vim toggling buffer overwrite behavior when deleting

Question

Vim is great, but like many people I get really annoyed when I want to copy, delete, then paste -- the yank buffer gets overwritten by the delete action.

Now I know

Answer 1

OK, I got it -- this script in .vimrc lets me effectively toggle a "no buffer side-effects" mode whereby the d and x keys no longer overwrite the buffer when "no buffer side-effects" mode is activated.

Add this in .vimrc

function! ToggleSideEffects()
    if mapcheck("dd", "n") == ""
        noremap dd "_dd
        noremap D "_D
        noremap d "_d
        noremap X "_X
        noremap x "_x
        echo 'side effects off'
    else
        unmap dd
        unmap D
        unmap d
        unmap X
        unmap x
        echo 'side effects on'
    endif
endfunction
nnoremap ,, :call ToggleSideEffects()<CR>

Then to toggle in and out of this mode use the key combination ,, (two commas)

Answer 2

I think trying to "turn-off" the side effects for every delete/change command would be overly difficult if not impossible. The basic ways to handle this situation:

• Use the black hole ("_) register with your delete or change commands. e.g. "_dd
• Use the "0 register which contains the most recent yank with your paste commands. e.g. "0p
• Yanking the text to a named register. e.g. "ayy then later doing "ap

I personally lean toward the "0p approach as this is fits with how my mind works.

Now seeing you asked for no such work-arounds I have provided some functions that alter the paste commands to toggle between my so called paste_copy and nopaste_copy mode. nopaste_copy being Vim's default behavior. Put the following in your ~/.vimrc:

function! PasteCopy(cmd, mode)
  let reg = ""
  if exists('g:paste_copy') && g:paste_copy == 1 && v:register == '"'
    let reg = '"0'
  elseif v:register != '"'
    let reg = '"' . v:register
  endif
  let mode = ''
  if a:mode == 'v'
    let mode = 'gv'
  endif
  exe "norm! " . mode . reg . a:cmd
endfunction

command! -bar -nargs=0 TogglePasteCopy let g:paste_copy = exists('g:paste_copy') && g:paste_copy == 1 ? 0 : 1<bar>echo g:paste_copy ? '  paste_copy' : 'nopaste_copy'

nnoremap <silent> p :call PasteCopy('p', 'n')<cr>
nnoremap <silent> P :call PasteCopy('P', 'n')<cr>
nnoremap <silent> ]p :call PasteCopy(']p', 'n')<cr>
nnoremap <silent> [p :call PasteCopy('[p', 'n')<cr>
nnoremap <silent> ]P :call PasteCopy(']P', 'n')<cr>
nnoremap <silent> [P :call PasteCopy('[P', 'n')<cr>
vnoremap <silent> p :<c-u>call PasteCopy('p', 'v')<cr>
vnoremap <silent> P :<c-u>call PasteCopy('P', 'v')<cr>

You can toggle your paste_copy mode via :TogglePasteCopy. You may prefer a mapping like so

nnoremap <leader>tp :TogglePasteCopy<cr>

As a closing piece of advice I would highly suggest using "0p or using a named register over this approach as they are native to vim and there is one less "mode" to worry about.