Awesome

vim-easyescape

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Pull out your Escape key!

<ESC>/<C-[>/<C-C> is hard to press? Try vim-easyescape! vim-easyescape makes exiting insert mode easy and distraction free.

Problems

Traditionally, we need to use

inoremap jk <Esc>
inoremap kj <Esc>

inoremap jj <Esc>

so that we can press jk simultaneously (in arbitrary order since we have two maps) or press j twice to exit the insert mode. However, a problem with such map sequence is that Vim will pause whenever you type j or k in insert mode (it is waiting for the next key to determine whether to apply the mapping). The pause causes visual distraction which you may or may not notice.

vim-easyescape does not have such problem and supports custom timeout.

Installation

Use your favourite plugin manager, e.g., vim-plug:

Plug "zhou13/vim-easyescape"

Usage

Configuration 1: map of `jk` and `kj` (recommended)

The unit of timeout is in ms. A very small timeout makes an input of real jk or kj possible (Python3 is required for this feature)!

let g:easyescape_chars = { "j": 1, "k": 1 }
let g:easyescape_timeout = 100
cnoremap jk <ESC>
cnoremap kj <ESC>

Configuration 2: map of `jj`

let g:easyescape_chars = { "j": 2 }
let g:easyescape_timeout = 100
cnoremap jj <ESC>

Disable easyescape based on filetype

autocmd FileType text,markdown call setbufvar(bufnr("%"), 'easyescape_disable', 1)

Dependency

Python3 is required if timeout (g:easyescape_timeout) is less than 2000 ms because vim does not provide a way to fetch sub-second time.

Known problems

Maps of keys in g:easyescape_chars need to be created.
Does not work in command/visual mode due to lack of InsertCharPre in vim/nvim.