Align multiple characters

[savchenko]

Consider the following snippet:

            tabkey = '<Tab>',     -- key to trigger tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>', -- key to trigger backwards tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            act_as_tab = true,    -- shift content if tab out is not possible
            act_as_shift_tab = false, -- reverse shift content if tab out is not possible (if your keyboard/terminal supports <S-Tab>)
            default_tab = '<C-t>', -- shift default action (only at the beginning of a line, otherwise <TAB> is used)
            default_shift_tab = '<C-d>', -- reverse shift default action,
            enable_backwards = true, -- well ...
            completion = true,    -- if the tabkey is used in a completion pum
            tabouts = {
                { open = "'", close = "'" },
                { open = '"', close = '"' },
                { open = '`', close = '`' },
                { open = '(', close = ')' },
                { open = '[', close = ']' },
                { open = '{', close = '}' }
            },
            ignore_beginning = true, -- [[ if the cursor is at the beginning of a filled element it will rather tab out than shift the content ]]
            exclude = {}             -- tabout will ignore these filetypes

How to (correctly!) align it using -- as the column delimiter? Plain -- returns an error:

E5108: Error executing lua: (mini.align) Pattern "--" can not advance search.

Adding spaces results in split comment symbols:

            tabkey = '<Tab>',     -        - key to trigger tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>', -- key to trigger backwards tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            act_as_tab = true,    -        - shift content if tab out is not possible
            act_as_shift_tab = false, -    - reverse shift content if tab out is not possible (if your keyboard/terminal supports <S-Tab>)
            default_tab = '<C-t>', -       - shift default action (only at the beginning of a line, otherwise <TAB> is used)
            default_shift_tab = '<C-d>', - - reverse shift default action,
            enable_backwards = true, -     - well ...
            completion = true,    -        - if the tabkey is used in a completion pum
            tabouts = {
                { open = "'", close = "'" },
                { open = '"', close = '"' },
                { open = '`', close = '`' },
                { open = '(', close = ')' },
                { open = '[', close = ']' },
                { open = '{', close = '}' }
            },
            ignore_beginning = true, -     - [[ if the cursor is at the beginning of a filled element it will rather tab out than shift the content ]]
            exclude = {}             -     - tabout will ignore these filetypes

Using (pair) justify left returns corectly aligned text, but separators squeezed to the left:

            tabkey = '<Tab>',     --         key to trigger tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            backwards_tabkey = '<S-Tab>', -- key to trigger backwards tabout, set to an empty string to disable
            act_as_tab = true,    --         shift content if tab out is not possible
            act_as_shift_tab = false, --     reverse shift content if tab out is not possible (if your keyboard/terminal supports <S-Tab>)
            default_tab = '<C-t>', --        shift default action (only at the beginning of a line, otherwise <TAB> is used)
            default_shift_tab = '<C-d>', --  reverse shift default action,
            enable_backwards = true, --      well ...
            completion = true,    --         if the tabkey is used in a completion pum
            tabouts = {
                { open = "'", close = "'" },
                { open = '"', close = '"' },
                { open = '`', close = '`' },
                { open = '(', close = ')' },
                { open = '[', close = ']' },
                { open = '{', close = '}' }
            },
            ignore_beginning = true, --      [[ if the cursor is at the beginning of a filled element it will rather tab out than shift the content ]]
            exclude = {}             --      tabout will ignore these filetypes

[echasnovski]

Splitting is done based on Lua patterns. In Lua patterns, - is a non-greedy quantifier (similar to * in regular regular expressions, but not greedy). Thus it should be escaped with %.

So aligning by -- can be done using %-%- pattern (after pressing s to Split).

[savchenko]

Aha! Any chance mini.splitjoin can support a regular (e.g. PCRE) regexp?

[echasnovski]

Aha! Any chance mini.splitjoin can support a regular (e.g. PCRE) regexp?

I don't think so. Lua's string module supports only Lua patterns. They are insanely fast (at least in LuaJIT) yet slightly limiting, but still usable.

[savchenko]

How about a naive translation? % --> \

Using different escape symbols in Vim / other plugin(s) increases cognitive load by a fair bit.

[echasnovski]

How about a naive translation? % --> \

It won't be as simple as that because Lua patterns have other special behavior. See :h luaref-patterns in 0.9.5 (:h lua-patterns in Nightly).

Using different escape symbols in Vim / other plugin(s) increases cognitive load by a fair bit.

'mini.nvim' tries to consistently use Lua patterns. I can not remember off the top of my head where other (regular) patterns can be used.

[savchenko]

'mini.nvim' tries to consistently use Lua patterns.

It does, however "everything" else is using predominantly PCRE. Including Vim itself (:%s/\v\d+\w+/foo/g and the likes)