FR: Start in visual mode

[MarcelRobitaille]

The way I understand #163 is that people want to perform normal mode operations on the input. I would like to propose that in this case it's better to start in visual mode (a visual selection over the initial value).

Let's take vim.lsp.buf.rename as an example:

Desired action	Start in insert (default)	Start in normal (config.input.start_in_insert = false)	Start in visual (proposal)
Completely change name	Backspace, Backspace.... or escciw	ciw	c
Uppercase name	esc Uiw	Uiw	U
Prepend to name	esc I	i	I
Append to name	Just type	A	A
Vim-abolish coersion	esc crs	crs	esc crs

Starting in insert only wins for "Append to name".

The only case I considered where starting in visual is worse is using vim-abolish coersion. Even then, you only have to press esc one time.

I propose to add a configuration option like:

require("dressing").setup({
  input = {
    start_in_insert = false,
    start_in_visual = true,
  }
})

This should obviously only apply if the input has some initial value, like vim.lsp.buf.rename. I guess this would mean that it's valid to set both start_in_insert and start_in_visual to both be true: If there is an initial value, start in visual. Otherwise, start in insert.

It would be cool to make this more configurable on a case by case basis. There is already override, but that's only for winopt. It would be cool to have a function that takes as inputs for example { action = "vim.lsp.buf.rename", initial_value = "old_name" } and you can return start_in_insert, start_in_visual (or anything else in the config). I'm not sure exactly how to encode it, but you get the idea.

I'd argue that the default should be insert mode if there is no initial value, and visual if there is an initial value.

If you think it's a good idea, I'm happy to try to make a PR.

[stevearc]

#163 was actually mostly unrelated. It was about removing insert_only, which caused the modal to be closed if the user escaped into normal mode. That was a terrible idea from the start and never should have existed.

I'm fine with a refactor that replaces the start_in_insert boolean with something more flexible, like start_mode = "normal"|"insert"|"visual"|"select".

This is already configurable on a case-by-case basis, see :help dressing_get_config

[MarcelRobitaille]

I only meant it was similar idealogically in that people want to be able to perform normal mode operations. Sorry, I should have been more clear.

Sounds good. I will look into it. Do you care about backwards compatibility to start_in_insert? Did I manage to convince you that it should be the default if there is an initial value?

Thanks for dressing_get_config. I didn't know about that.

[stevearc]

Let's make sure it's backwards compatible, but I'm not yet convinced it should be the default. We should add it first, wait to see how it goes, and later we can evaluate changing the defaults.

[MarcelRobitaille]

This is fixed in #175