Create one mapping for both console and GUI

Tip 713 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created May 8, 2004 · complexity basic · author Salman Halim · version 6.0

---

This is a way to set mappings based on whether GUI or console Vim is running:

function! ModeMapping( guiLhs, termLhs, rhs, ... )
  let mapCommand='map'
  if ( a:0 > 0 )
    let mapCommand=a:1
  endif
  if ( has( "gui_running" ) )
    echo mapCommand . " " . a:guiLhs . " " . a:rhs
  else
    echo mapCommand . " " . a:termLhs . " " . a:rhs
  endif
endfunction

Sample use 1:

call ModeMapping( "<leader>b", "<leader>c", ":echo 'Salman'<cr>" )

This means that if GUI is running, <leader>b becomes the lhs and the :echo bit becomes the rhs; if no GUI is running, you get <leader>c as the lhs instead.

Sample use 2:

call ModeMapping( "<leader>a", "<leader>d", "<esc>:echo 'Halim'<cr>gv", 'vmap <buffer>' )

If the GUI is running, <leader>a is the lhs, <esc>:echo etc. is the rhs and the mapp command used is 'vmap <buffer>' (a buffer-specific visual mode mapping). Note that the last argument is optional (and wasn't there in the last example).

Comments

I'm not sure I understand this. Isn't this what the vimrc and gvimrc files are for? Put any gui specific maps in gvimrc, others in vimrc?

---

The point of this is to avoid having to create duplicate mappings with the same rhs; doing it in one place makes maintenance easier. Basically, someone had asked the question on the mailing list of how they could avoid the following construct:

if ( has( "gui_running" ) )
  map lhs1 rhs
else
  map lhs2 rhs
endif

And my suggestion was to put it into a function (this tip).

---