README

This is a mirror of http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2666

DESCRIPTION

This plugin adds mappings and a :Mark command to highlight several words in
different colors simultaneously, similar to the built-in 'hlsearch'
highlighting of search results and the * |star| command. For example, when you
are browsing a big program file, you could highlight multiple identifiers in
parallel. This will make it easier to trace the source code.

This is a continuation of vimscript #1238 by Yuheng Xie, who doesn't maintain
his original version anymore and recommends switching to this fork. This
plugin offers the following advantages over the original:
- Much faster, all colored words can now be highlighted, no more clashes with
  syntax highlighting (due to use of matchadd()).
- Many bug fixes.
- Jumps behave like the built-in search, including wrap and error messages.
- Like the built-in commands, jumps take an optional [count] to quickly skip
  over some marks.
- Marks can be persisted, and patterns can be added / subtracted from
  mark highlight groups.

SEE ALSO

- SearchAlternatives.vim (vimscript #4146) provides mappings and commands to
  add and subtract alternative branches to the current search pattern.
- SearchHighlighting.vim (vimscript #4320) can change the semantics of the
  start command *, extends it to visual mode (like Mark) and has auto-search
  functionality which instantly highlights the word under the cursor when
  typing or moving around, like in many IDEs.

RELATED WORKS

- MultipleSearch (vimscript #479) can highlight in a single window and in all
  buffers, but still relies on the :syntax highlighting method, which is
  slower and less reliable.
- http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlight_multiple_words offers control over the
  color used by mapping the 1-9 keys on the numeric keypad, persistence, and
  highlights only a single window.
- highlight.vim (vimscript #1599) highlights lines or patterns of interest in
  different colors, using mappings that start with CTRL-H and work on cword.
- quickhl.vim (vimscript #3692) can also list the matches with colors and in
  addition offers on-the-fly highlighting of the current word (like many IDEs
  do).
- Highlight (http://www.drchip.org/astronaut/vim/index.html#HIGHLIGHT) has
  commands and mappings for highlighting and searching, uses matchadd(), but
  limits the scope of highlightings to the current window.
- TempKeyword (vimscript #4636) is a simple plugin that can matchadd() the
  word under the cursor with \0 - \9 mappings. (And clear with \c0 etc.)
- simple_highlighting (vimscript #4688) has commands and mappings to highlight
  8 different slots in all buffers.
- searchmatch (vimscript #4869) has commands and mappings for :[1,2,3]match,
  in the current window only.

HIGHLIGHTING

<Leader>m		Mark the word under the cursor, similar to the |star|
			command. The next free highlight group is used.
			If already on a mark: Clear the mark, like
			|<Leader>n|.
{Visual}<Leader>m	Mark or unmark the visual selection.
[N]<Leader>m		With [N], mark the word under the cursor with the
			named highlight group [N]. When that group is not
			empty, the word is added as an alternative match, so
			you can highlight multiple words with the same color.
			When the word is already contained in the list of
			alternatives, it is removed.

			When [N] is greater than the number of defined mark
			groups, a summary of marks is printed. Active mark
			groups are prefixed with "*" (or "M*" when there are
			M pattern alternatives), the default next group with
			">", the last used search with "/" (like |:Marks|
			does). Input the mark group, accept the default with
			<CR>, or abort with <Esc> or any other key.
			This way, when unsure about which number represents
			which color, just use 99<Leader>n and pick the color
			interactively!

{Visual}[N]<Leader>m	Ditto, based on the visual selection.


[N]<Leader>r		Manually input a regular expression to mark.
{Visual}[N]<Leader>r	Ditto, based on the visual selection.

			In accordance with the built-in |star| command,
			all these mappings use 'ignorecase', but not
			'smartcase'.

<Leader>n		Clear the mark under the cursor.
			If not on a mark: Disable all marks, similar to
			|:nohlsearch|.
			Note: Marks that span multiple lines are not detected,
			so the use of <Leader>n on such a mark will
			unintentionally remove all marks! Use
			{Visual}<Leader>r or :Mark {pattern} to clear
			multi-line marks (or pass [N] if you happen to know
			the group number).
[N]<Leader>n		Clear the marks represented by highlight group [N].


:[N]Mark		Clear the marks represented by highlight group [N].
:[N]Mark[!] {pattern}	Mark or unmark {pattern}. Unless [N] is given, the
			next free highlight group is used for marking.
			With [N], mark {pattern} with the named highlight
			group [N]. When that group is not empty, the word is
			added as an alternative match, so you can highlight
			multiple words with the same color, unless [!] is
			given; then, {pattern} overrides the existing mark.
			When the word is already contained in the list of
			alternatives, it is removed.
			For implementation reasons, {pattern} cannot use the
			'smartcase' setting, only 'ignorecase'.
:Mark			Disable all marks, similar to |:nohlsearch|. Marks
			will automatically re-enable when a mark is added or
			removed, or a search for marks is performed.
								  *:MarkClear*
:MarkClear		Clear all marks. In contrast to disabling marks, the
			actual mark information is cleared, the next mark will
			use the first highlight group. This cannot be undone.


SEARCHING
		
[count]*         [count]#
[count]<Leader>* [count]<Leader>#
[count]<Leader>/ [count]<Leader>?
			Use these six keys to jump to the [count]'th next /
			previous occurrence of a mark.
			You could also use Vim's / and ? to search, since the
			mark patterns are (optionally, see configuration)
			added to the search history, too.

            Cursor over mark                    Cursor not over mark
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  <Leader>* Jump to the next occurrence of      Jump to the next occurrence of
            current mark, and remember it       "last mark".
            as "last mark".

  <Leader>/ Jump to the next occurrence of      Same as left.
            ANY mark.

   *        If <Leader>* is the most recently   Do Vim's original * command.
            used, do a <Leader>*; otherwise
            (<Leader>/ is the most recently
            used), do a <Leader>/.

			Note: When the cursor is on a mark, the backwards
			search does not jump to the beginning of the current
			mark (like the built-in search), but to the previous
			mark. The entire mark text is treated as one entity.

			You can use Vim's |jumplist| to go back to previous
			mark matches and the position before a mark search.


If you work with multiple highlight groups and assign special meaning to them
(e.g. group 1 for notable functions, 2 for variables, 3 for includes), you can
use the 1-9 keys on the numerical keypad to jump to occurrences of a
particular highlight group. With the general * and # commands above, you'd
first need to locate a nearby occurrence of the desired highlight group if
it's not the last mark used.

<k1> .. <k9>		Jump to the [count]'th next occurrence of the mark
			belonging to highlight group 1..9.
<C-k1> .. <C-k9>	Jump to the [count]'th previous occurrence of the mark
			belonging to highlight group 1..9.
			Note that these commands only work when the "Num Lock"
			indicator of your keyboard is ON; otherwise, the
			keypad is used for cursor movement.

MARK PERSISTENCE

The marks can be kept and restored across Vim sessions, using the |viminfo|
file. For this to work, the "!" flag must be part of the 'viminfo' setting:
    set viminfo+=!  " Save and restore global variables.

:MarkLoad 		Restore the marks from the previous Vim session. All
			current marks are discarded.
:MarkLoad {slot}	Restore the marks stored in the named {slot}. All
			current marks are discarded.

:MarkSave		Save the currently defined marks (or clear the
			persisted marks if no marks are currently defined) for
			use in a future Vim session.
:MarkSave {slot}	Save the currently defined marks in the named {slot}.
			If {slot} is all UPPERCASE, the marks are persisted
			and can be |:MarkLoad|ed in a future Vim session;
			otherwise, you can just recall within the current
			session. When no marks are currently defined, the
			{slot} is cleared.

By default, automatic persistence is enabled (so you don't need to explicitly
|:MarkSave|), but you have to explicitly load the persisted marks in a new Vim
session via |:MarkLoad|, to avoid that you accidentally drag along outdated
highlightings from Vim session to session, and be surprised by the arbitrary
highlight groups and occasional appearance of forgotten marks. If you want
just that though and automatically restore any marks, set |g:mwAutoLoadMarks|.

You can also initialize some marks (even using particular highlight groups) to
static values, e.g. by including this in |vimrc|: >
    runtime plugin/mark.vim
    silent MarkClear
    5Mark foo
    6Mark bar
Or you can define custom commands that preset certain marks: >
    command -bar MyMarks silent MarkClear | execute '5Mark foo' | execute '6Mark bar'
Or a command that adds to the existing marks and then toggles them: >
    command -bar ToggleFooBarMarks execute 'Mark foo' | execute 'Mark bar'

MARK INFORMATION

Both |mark-highlighting| and |mark-searching| commands print information about
the mark and search pattern, e.g.
	mark-1/\<pattern\> ~
This is especially useful when you want to add or subtract patterns to a mark
highlight group via [N].


:Marks			List all mark highlight groups and the search patterns
			defined for them.
			The group that will be used for the next |:Mark| or
			|<Leader>m| command (with [N]) is shown with a ">".
			The last mark used for a search (via |<Leader>*|) is
			shown with a "/".

MARK HIGHLIGHTING PALETTES

The plugin comes with three predefined palettes: original, extended, and
maximum. You can dynamically toggle between them, e.g. when you need more
marks or a different set of colors.
						
:MarkPalette {palette}	Highlight existing and future marks with the colors
			defined in {palette}. If the new palette contains less
			mark groups than the current one, the additional marks
			are lost.
			You can use |:command-completion| for {palette}.

See |g:mwDefaultHighlightingPalette| for how to change the default palette,
and |mark-palette-define| for how to add your own custom palettes.

CONFIGURATION

For a permanent configuration, put the following commands into your |vimrc|.

			
This plugin defines 6 mark groups:
    1: Cyan  2:Green  3:Yellow  4:Red  5:Magenta  6:Blue ~
Higher numbers always take precedence and are displayed above lower ones.

		
Especially if you use GVIM, you can switch to a richer palette of up to 18
colors: >
    let g:mwDefaultHighlightingPalette = 'extended'
Or, if you have both good eyes and display, you can try a palette that defines
27, 58, or even 77 colors, depending on the number of available colors: >
    let g:mwDefaultHighlightingPalette = 'maximum'

If you like the additional colors, but don't need that many of them, restrict
their number via: >
	let g:mwDefaultHighlightingNum = 9


If none of the default highlightings suits you, define your own colors in your
vimrc file (or anywhere before this plugin is sourced, but after any
|:colorscheme|), in the following form (where N = 1..): >
    highlight MarkWordN ctermbg=Cyan ctermfg=Black guibg=#8CCBEA guifg=Black
You can also use this form to redefine only some of the default highlightings.
If you want to avoid losing the highlightings on |:colorscheme| commands, you
need to re-apply your highlights on the |ColorScheme| event, similar to how
this plugin does. Or you define the palette not via :highlight commands, but
use the plugin's infrastructure: >
    let g:mwDefaultHighlightingPalette = [
    \	{ 'ctermbg':'Cyan', 'ctermfg':'Black', 'guibg':'#8CCBEA', 'guifg':'Black' },
    \	...
    \]

If you want to switch multiple palettes during runtime, you need to define
them as proper palettes: >
    let g:mwPalettes['mypalette'] = [
    \	{ 'ctermbg':'Cyan', 'ctermfg':'Black', 'guibg':'#8CCBEA', 'guifg':'Black' },
    \	...
    \]
    let g:mwPalettes['other'] = [ ... ]
    let g:mwDefaultHighlightingPalette = 'mypalette'
To add your palette to the existing ones, do this after the default palette
has been defined, e.g. in .vim/after/plugin/mark.vim). Alternatively, you can
also completely redefine all available palettes in .vimrc.

The search type highlighting (in the search message) can be changed via: >
    highlight link SearchSpecialSearchType MoreMsg


By default, any marked words are also added to the search (/) and input (@)
history; if you don't want that, remove the corresponding symbols from: >
    let g:mwHistAdd = '/@'


To enable the automatic restore of marks from a previous Vim session: >
    let g:mwAutoLoadMarks = 1

To turn off the automatic persistence of marks across Vim sessions: >
    let g:mwAutoSaveMarks = 0
You can still explicitly save marks via |:MarkSave|.


If you have set 'ignorecase', but want marks to be case-insensitive, you can
override the default behavior of using 'ignorecase' by setting: >
	let g:mwIgnoreCase = 0



You can use different mappings by mapping to the <Plug>Mark... mappings (use
":map <Plug>Mark" to list them all) before this plugin is sourced.

There are no default mappings for toggling all marks and for the |:MarkClear|
command, but you can define some yourself: >
    nmap <Leader>M <Plug>MarkToggle
    nmap <Leader>N <Plug>MarkAllClear
As the latter is irreverible, there's also an alternative with an additional
confirmation: >
    nmap <Leader>N <Plug>MarkConfirmAllClear

To remove the default overriding of * and #, use: >
    nmap <Plug>IgnoreMarkSearchNext <Plug>MarkSearchNext
    nmap <Plug>IgnoreMarkSearchPrev <Plug>MarkSearchPrev

If you don't want the * and # mappings remember the last search type and
instead always search for the next occurrence of the current mark, with a
fallback to Vim's original * command, use: >
    nmap * <Plug>MarkSearchOrCurNext
    nmap # <Plug>MarkSearchOrCurPrev

The search mappings (*, #, etc.) interpret [count] as the number of
occurrences to jump over. If you don't want to use the separate
|mark-keypad-searching| mappings, and rather want [count] select the highlight
group to target (and you can live with jumps restricted to the very next
match), (re-)define to these mapping targets: >
    nmap * <Plug>MarkSearchGroupNext
    nmap # <Plug>MarkSearchGroupPrev

You can remap the direct group searches (by default via the keypad 1-9 keys):
    nmap <Leader>1  <Plug>MarkSearchGroup1Next
    nmap <Leader>!  <Plug>MarkSearchGroup1Prev

If you need more / less groups, this can be configured via: >
    let g:mwDirectGroupJumpMappingNum = 20
Set to 0 to completely turn off the keypad mappings. This is easier than
remapping all <Plug>-mappings.


Some people like to create a mark based on the visual selection, like
|v_<Leader>m|, but have whitespace in the selection match any whitespace when
searching (searching for "hello world" will also find "hello<Tab>world" as
well as "hello" at the end of a line, with "world" at the start of the next
line). The Vim Tips Wiki describes such a setup for the built-in search at
    http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Search_for_visually_selected_text
You can achieve the same with the Mark plugin through the <Plug>MarkIWhiteSet
mapping target: Using this, you can assign a new visual mode mapping <Leader>*
    xmap <Leader>* <Plug>MarkIWhiteSet
or override the default |v_<Leader>m| mapping, in case you always want this
behavior: >
    vmap <Plug>IgnoreMarkSet <Plug>MarkSet
    xmap <Leader>m <Plug>MarkIWhiteSet

==============================================================================
INTEGRATION		

The following functions offer (read-only) access to the number of marks and
individual patterns:
- mark#GetNum()
- mark#GetPattern([{index}])

==============================================================================
LIMITATIONS

- If the 'ignorecase' setting is changed, there will be discrepancies between
  the highlighted marks and subsequent jumps to marks.
- If {pattern} in a :Mark command contains atoms that change the semantics of
  the entire (|/\c|, |/\C|) or following (|/\v|,|/\V|, |/\M|) regular
  expression, there may be discrepancies between the highlighted marks and
  subsequent jumps to marks.