Vimput - Modal editing in chrome

Simulate arrow keys and text editing keys using vim-style bindings.

Simulate arrow keys and text editing keys using vim-style bindings. Since vimput simulates the browser's built-in text editing keys, it should natively work on all websites which allow arrow key navigation. This includes websites like Google Docs, which implement their own custom text rendering, websites like notion, where text is split across elements, and even websites where you are editing more than text, such as google sheets. By default, the extension starts in "off" mode, and switches to "insert" mode whenever a text field is selected (but this behavior can be customized). Since Escape is already used by the browser, Alt+q (or Control+q for MacOS) is the default keybinding to enter normal mode. Once in normal mode, you will be able to use many of vim's default keybindings. ===== Supported Commands ===== Currently supported normal mode commands are: Numeric prefixes for repeating any command h/j/k/l for basic navigation w/e/b for wordwise navigation $/^/0 to jump to the start/end of the line g/G to jump to the start/end of the document d/c/y to read a motion, then perform a delete/change/copy D/C/Y to perform a delete/change/copy on the current line i/a to enter insert mode I/A to enter insert mode at the start/end of the line o/O to open a new line below/above, and then entering insert mode s/S to delete the current character/line and enter insert mode x/X to delete forward/backward z/Z to delete a word forward/backward u/U to undo/redo J to merge the next line with the current line v to enter visual mode V to select the current line and enter visual mode Currently supported visual mode commands are: h/j/k/l/w/e/b/$/^/0/g/G to move the selection d/c/y to delete/change/copy the selected text o to swap the selection direction (visual mode) q/A-q to exit visual mode at the spot of the cursor i/a to enter insert mode at the beginning/end of the selection The full list of keybindings and settings can be viewed and customized in the options menu once the extension is installed. ===== Disabling the debug popup ===== In order to simulate native keybindings, vimput must use chrome's debugger api. This has the delightful feature of providing you with a popup at the top of your screen every time the extension is used. In order to disable this popup, you must run chrome with the --silent-debugger-extension-api flag. See this article on how to run chrome with custom flags: https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/run-chromium-with-flags/ For brave users: This flag does not seem to work on the standard version of brave, but it does work on the beta version. ===== Macos limitations ===== MacOS does not allow simulating any events which have the Command prefix. Luckily, this only eliminates the beginning/end of file keys, and command shortcuts (cut, copy, paste, undo redo.) Due to this, d is mapped to Backspace on MacOS instead of Cut. Also, MacOS will sometimes infer Option+key as a special character instead of the raw key combination. ===== Implementation ===== The extension is implemented by intercepting all keyboard events and replacing them with new ones. For example, if you press the l key while in normal mode, the extension will intercept it, and then send the page an ArrowRight event in its place. Similarly, if you were in visual mode, it would send a Shift+ArrowRight event in order to expand the selection to the right. This should give a general idea of what the extension is and is not capable of. For example, it is possible to simulate 0 by pressing Home, but there is no way to simulate the ^ key, since the browser does not have a key to jump to the beginning of a line's text. The extension then implements repeated keys by simply performing the associated key presses a bunch of times. The motion/operator system is a special case. When you press an operator, the extension will wait for the user to input a valid motion. The motion will then be run first, and select a region of text. The operator will then act on the selected text. For example, if you press dd, the extension will send Home to go to the beginning of the line, Shift+End to select to the end of the line, and finally Control+x to cut that region. Thus, if you wanted to remap d to simply delete instead of cut, you could write nmap d operator Backspace in your config. Since Backspace deletes whatever text is selected, it will work as an operator. ===== Configuration ===== Almost every aspect of the extension can be configured in the configuration file, which can be accessed by clicking on the extension icon. You can also provide site-specific configuration, including disabling the extension entirely on certain sites.