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created October 16, 2001 · complexity basic · author Charles E. Campbell, Jr. · version 5.7
Check out http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/align.html and see some examples of text alignment. The alignment is done with the Align.vim and AlignMaps.vim plugins; you can get them from either script 294 or from http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/index.html#ALIGN. Amongst many other things, this pair of plugins lets you:
1. align C language statements on their = += -= /= etc symbols
2. align C language declararations: separate columns for types, *[, variable names, initializations (=), and comments (// or /* .. */)
3. align C/C++ language comments (//, /* .. */)
4. align C/C++ language (ansi) function argument lists
5. align LaTeX tables on their && separators
6. align HTML tables with </TD><TD> separators
7. align on several characters: < ? : | @ ; (or modify them to handle whatever alignment characters you want)
The align plugin also supports:
- cyclic left, right, and centering justification
- cyclic or equivalent multiple regular-expression separators
- improved initial white space control
- specifiable separator padding
- visual range specified alignment, including via visual-block
- a <Align.txt> help file is now available
Comments
Check on script#177 -- that's Gergely Kontra's MyJustify.vim. I also found Peppe's script at http://rastasoft.org/configs/justify.vim Align.vim isn't a textwidth justification script, as no doubt you've noticed.
I don't think you should include cecutil.vim with plugins, since cecutil is available separately. It could lead to someone installing a newer cecutil, and overwriting it with whatever version is in the latest Align package.
For # style comments (TCL, perl, shell) , the following maps "\a#" to align them based on the rightmost "#". It also removes extraneous whitespace after the "#".
map <silent> <Leader>a# \WS:'a,.s/#\([ \t]*\)\(.*\)$/###@@# \2/e<CR>'zk<Leader>tldW@:'y,'zs/^\(\s*\) @@/\1/e<CR>:'y,'zs/ @@ //eg<CR>:'y,'zs/###//eg<CR>\WE vmap <silent> <Leader>a# :<BS><BS><BS><CR>ma'><Leader>a#
It uses special character sequences "@@" and "###" so if these occur naturally in your code, globally replace them with something less common.
I really don't like breaking out Excel for every little table that I make. So I wanted a simple way to make column aligned text. Align was it.
I did not want visible delimiters in my little tables, so I made a small addition to the AlignMaps.vim file that I have found quite useful. I added a new macro that treats two or more spaces as a delimiter for column definition. So I can just highlight text like this:
_who_ _what_ _where_ Fred ate kitchen Joe read a boring detective novel bathroom
then I highlight and invoke macro (bound to a key of course) and get:
_who_ _what_ _where_ Fred ate kitchen Joe read a boring detective novel bathroom
The two or more spaces idea means that you can use spaces in column text.
Anyway, the modified macro really just a hack to the existing Align 'tsp' macro:
map <silent> <Leader>tss \WS:'a,.s/^\(\s*\)\(.*\)/\=submatch(1).substitute(submatch(2),'\s\s\+','@','g')/<CR>:AlignCtrl mIp0P0=l @<CR>:'a,.Align<CR>:'y+1,'z-1s/@/ /g<CR>\WE
May be that there is a more elegant way to get the same result, but I'm pretty happy with the way this one works... I use it all the time.
I agree that there are advantages in keeping cecutil separate from Align (and other plugins, too). Unfortunately, that means that a large number of potential users would get immediately frustrated. I've been including cecutil with the plugins because of feedback.
If the Align/AlignMaps plugins don't work for you, or you're otherwise having problems, I suggest sending a message about it to me! Often its a matter of some settings the user has/doesn't have set that I don't/do have set. Its helpful to include a copy of your .vimrc so I can figure out what settings are involved. Please also tell me what o/s you're using, and whether you're using Vim or gvim. I generally can't fix it if I can't replicate the problem.
About \WS and \WE -- I've made :call AlignWrapperStart() and :call AlignWrapperEnd() globally available. Calls to these functions can be made from outside the AlignMaps.vim script (v33). For the \tss map:
map <silent> <Leader>tss :call AlignWrapperStart()<cr> \:'a,.s/^\(\s*\)\(.*\)/\=submatch(1).substitute(submatch(2),'\s\s\+','@','g')/<cr> \:AlignCtrl mIp0P0=l @<cr> \:'a,.Align<cr> \:silent 'y+1,'z-1s/@/ /g<cr> \:call AlignWrapperEnd()<cr>
When Align gives me the following:
define('GRAY' , "#A0A0A0");
define('DGRAY' , "#808080");
define('LGRAY' , "#C0C0C0");
Sometimes I would rather have:
define('GRAY', "#A0A0A0");
define('DGRAY', "#808080");
define('LGRAY', "#C0C0C0");
(Note the space *after* the separator.)
Right now I select the text and do:
:'<,'>g/./norm Elr,f,r
I thought maybe this AlignCtrl setting would give me the behavior I'm looking for, but no luck.
:cal AlignCtrl('<')
Is there an an AlignCtrl command for what I want?
Look at: :help alignmaps -- the AlignMaps includes a bunch of maps which do various jobs which depend upon Align.
The <Leader>t= mapping doesn't work right in some cases: I got following error message (or similar):
Error on execution of "function <SNR>8_Equals": Line 15: E121: Undefined variable: norm E15: unvalid expression: norm "'zk<Leader>t@"
This message is obviously correct. It occurs when the filetype is "c" or "cpp". Changing the offending line to
exe "norm 'zk<Leader>t@"
doesn't help (other error).
My version of align ist 39 (Mar 06, 2008).
What to do?
Thanks,
Thomi