users would like you to think it is.

## Spellcheck

I need a spell check. My spelling is atrocious. This is not helped by the fact
that I am dyslexic. Having a decent spell checker is essential if I am writing
anything that is going to be read by another human. Incidently, I count future
me as another human in this regard.

Vim has a built-in spell check.

```vim
set spell
set spelllang=en_gb
```

How it will look will depend on your colour scheme but in my case it is an
underline.

Basic usage consists of the following keyboard shortcuts:

* `[s` or `]s` to move between misspelled words
* `z=` to get a list of suggestions
* `zg` to add the current word to your custom dictionary

As with anything in vim, these shortcuts can be changed, although I have never
felt the need to.

Vim's insert completion can be used to look up words in the internal dictionary
as well. To use this, start writing a word and complete it with `ctrl-x ctrl-k`.

This will present you with a list of words that start with what you have typed.
You can select one, as normal, with `ctrl-n` and `ctrl-p`.

Finally, on the topic of spell checking, I have added an insert mode mapping
that is used to correct the previous misspelled word.

The mapping is as follows:

```vim
inoremap <C-l> <c-g>u<Esc>[s1z=`]a<c-g>u
```

1. `<c-g>u` - break undo sequence (new change)
1. `<Esc>`  - go into normal mode
1. `[s`     - go to previous spelling mistake
1. `1z=`    - change to the top spelling suggestion
1. ```]``   - go to the end of the last changed word
1. `a`      - enter insert mode
1. `<c-g>u` - break undo sequence (new change)

This was shamelessly stolen from [Gilles Castel's excellent blog post on using
vim for LaTeX](https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-1/#correcting-spelling-mistakes-on-the-fly)

## Undo Points

When programming in vim, a lot of time is spent in both normal mode and insert
mode. However, when writing prose, much more time is spent in insert mode. As a
result, each undo point tends to be much larger. This can result in the rather
annoying behaviour that undoing anything can remove a huge amount of writing.

To minimize this annoyance, I add undo points whenever I type punctuation
points.

```vim
	inoremap ! !<C-g>u
	inoremap , ,<C-g>u
	inoremap . .<C-g>u
	inoremap : :<C-g>u
	inoremap ; ;<C-g>u
	inoremap ? ?<C-g>u
	inoremap ( <C-g>u(
	inoremap ) )<C-g>u
```

The only point I really need to elaborate on here is that for the opening
bracket: I add the undo-point before inserting the character. This results in
what I consider preferable behaviour whereby a whole bracket group is removed at
once when undoing, rather than leaving the opening bracket.

## Distraction Free Writing

Distraction free writing seems to be quite a fashionable / desirable feature in
a lot of editors at the moment. I have tried and used [Goyo](https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim)
and [limelight](https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim) which go some way to
reproducing the distraction free environment of many other editors. However, I
no longer use them. Both worked well, but vim doesn't have that many
distractions without them. When I am writing, I open vim in a full screen
terminal. I don't even have a clock visible. Being able to highlight the
paragraph I am currently working on or putting the text in the middle of the
screen wasn't worth it for me.

## Proselint

[Proselint](https://github.com/amperser/proselint), as the name suggests, is a
linter for prose. It points out areas where my writing could be better. To use
it with vim, I have the following autofunction:

```vim
function! mine#functions#proselint() abort
	let oldmakeprg = &l:makeprg
	" set new value of makeprg and call the function
	set makeprg=proselint\ %
	make
	copen
	" set makeprg back to old value
	let &l:makeprg = oldmakeprg
endfunction
```

and a mapping:

```vim
nnoremap <leader>p :call mine#functions#proselint()<CR>
```

This allows me to fill the quickfix list with a list of suggestions from
proselint.

## LanguageTool

LanguageTool is similar in concept to Proselint although seems to have a lot
more checks under its hood. It can be intergrated into vim in a similar way to
Proselint, with an autofunction.

```vim
function! mine#functions#languagetool() abort
	let oldmakeprg = &l:makeprg
	let olderrformat = &l:errorformat
	" set new value of makeprg and call the function
	set makeprg=languagetool\ -l\ en-GB\ %
	let &l:errorformat =
		  \ '%-GPicked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: %.%#,' .
		  \ '%-GExpected text language: %.%#,' .
		  \ '%-PWorking on %f...,' .
		  \ '%-I%.%# [main] DEBUG %.%#,' .
		  \ '%+IUsing %.%# for file %.%#,' .
		  \ '%I%\d%\+.) Line %l\, column %c\, Rule ID: %m,' .
		  \ '%-CMessage%m,' .
		  \ '%-CSuggestion%m,' .
		  \ '%-CMore info%m,' .
		  \ '%-C%\s%#^%\+%\s%#,' .
		  \ '%-C%.%#,' .
		  \ '%-Z%\s%#,' .
		  \ '%-Q,' .
		  \ '%-GTime: %.%#'
	make
	copen
	" set makeprg back to old value
	let &l:makeprg = oldmakeprg
	let &l:makeprg = olderrformat
endfunction
```

You will notice that this is slightly longer because the error format used by
Proselint is compatible with Vim's default. LanguageTool's is not.