Questions about MiniPick customization and configuration

[krovuxdev]

Contributing guidelines

• I have read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Module(s)

mini.pick

Question

I have three questions if possible:

1.Is it possible to add a selection cursor in mini.pick, similar to the Telescope image, where an icon appears on the selected option?

2.Is there a way to separate the colors of prompt_prefix and prompt_cursor?
I would like the prompt_prefix (an icon) to be red and the prompt_cursor to keep its normal color (white text). Currently, everything appears red in the image.

One possible idea for how this could be configured:

window.prompt_prefix = {">", "hl_groups"}
window.prompt_cursor = {"|", "hl_groups"}

I'm not sure if there's a correct way to achieve this or if mini.pick has an option for it.

3.How do you configure the search in MiniPick.grep_live so that patterns like *.lua local foo or local foo *.lua work, searching for .lua files and finding those words inside them?

[echasnovski]

1.Is it possible to add a selection cursor in mini.pick, similar to the Telescope image, where an icon appears on the selected option?

Yes, it should be possible by writing custom source.show. To get which item is current, use current_ind in get_picker_matches() output.

Predicting next question here: no, it will not be built-in or behind another new configuration option.

2.Is there a way to separate the colors of prompt_prefix and prompt_cursor?

No, there is not. The whole prompt is highlighted with MiniPickPrompt highlight group.

I'll think about adding separate MiniPickPromptPrefix and MiniPickPromptCursor, but there is a fundamental issue. Prompt is implemented as title/footer which should be properly truncated if too wide. This is straightforward if the whole title/footer is a single string, but with separate highlighting it is not. It would require separate logic from all other modules which I'd like to avoid.

3.How do you configure the search in MiniPick.grep_live so that patterns like *.lua local foo or local foo *.lua work, searching for .lua files and finding those words inside them?

Through setting globs. Interactively it looks like this:

• :Pick grep_live.
• Press <C-o>, type *.lua, press <CR>. Notice that picker's title changed to include (rg | *.lua).
• Proceed using grep_live as usual.

[krovuxdev]

1.Is it possible to add a selection cursor in mini.pick, similar to the Telescope image, where an icon appears on the selected option?

Yes, it should be possible by writing custom source.show. To get which item is current, use current_ind in get_picker_matches() output.

Predicting next question here: no, it will not be built-in or behind another new configuration option.

@echasnovski
Great, thank you very much. I reviewed it and tried it, but there's something I don't understand. When I scroll up or down in the picker, the ">" isn't positioned correctly. Also, if I enable content_from_bottom, the position isn't set to the current one, and I don't know why.

Here is my code (I’ve tried with each `current` comment, and it still behaves the same):

    source = {
        show = function(buf_id, item_to_show, query)
            local matches = MiniPick.get_picker_matches()
            if matches ~= nil then
                -- local current = math.max(1, math.min(matches.current_ind % #item_to_show, #item_to_show)) -- The current position is not correct.
                -- local current = math.max(1, math.min(matches.current_ind % #item_to_show, #matches.all)) -- The current position is not correct.

                local current = matches.current_ind
                print("len:", #item_to_show, "index:", matches.current_ind, "resultado: ", item_to_show[current])
                if item_to_show[current] then item_to_show[current] = "> " .. item_to_show[current] end -- The current position is not correct
            end
            return MiniPick.default_show(buf_id, item_to_show, query, {
                show_icons = true,
            })
        end,
    },
    options = { content_from_bottom = true },

2.Is there a way to separate the colors of prompt_prefix and prompt_cursor?

No, there is not. The whole prompt is highlighted with MiniPickPrompt highlight group.

I'll think about adding separate MiniPickPromptPrefix and MiniPickPromptCursor, but there is a fundamental issue. Prompt is implemented as title/footer which should be properly truncated if too wide. This is straightforward if the whole title/footer is a single string, but with separate highlighting it is not. It would require separate logic from all other modules which I'd like to avoid.

Yes, that would be awesome. Thank you, I’ll wait for that. :)

3.How do you configure the search in MiniPick.grep_live so that patterns like *.lua local foo or local foo *.lua work, searching for .lua files and finding those words inside them?

Through setting globs. Interactively it looks like this:

* `:Pick grep_live`.

* Press `<C-o>`, type `*.lua`, press `<CR>`. Notice that picker's title changed to include `(rg | *.lua)`.

* Proceed using `grep_live` as usual.

Perfect, thank you so much. It gave me the idea that if I do something like source.matches, if I put "foo | .lua", the "|" will turn into a separator between "foo" and ".lua". I think I’ll try that. Thanks again.

[echasnovski]

I reviewed it and tried it, but there's something I don't understand. When I scroll up or down in the picker, the ">" isn't positioned correctly. Also, if I enable content_from_bottom, the position isn't set to the current one, and I don't know why.

items_to_show is an array of subset of all items that needs to be shown, while current_ind is an index in the array of all items. The symptom that this is the case is if the approach works correctly when the subset of first items are shown (like just after opening) but doesn't work otherwise (after scrolling or non-trivial matching).

I guess there is indeed no easy way to deduct which item in items_to_show is the current. I'll take if it is feasible to make it easier.

[echasnovski]

I guess there is indeed no easy way to deduct which item in items_to_show is the current. I'll take if it is feasible to make it easier.

This should be also addressed in the near-ish future.

[echasnovski]

@krovuxdev, there are now MiniPickPromptCaret and MiniPickPromptPrefix highlight groups. After looking at code I realized that text truncation for title was suboptimal (as it always truncated from left even if there was caret there), so I had to adjust to always have caret visible. The solution then allowed for a reasonably straightforward way to add support for separate highlighting of caret and prefix (but dealing with the amount of actual changes was not fun :( ).

And a heads up: window.prompt_cursor was renamed to window.prompt_caret for more consistency.

[krovuxdev]

Thank you for letting me know :)

[echasnovski]

1. Is it possible to add a selection cursor in mini.pick, similar to the Telescope image, where an icon appears on the selected option?

It is now fully possible via using get_picker_matches() output: shown_inds](https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.nvim/blob/bddfbfc4c1dbca6b852f512e554cf2e05c2960a8/doc/mini-pick.txt#L1279) and [current_ind`.

The most robust approach here is to actually not write global config.source.show, because it would override default source.show which are crucial for some pickers (prominent example is whether to use icons or not). I was test driving the following approach with wrapping already defined source.show inside callback for MiniPickStart User event and it seems to work fine:

-- Automatically wrap picker's `source.show` to do some extra work of showing
-- gutter sign. This is needed over defining global `config.source.show` to
-- account for picker-specific ways of showing items (like showing icons or
-- not, etc.).
local show_gutter_ns_id = vim.api.nvim_create_namespace('mini-pick-show-gutter')
local wrap_show_with_gutter = function()
  local picker_opts = MiniPick.get_picker_opts()
  local show_fun = picker_opts.source.show

  picker_opts.source.show = function(buf_id, items_to_show, query)
    show_fun(buf_id, items_to_show, query)

    -- Show fresh gutter as extmark with inline virtual text:
    -- "  " for non-current item, "> " for current
    vim.api.nvim_buf_clear_namespace(buf_id, show_gutter_ns_id, 0, -1)

    local matches = MiniPick.get_picker_matches()
    local shown_inds, cur_ind = matches.shown_inds, matches.current_ind
    if shown_inds == nil or cur_ind == nil then return end

    local prefix_extmark_opts = { virt_text = { { '  ', 'MiniPickNormal' } }, virt_text_pos = 'inline' }
    for i = 1, vim.api.nvim_buf_line_count(buf_id) do
      prefix_extmark_opts.virt_text[1][1] = (shown_inds[i] == cur_ind and cur_ind ~= nil) and '> ' or '  '
      vim.api.nvim_buf_set_extmark(buf_id, show_gutter_ns_id, i - 1, 0, prefix_extmark_opts)
    end
  end

  MiniPick.set_picker_opts(picker_opts)
end

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('User', { pattern = 'MiniPickStart', callback = wrap_show_with_gutter })

[krovuxdev]

Thank you so much, this really helped me! 😊

[krovuxdev]

@echasnovski By the way, I was testing this codeactions, and when I try to navigate up or down between the options, the window moves by itself, it's really strange. Without wrap_show_with_gutter, it works fine.

[echasnovski]

Well, any other custom scripts/code might need adjustments here. That's more on the actual user to do in this particular case as supporting something like this out of the box is not planned.