mini.operators: is builtin visual mode P a complete synonym for visual mode replace?

[tuurep]

Contributing guidelines

• I have read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Module(s)

mini.operators

Question

v_P is quite a new addition to Vim related to the idea of a replace-with-register-operator

e.g. oldest replace plugin I know (which I used before mini.operators):
https://github.com/inkarkat/vim-replacewithregister

Discussion when v_P was added:
https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/H_HzHcGXNxA

When it was added, I was wondering whether it makes a visual mode replace operator redundant:

inkarkat/vim-ReplaceWithRegister#6

How about in mini.operators, are there any differences with v_P and v_gr (however small)?

[tuurep]

Ah well of course, it was documented:

https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.operators/blob/81e5059268154f5a8b594c95748968febdd539e3/doc/mini-operators.txt#L362-L365

• Advantages of using this instead of "visually select" + "paste with |v_P|":
  • As operator it is dot-repeatable which has cumulative gain in case of
    multiple replacing is needed.
  • Can automatically reindent.

The automatic reindent is a very noticeable difference, which makes it worth to have.

[echasnovski]

It's nice to see people reading documentation :)

[tuurep]

This was a good thing to investigate, I went as far as remapping visual mode p (lowercase) to mini.operators replace 😄 The situation where I want to not preserve indent is something I've never come across.