Re:Learn Vim (2021)
by lycopodiopsida on Sunday February 26, 2023 @02:34AM
(#34943801)
> Vim's modal editing implementation also can't handle non-Latin keyboard layouts
This issue is solved by langmap.
It really isn't. I've spent a lot of time trying to tune langmap/keymap and looking into other options but the result is mostly unsatisfactory. Some of the issues: only translates the first letter of the command; doesn't support :commands; isn't expressive enough to remap punctuation.
Vim needs to be keyboard layout-aware in order to support non-Latin keyboards. It also needs to know whether the current input state is expecting text or a command (e.g. typing ":s/" from the normal mode should always be parsed using the Latin layout but the currently active input language should be used following the "/").
For example, is it really still OK to have little to no visual feedback when entering commands with range/count prefixes, or to have to fall back to custom commands and configs in order to search for strings containing "/"? Or have commands with tiny edit distance between them do radically different things (e.g. "w! " and "w !")? Vim's modal editing implementation also can't handle non-Latin keyboard layouts so I find myself switching keyboard layouts all the time (e.g. normal mode->insert mode->layout switch->type some text->layout switch->normal mode).