*indent-object.txt*         Text objects based on indent levels.

           Copyright (c) 2010 Michael Smith

Indent Text Objects

INTRODUCTION                      |idntobj-introduction|
TEXT OBJECTS                      |idntobj-objects|
BLANK LINES                       |idntobj-blanklines|
ABOUT                             |idntobj-about|


==============================================================================
INTRODUCTION                                            *idntobj-introduction*

Vim text objects provide a convenient way to select and operate on various
types of objects. These objects include regions surrounded by various types of
brackets and various parts of language (ie sentences, paragraphs, etc).

This plugin defines a new text object, based on indentation levels. This is
very useful in languages such as Python, in which the syntax defines scope in
terms of indentation. Using the objects defined in this plugin, an entire if
structure can be quickly selected, for example.


==============================================================================
TEXT OBJECTS                          *ai* *ii* *aI* *iI*     *idntobj-objects*

This plugin defines two new text objects. These are very similar - they differ
only in whether they include the line below the block or not.

        Key Mapping       Description     ~
>
        <count>ai         (A)n (I)ndentation level and line above.
        <count>ii         (I)nner (I)ndentation level (no line above).
        <count>aI         (A)n (I)ndentation level and lines above/below.
        <count>iI         (I)nner (I)ndentation level (no lines above/below).
<

Note that the iI mapping is mostly included simply for completeness, it is
effectively a synonym for ii.

Just like regular text objects, these mappings can be used either with
operators expecting a motion, such as 'd' or 'c', as well as in visual mode.
In visual mode the mapping can be repeated, which has the effect of
iteratively increasing the scope of indentation block selected. Specifying a
count can be used to achieve the same effect.

The difference between |ai| and |aI| is that |ai| includes the line
immediately above the indentation block, whereas aI includes not only that,
but also the line below. Which of these is most useful largely depends on the
structure of the language being edited.

For example, when editing the Python code, |ai| is generally more useful, as
the line above the indentation block is usually related to it. For example, in
the following code (* is used to indicate the cursor position):
>
      if foo > 3:
         log("foo is big") *
         foo = 3
      do_something_else()
<
the if clause is logically related to the code block, whereas the function
call below is not. It is unlikely we would want to select the line below when
we are interested in the if block.

However, in other languages, such as Vim scripts, control structures are
usually terminated with something like 'endif'. Therefore, in this example:
>
      if foo > 3
         echo "foo is big" *
         let foo = 3
      endif
      call do_something_else()
<
we would more likely want to include the endif when we select the if
structure.


==============================================================================
BLANK LINES                                               *idntobj-blanklines*

When scanning code blocks, the plugin usually ignores blank lines. There is an
exception to this, however, when the block being selected is not indented. In
this case if blank lines are ignored, then the entire file would be selected.
Instead when code at the top level is being indented blank lines are
considered to delimit the block.


==============================================================================
ABOUT                                                          *idntobj-about*

vim-indent-object was written by Michael Smith <msmith@msmith.id.au>. The
project repository is kept at:

http://github.com/michaeljsmith/vim-indent-object

Any feedback or criticism is welcome, and can be mailed to the author at the
above email address. Alternatively issues can be raised on the project
website.

Licence:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
IN THE SOFTWARE.
