Or VimGolf in Emacs anyway. Over at Life seen through a coder’s eyes, Yassine Chaouche poses the following problem. Starting with an Emacs buffer containing only
[[Image(grep_1.png)]]
end up with
[[Image(grep_1.png)]] [[Image(grep_2.png)]] [[Image(grep_3.png)]] [[Image(grep_4.png)]] [[Image(grep_5.png)]] [[Image(grep_6.png)]] [[Image(grep_7.png)]] [[Image(grep_8.png)]]
Chaouche solves this problem using CUA mode. If you use CUA mode, you should take a look at his solution; you may find it will serve as a template for similar problems you may encounter.
I’ve never used CUA mode in Emacs or, before I saw the light, Vim so his solution doesn’t work for me. It also seems as if it uses more keystrokes than necessary. (This is VimGolf in Emacs, remember.) To me, this cries out for a macro. Here’s what I did
| Keystrokes | Action | Buffer |
|---|---|---|
| <start state> | ▮[[Image(grep_1.png)]] |
|
| 【Ctrl+k】 | kill line | ▮ |
| 【Ctrl+1 F3】 | set macro counter to 1 | ▮ |
| and begin macro | ||
| 【Ctrl+y】 | yank line | [[Image(grep_1.png)]]▮ |
| 【Ctrl+r 1】 | search backwards for 1 | [[Image(grep_▮1.png)]] |
| 【Ctrl+d】 | delete 1 | [[Image(grep_▮.png)]] |
| 【F3】 | insert macro counter | [[Image(grep_1▮.png)]] |
| 【Ctrl+e】 | end of line | [[Image(grep_1.png)]]▮ |
| 【Return】 | new line | [[Image(grep_1.png)]] |
▮ |
||
| 【F4】 | end macro | [[Image(grep_1.png)]] |
▮ |
||
| 【Ctrl+7 F4】 | play macro 7 times | <end state> |
That’s a solution in just 13 keystrokes. The problem is simpler, but takes more keystrokes, if you start with an empty buffer. Then it’s just 【Ctrl+1 F3】 to set the macro counter and start recording, the text [[Image(grep_, 【F3】 to insert the counter, and finally the text .png)]] followed by 【Return F4】 to move to the next line and stop recording. Then 【Ctrl+7 F4】 inserts the other 7 lines as before.
This post really should have been a video but I’m not set up for that. Besides, I don’t have a cool voice like Magnar Sveen.