Kakoune Macros Recording and Replay

Feb 6, 2019

One of the features for which I personally would have a use for, would be macros recording and playback.

To read about this on the doc page for kakoune, :doc keys macros might give you an idea that by default Q starts or ends macro recording, while q replays it.

the <esc> key also ends the macro recording.

See Kakoune Macros

But further description for the macros recording and playback, is not provided on the doc page for Kakoune.

The author advises to consult the :doc registers for further info.

As the doc states

Registers are named lists of text -instead of simply text- in order to interact well with multiselection. They are used for various purposes, like storing the last yanked text, or the captured groups associated with the selections.

And about interacting with it:

<c-r><c> when in insert mode or in a prompt, insert the value stored in the c register (single character)

"<c> in normal mode, select the register (single character)

But unlike vim in which a macro is replayed by preceding the register with the macro @, on kakoune, the double quote along with register <key> must precede the macro key, which in this case is q that's bound to the default register @

Ignorant of this fact, mixed with the confusion that stemmed primarily from the habit of using a workflow from vim, disallowed me to fully comprehend that in order to replay the macro, the register (whatever this one may be) must supersede the double quote ", followed in the end by the default register q which in turn, fully replays the specified macro.

After going over it, this may simply seem to have been just an oversight on my part since such an obvious step to record and replay the macro, is evident, but considering I've been used to vim, it was not at all clear at first, what the steps may have been, mainly in order to replay the macro on Normal mode. On Insert and Prompt mode, however, the documentation provided all the details.

So to record the macro

 " <key> Q <esc> 

And to replay the macro

 " <key> q 

References

Kakoune Macros

Kakoune registers

Other useful links

A vim user's comparison between vim and kakoune ::: ::: :::