Get in Control!

This is a plugin for the Kakoune text editor. It aims in simplifying Kakoune scripts. Kakoune does not have built in capabilities to Because Kakoune does not have built in control statements. Users should escape into the shell to use basic control flow, variables, etc. This ping-ponging between Kakoune editor commands and Bash control flow can be quite tiresome:

declare-option str colorscheme_mode 'light'
define-command switch-colorscheme \
  -docstring 'switch colorscheme between light and dark modes' %eval{ %sh{
    # We need to use special variables Kakoune created for us
    if [ $kak_opt_colorscheme_mode = light ]
    then
      # We have to `echo` the commands Kakoune has to evaluate back
      echo "colorscheme solarized-dark-termcolors; 
        powerline-theme solarized-dark-termcolors; 
        set-option current colorscheme_mode 'dark'"
    else
      echo "colorscheme solarized-light-termcolors; 
        powerline-theme solarized-light-termcolors; 
        set-option current colorscheme_mode 'light'"
    fi
  }}

And this is just a simple example...

Using this plugin you can make use of normal %opt{..} and %val{..} expansions and usual Kakoune command blocks:

declare-option str colorscheme_mode 'light'
define-command switch-colorscheme \
  -docstring 'switch colorscheme between light and dark modes' %{
    # Normal usage of %opt{..} and friends!
    # Full power of `test(1)`!
    # Kakoune `%{..}` blocks!
    if "%opt{colorscheme_mode} = light" %{
      colorscheme solarized-dark-termcolors
      powerline-theme solarized-dark-termcolors
      set-option current colorscheme_mode 'dark'
    } %{
      colorscheme solarized-light-termcolors
      powerline-theme solarized-light-termcolors
      set-option current colorscheme_mode 'light'
    }
  }

Toolbox

• if <test> <then-cmd> <else-cmd>: check if <test> results in true or false using test(1) and run <then-cmd> or <else-cmd> accordingly
• if-available <executable> <then-cmd> <else-cmd>: check if <executable> exists on the system using which(1) and run <then-cmd> or <else-cmd> accordingly
• case-i <value> <pat-1> <cmd-1> ... <pat-n> <cmd-n>: match <value> against <pat-i> and run <cmd-i> if the match succeeds
  • These are defined for i = 2, 3, 4, 5

More to come...

Install

git clone https://github.com/timjs/control.kak.git
cd ~/.config/kak/autoload
ln -s /path/to/control.kak/control.kak .

Enjoy!