IdeaVim, multi cursor usage

Question

I'm trying to trigger (to use) the IdeaVim multi cursor plugin: https://github.com/JetBrains/ideavim#emulated-vim-plugins -> multiple-cursors

In the github docs we have commands: <A-n>, <A-x>, <A-p>, g<A-n> to trigger/use this plugin, but I'm not able to make this plugin working at all...

I've added in my .ideavimrc set multiple-cursors.

Am I missing something?

I'm using OSX (if that's important).

Answer 1

As mentioned in other answers, macOS treats <A-n> as a "dead key" in order to enter accented characters, such as ñ (<A-n>n). It doesn't seem possible to disable this programmatically, and you have to use an alternative keyboard input source to work around this.

However, the <A-n> keys are not the keys used by the extension that IdeaVim's multiple-cursors is based on (terryma/vim-multiple-cursors). I'm not sure where they came from, but vim-multiple-cursors uses <C-n>, <C-p> and <C-x> and only uses <A-n> to select all occurrences, which is different to the IdeaVim behaviour. There is an issue tracking the wrong key mappings - VIM-2178.

In the meantime, you can remap the keys to match the Vim plugin by adding the following to your ~/.ideavimrc:

" Remap multiple-cursors shortcuts to match terryma/vim-multiple-cursors nmap <C-n> <Plug>NextWholeOccurrence xmap <C-n> <Plug>NextWholeOccurrence nmap g<C-n> <Plug>NextOccurrence xmap g<C-n> <Plug>NextOccurrence nmap <C-x> <Plug>SkipOccurrence xmap <C-x> <Plug>SkipOccurrence nmap <C-p> <Plug>RemoveOccurrence xmap <C-p> <Plug>RemoveOccurrence 

And you can work around the <A-n> issue for "select all occurrences" by mapping to something else, such as Shift+Ctrl+n:

" Note that the default <A-n> and g<A-n> shortcuts don't work on Mac due to dead keys. " <A-n> is used to enter accented text e.g. ñ nmap <S-C-n> <Plug>AllWholeOccurrences xmap <S-C-n> <Plug>AllWholeOccurrences nmap g<S-C-n> <Plug>AllOccurrences xmap g<S-C-n> <Plug>AllOccurrences