Abbreviate Import and Drop command of Golang in Vim

Question

I've used Vim to code my Go script for a month, and I'm pretty comfortable with :Import and :Drop vim command when it comes to importing and unimporting any packages.

However, I've more and more tired of typing such a long word which includes Capital letter so frequently, so I came to think that if I can use :i and :d other than :Import and :Drop, I'd be satisfied even more. However, I'm not sure whether I can define such a command in Vim, since it involves 1) turning into command-line mode, and 2) taking a variable which is determined dynamically in typing.

So for example, if I import encoding/csv package, all I want to type in is :i encoding/csv, etc... Can I define those commands?

I stumbled upon this question, but I cannot get what it is doing nor I'm not sure whether the answer applies to this question in the first place. Can I solve the issue by replacing all of w and W on the linked post to i or d?

Also, does it differ from the case that doesn't take a variable (say, Fmt command to go-format the script)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

EDIT 2: As pointed out by glts below, it's better to use cnoreabbrev or cnorea as pointed out in this answer.

Better working example (paste into ~/.vimrc):

cnorea <expr> i ((getcmdtype() is# ':' && getcmdline() is# 'i')?('Import'):('i'))
cnorea <expr> d ((getcmdtype() is# ':' && getcmdline() is# 'd')?('Drop'):('d'))

EDIT: Simple answer. Just using cabbrev or ca (command abbreviation) seems to work:

WORKING EXAMPLE (Paste this in ~/.vimrc):

ca i Import
ca d Drop

Working on vim 7.3, Ubuntu 64 bit.

ORIGINAL ANSWER (more complex):

According to http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Replace_a_builtin_command_using_cabbrev :

You can use :command to define your own commands, but user-defined commands must start with an uppercase letter to avoid confusion with built-in commands.

So, using :command, you can probably use :I and :D, but not :i and :d.

It goes on to say:

Suppose you have a user-defined :E command that you want to use to override the default :e command. You could do the following:

:cabbrev e <c-r>=(getcmdtype()==':' && getcmdpos()==1 ? 'E' : 'e')<CR>

The (getcmdtype()==':' && getcmdpos()) makes sure the replacement happens only in the first column of the command line (i.e. not later in the line, where it is most likely NOT intended to be used as a command, and not on the search line, which is also affected by cabbrev).
If you do this a lot, it would be useful to define a function to do it for you. Use this to quickly and easily define lowercase abbreviations for whatever command you want:

function! CommandCabbr(abbreviation, expansion)
  execute 'cabbr ' . a:abbreviation . ' <c-r>=getcmdpos() == 1 && getcmdtype() == ":" ? "' . a:expansion . '" : "' . a:abbreviation . '"<CR>'
endfunction
command! -nargs=+ CommandCabbr call CommandCabbr(<f-args>)
" Use it on itself to define a simpler abbreviation for itself.
CommandCabbr ccab CommandCabbr

This not only creates the function, but also provides the (lowercase!) command :ccab to define such abbreviations "on the fly".

So using a function looks like one way to go if you want to use lowercase :i and :d.

Answer 2

The cmdalias.vim - Create aliases for Vim commands plugin allows you to set up lowercase aliases, e.g.:

:Alias i Import

Answer 3

A simple solution:

nnoremap <leader>i :Import<Space>
nnoremap <leader>d :Drop<Space>

In normal mode, <leader>i populates the command-line with

:Import | <--- cursor

ready for you to type in or <tab>-complete an argument.

Better:

nnoremap <leader>i :Import <C-d>
nnoremap <leader>d :Drop <C-d>

<leader>i populates the command-line with

:Import | <--- cursor

and shows a list of possible completions.

Even better:

set wildcharm=<C-z>
nnoremap <leader>i :Import <C-z>
nnoremap <leader>d :Drop <C-z>

Supposing you have wildmenu already setup, <leader>i populates the command-line with

:Import firstpackagenameinthelist

with the wildmenu open and ready for <tab>bing.