Question

Suppose I want to write a report on what I see from my window : the bus departs, Mrs Smith goes to the grocer’s, etc…
An example : http://withhiddennoise.net/2010/08/12/georges-perec-an-attempt-at-exhausting-a-place-in-paris/

Of course, abbreviations are ideal for that type of shorthand. We could have :

:iabbr bd The bus departs
:iabbr sg Mrs Smith goes to the grocer's

But it is evident that these events will keep on repeating, and we are supposed not to re-use the same words (at least, not too often).

Is it possible then to have something which would look like this :

:iabbr bd RANDOM(The bus departs, The bus drives away, The bus takes off)

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You could define a function like the following one

function! BD() 

  let l:t = localtime()

  if     l:t % 3 == 0
         normal aThe bus departs

  elseif l:t % 3 == 1
         normal aThe bus drives away

  else   
         normal aThe bus takes off
  endif

endfunction

and then declare the following imap:

:imap bd <ESC>:call BD()<CR>a

From now on, entering bd in insert mode should insert one of the three random strings.

Edit: As for the question if there can be multiple patterns: if I understood the question right, this is possible with something like:

let g:abbreviations  = [
\      ['The bus departs', 'The bus drives away', 'The bus takes off'],
\      ['foo'            , 'bar'                , 'baz'              ],
\      ['That''s ok'     , 'That''s fine'       , 'That''s good'     ],
\      ['more'           , 'less'               , 'the same'         ],
\   ]

function! ExpandAbbr(abbr_no) 

  let l:t = localtime()

  return g:abbreviations[a:abbr_no][l:t % 3]

endfunction

iabbr <expr> bd ExpandAbbr(0)
iabbr <expr> pg ExpandAbbr(1)
iabbr <expr> ok ExpandAbbr(2)
iabbr <expr> mo ExpandAbbr(3)