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content/blog/013-writing-prose-in-vim.md
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---
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title: Writing Prose in Vim
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tags:
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- Vim
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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
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date: 2021-10-06
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---
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If you know me at all, you probably know I am a fan of vim. I have written [more
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than a few](/tag/vim.html) blog posts on it already.
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Most vim users use vim for programming. That is, after all, what most people use
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plain text editors for. However, since learning vim, I have tried to use it for
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as much as I can. Everything from emails to blog posts to letters. Of course,
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programming as well, but certainly not only that.
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"Why?", you might ask. Because it makes my life easier. I have said before that
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Vim is not as difficult as many vim users would like you to think it is.
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## Spellcheck
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I need a spell check. My spelling is atrocious. This is not helped by the fact
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that I am dyslexic. Having a decent spell checker is essential if I am writing
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anything that is going to be read by another human. Incidently, I count future
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me as another human in this regard.
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Vim has a built-in spell check.
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```vim
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set spell
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set spelllang=en_gb
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```
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How it will look will depend on your colour scheme but in my case it is an
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underline.
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Basic usage consists of the following keyboard shortcuts:
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* `[s` or `]s` to move between misspelled words
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* `z=` to get a list of suggestions
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* `zg` to add the current word to your custom dictionary
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As with anything in vim, these shortcuts can be changed, although I have never
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felt the need to.
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Vim's insert completion can be used to look up words in the internal dictionary
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as well. To use this, start writing a word and complete it with `ctrl-x ctrl-k`.
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This will present you with a list of words that start with what you have typed.
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You can select one, as normal, with `ctrl-n` and `ctrl-p`.
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Finally, on the topic of spell checking, I have added an insert mode mapping
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that is used to correct the previous misspelled word.
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The mapping is as follows:
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```vim
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inoremap <C-l> <c-g>u<Esc>[s1z=`]a<c-g>u
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```
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1. `<c-g>u` - break undo sequence (new change)
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1. `<Esc>` - go into normal mode
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1. `[s` - go to previous spelling mistake
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1. `1z=` - change to the top spelling suggestion
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1. ```]`` - go to the end of the last changed word
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1. `a` - enter insert mode
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1. `<c-g>u` - break undo sequence (new change)
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This was shamelessly stolen from [Gilles Castel's excellent blog post on using
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vim for LaTeX](https://castel.dev/post/lecture-notes-1/#correcting-spelling-mistakes-on-the-fly)
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## Undo Points
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When programming in vim, a lot of time is spent in both normal mode and insert
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mode. However, when writing prose, much more time is spent in insert mode. As a
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result, each undo point tends to be much larger. This can result in the rather
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annoying behaviour that undoing anything can remove a huge amount of writing.
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To minimize this annoyance, I add undo points whenever I type punctuation
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points.
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```vim
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inoremap ! !<C-g>u
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inoremap , ,<C-g>u
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inoremap . .<C-g>u
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inoremap : :<C-g>u
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inoremap ; ;<C-g>u
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inoremap ? ?<C-g>u
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inoremap ( <C-g>u(
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inoremap ) )<C-g>u
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```
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The only point I really need to elaborate on here is that for the opening
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bracket: I add the undo-point before inserting the character. This results in
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what I consider preferable behaviour whereby a whole bracket group is removed at
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once when undoing, rather than leaving the opening bracket.
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## Distraction Free Writing
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Distraction free writing seems to be quite a fashionable / desirable feature in
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a lot of editors at the moment. I have tried and used [Goyo](https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim)
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and [limelight](https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim) which go some way to
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reproducing the distraction free environment of many other editors. However, I
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no longer use them. Both worked well, but vim doesn't have that many
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distractions without them. When I am writing, I open vim in a full screen
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terminal. I don't even have a clock visible. Being able to highlight the
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paragraph I am currently working on or putting the text in the middle of the
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screen wasn't worth it for me.
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## Proselint
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[Proselint](https://github.com/amperser/proselint), as the name suggests, is a
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linter for prose. It points out areas where my writing could be better. To use
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it with vim, I have the following autofunction:
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```vim
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function! mine#functions#proselint() abort
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let oldmakeprg = &l:makeprg
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" set new value of makeprg and call the function
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set makeprg=proselint\ %
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make
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copen
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" set makeprg back to old value
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let &l:makeprg = oldmakeprg
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endfunction
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```
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and a mapping:
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```vim
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nnoremap <leader>p :call mine#functions#proselint()<CR>
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```
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This allows me to fill the quickfix list with a list of suggestions from
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proselint.
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## LanguageTool
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LanguageTool is similar in concept to Proselint although seems to have a lot
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more checks under its hood. It can be intergrated into vim in a similar way to
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Proselint, with an autofunction.
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```vim
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function! mine#functions#languagetool() abort
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let oldmakeprg = &l:makeprg
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let olderrformat = &l:errorformat
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" set new value of makeprg and call the function
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set makeprg=languagetool\ -l\ en-GB\ %
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let &l:errorformat =
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\ '%-GPicked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: %.%#,' .
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\ '%-GExpected text language: %.%#,' .
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\ '%-PWorking on %f...,' .
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\ '%-I%.%# [main] DEBUG %.%#,' .
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\ '%+IUsing %.%# for file %.%#,' .
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\ '%I%\d%\+.) Line %l\, column %c\, Rule ID: %m,' .
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\ '%-CMessage%m,' .
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\ '%-CSuggestion%m,' .
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\ '%-CMore info%m,' .
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\ '%-C%\s%#^%\+%\s%#,' .
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\ '%-C%.%#,' .
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\ '%-Z%\s%#,' .
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\ '%-Q,' .
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\ '%-GTime: %.%#'
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make
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copen
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" set makeprg back to old value
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let &l:makeprg = oldmakeprg
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let &l:makeprg = olderrformat
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endfunction
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```
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You will notice that this is slightly longer because the error format used by
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Proselint is compatible with Vim's default. LanguageTool's is not.
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