Question

Here is what I do
:syntax match conceal Test +[A-Z0-9]\{6}+
:set conceallevel=2
:set concealcursor=nvi
So when I write 123456 in vim I expect it to be nothing there. But what actually happens when I move over that area is that I have to move 6 times in the direction I want to move for the cursor to pass that area.

Is there a way to work around this? I want vim to see it as if there is nothing there and that when I move over that area it’s like there is nothing there. But I still want to be able to search for it and delete it.

Answer 1

Currently there is no built-in way to do this. You can use synconcealed() to determine whether there is a concealed character under the cursor and what it is concealed to and remap all moving keys to respect it: like this:

function! ForwardSkipConceal(count)
    let cnt=a:count
    let mvcnt=0
    let c=col('.')
    let l=line('.')
    let lc=col('$')
    let line=getline('.')
    while cnt
        if c>=lc
            let mvcnt+=cnt
            break
        endif
        if stridx(&concealcursor, 'n')==-1
            let isconcealed=0
        else
            let [isconcealed, cchar, group]=synconcealed(l, c)
        endif
        if isconcealed
            let cnt-=strchars(cchar)
            let oldc=c
            let c+=1
            while c<lc && synconcealed(l, c)[2]==group | let c+=1 | endwhile
            let mvcnt+=strchars(line[oldc-1:c-2])
        else
            let cnt-=1
            let mvcnt+=1
            let c+=len(matchstr(line[c-1:], '.'))
        endif
    endwhile
    return ":\<C-u>\e".mvcnt.'l'
endfunction
nnoremap <expr> l ForwardSkipConceal(v:count1)

. Note: this does the thing for one single motion (l) and in normal mode, just to show the way it may be done.