I'm just a user, not a developer, but traces.vim is really useful to me when constructing regexes for substitution because I can see in real time the mistakes that make them incorrect (because the highlighted matches disappear, or the substituted strings become incorrect). This ability seems like a natural part of the editor itself, especially if it is off by default.
On Monday, March 23, 2026 at 7:27:49 PM UTC-4 Jon Parise wrote: > *jparise* left a comment (vim/vim#19772) > <https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/19772#issuecomment-4114370489> > > I worked on this for a few reasons: it was previously discussed with > (nice-to-have) support on vim-dev > <https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/FiUC3_mSv_o>; it's been natively > available in neovim for a number of years; and :substitute previews are > the only feature of traces.vim <https://github.com/markonm/traces.vim> > that I personally use. It also felt like a good, focused way to start, > rather than a generalized preview system, although I see the benefits of > the latter. > > That being said, I also understand the arguments against including this > directly in vim, especially when plugins already traces.vim exist. > > There does appear to be some positive sentiment that an optional (and > generalized) preview mode could be useful, so maybe that's a place to steer > this discussion: maybe a separate window, something like neovim's split > <https://neovim.io/doc/user/options/#'inccommand'> preview view, or some > new ideas. > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/19772?email_source=notifications&email_token=ACY5DGBMOMPFS7NAVHTIA3L4SHB6VA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIMJRGQZTOMBUHA42M4TFMFZW63VKON2WE43DOJUWEZLEUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#issuecomment-4114370489> > . > > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message > ID: <vim/vim/pull/19772/[email protected]> > -- -- You received this message from the "vim_dev" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/vim_dev/56b752ca-e417-42df-9225-70ee6c444e67n%40googlegroups.com.
