Vim, VimTex: environments and commands in LaTeX

Vim, LaTeX and VimTex: surround commands

Table of Contents

• 1. A smart system for writing
• 2. VimTex Built-in functions for environments and commands
• 3. Create a surround function in VimTex based upon surround.vim plugin

1. A smart system for writing

Vim is a great editing tool.

LaTeX is a "State of the Art" typesetting system.

Vim and LaTeX together make a powerful writing system, but an add-on is needed to relate them.

VimTex provides exactly that target by relating Vim to LaTeX, and it does its job very well.

So Vim and VimTex is a smart system for every kind of writer in LaTeX.

The topic is vast and certainly cannot be contained in a short post like this one.

In this article, I simply cover functions for managing environments and commands.

2. VimTex Built-in functions for environments and commands

I assume that those who use LaTeX already know the difference between commands and environments.

VimTeX has some built-in functions for managing commands and environments, but only to delete or change them.

The summary table of built-in surround functions is the following:

Function	Keystrokes
Delete Surrounding Command	dsc
Delete Surrounding Environment	dse
Change Surrounding Command	csc
Change Surrounding Environment	cse

As you can see, the key combinations match the initials of the related functions.

For example: D(elete) S(surrounding) C(command) = dsc or C(hange) S(urroundig) E(nvironment) = cse and so on.

This makes it easier to remember the sequence of keys.

Then with the built-in surround functions of VimTex you can delete or change environment or command tags.

For example:

• if you are inside an itemize environment, you can delete the \begin{itemize} ... \end{itemize} tags surrounding the text by pressing the key combination dse.
• if you are inside an itemize environment, you can change the \begin{itemize} ... \end{itemize} tags into \begin{enumerate} ... \end{enumerate} by pressing: cse enumerate.
• if you are inside a textit command, you can delete the command surrounding the text by pressing the key combination dsc.
• if you are inside a textit command, you can change it to textbf by pressing csc textbf.

But the question is: can you add environments or commands with the VimTex built-in functions?

The answer is no, but…

It's possible to create a custom function that performs this operation.

Two solutions are offered by VimTex programmer itself, Karl Yngve Lervåg whom I thank for the excellent work, currently at lines 5776 et seq. of his vimtex.txt file, chapter vimtex-faq-surround.

I find that the first solution fits perfectly with context.

3. Create a surround function in VimTex based upon surround.vim plugin

For this purpose, you need to install another plugin, surround.vim and make a small change in your configuration file.

As above described, you must insert a small additional text string in the vim configuration file, i.e. in .vimrc (for Linux/macOS) or _vimrc (for Windows).

The purpose is to extend the surround.vim functions by adding the ys(object)c and ys(object)e key-combinations for creating commands and environments in LaTeX.

Here is the code:

augroup latexSurround
autocmd!
autocmd FileType tex call s:latexSurround()
augroup END

function! s:latexSurround()
let b:surround_{char2nr("e")}
\ = "\\begin{\1environment: \1}\n\t\r\n\\end{\1\1}"
let b:surround_{char2nr("c")} = "\\\1command: \1{\r}"
endfunction

Now you have the following two new resources in your Vim "swiss-knife" for LaTeX:

Function	keystrokes
Create Surrounding Command	ys(object)c
Create Surrounding Environment	ys(object)e

Obviously, you need to insert the usual motion markers or text objects: for example:

• yswe center to surround a word by the center environment,
• yssc textbf to surround an entire line by the textbf command,
• ysiwe comment to surround a word with the cursor anywhere within it by the comment environment
• ysiwc section to surround a word with the cursor anywhere within it by the section command.

Thank You for your attention.

Originally published at https://francopasut.netlify.app