Kate Snippet Adds Indent on Every Line Break - Why?

Help
1

My newly created snippet, in the Kate editor, to insert a docstring template for Python functions, keeps adding an indent for each line break in the snippet. Why? Is there a way to prevent this?

My Snippet Text:

""" Description: Provides 
PARAM:
PARAM:
PARAM:
PARAM:
USAGE:
NOTE:
TODO: 
"""

Result in Code When I Insert the Snippet:

    def _display_editHeader(self)
    """ Description: Provides 
    PARAM:
        PARAM:
            PARAM:
                PARAM:
                    USAGE:
                        NOTE:
                            TODO: 
                                """
            print('')
            print(f"{''.ljust(self.headerColWidth, '=')}")
            print('Count-In Track will be added based on the following song Characteristics.')
            print('ENTER C to continue, Q to quit and exit, or the number of a parameter to modify:')
            self.display_songInfo(ctIn, song, blankLines=0, forConfirm=True)
1 Like
2

I think the problem here is not with the snippets plugin, but with the KTextEditor’s auto-indent feature for Python.
Looks like it doesn’t really takes account that we are in a multi-line string, and after each colon increases the indentation. You can disable this by “set-indent-mode none”, but this probably is not what you want, moreover this no longer keeps the base indentation.

3

The closest thing I was able to come up with in order to work around this issue is the following:

Snippet:

""" Description= Provides
PARAM= 
PARAM= 
PARAM= 
USAGE= 
NOTE= 
TODO= 
    """
${set_indent_mode("none")}${replace_before(8)}${set_indent_mode("python")}

Scripts:

function set_indent_mode(mode) { view.executeCommand("set-indent-mode", mode); return ""; }
function replace_before(before){
    let cur = view.cursorPosition();
    view.setSelection(new Range(cur.line - before, 1, cur.line, 4);
    let res = view.selectedText().replace(/=/g, ":");
    view.removeSelectedText();
    return res;
}

As you can see initially I use “=” instead of colon, so the Python indentation algorithm doesn’t get confused. After that I call the set_indent_mode function in order to disable the indentation, call the replace_before() function to replace the equal sign, then re-enable the indentation mode for Python. The constant in the replace_before() is the number of lines before the function call to process.

The question may rise why I do not disable the indentation at the beginning of the snippiet? Well, the plugin works in a way that first it inserts the snippet, then resolves the macros, therefore at the time the first function is called the output is already messed up.

4

First, let me say that I really like your avatar Måté. :slightly_smiling_face:

Second - you’ve taught me two things - One - that it is the colons that are driving the cascading indention. Now that I know that I can consider just use an equal sign; or maybe I’ll use a blank space. And more importantly now I know this for future snippets I may create; which I have avoided so far due to this issue.

Two - the thought of using some scripting. I kinda vaguely know you could do that with Kate, but I never really had that in my head. So that’s another possible tool I may be able to make good use of.

Thanks for the help Måté!

5

Say Måté - where do I put the script? Meaning where do I put the function replace_before(before)?

I found the page Scripting with JavaScript which says Kate scripts are in the location: XDG_DATA_HOME/katepart5/script/indentation. However, on my fedora-40 the environment variable XDG_DATA_HOME is not set. Further, ~/.local has nothing related to KDE in it. And ~.local/share only has /kate, under which is /kuserfeedback, /sessions, and /stash.

I cannot find any katepart5 or katepart6 or katepart anything directory in my .local tree.

6

In the Edit snippet dialog there is a scripts tab. I used that one.

7

Ok. I gave that a try, and it does look like it is supposed to work; but for me it generated an error message that I can’t figure out. But it’s just a ‘nice to have’ for me and I don’t want, or need, to devote any time to fussing around with it. So I’m going to let it go.

Thanks for your help on this topic tho!