Vim: change mapping for command-line mode (:)

Question

I want to change the shortcut for entering command-line mode in vim from : to ; .

I can do:

:map ; :

and that works, but now I want to remap : to other command. If I do that ; is changed too and I cannot enter command line mode any more.

I suppose I should use something like:

:map : <command-line-mode>

but I don't know the correct command to use.

Answer 1

:noremap ; :
:noremap : <something else>

Using map only will map the key recursively, meaning if you map ; to : , then : to someting else, now both ; and : will do whatever you mapped : to do. Because ; is mapped to do whatever : does. to prevent this recursive behavior, use non-recursive maps noremap , which will map each key independently of what the mapped-to key does.