Meta plugin can't cancel out last_action next_case effect

[user202729]

When I write

• can
• can
• can
• {:case:upper_first_word}
• can
• {:retro_stringop:3:__import__('re').sub(r"\s*(\w+|.)$", r"(\1)", text)}

I get can CAN can(CAN) instead of the expected can can can(CAN).

This is because the meta plugin returns the new_action that replaces can can can with can can(CAN), but the previous upper_carry makes the uppercase.

Reading

plover/plover/formatting.py

Line 819 in 4394ef1

def _finalize_action(action, ctx):

, the last case is always applied before the current case is applied), and the meta plugin can only output one _Action per atom ("meta plugin call").

On the user side, it's always possible to define the translation as {}{<the meta>} to avoid the change; however is it possible for the meta to provide the mechanism by itself?

---

I can think of some ways to fix the issue

• (current workaround, bad)

  Change the meta so that prev_replace always start with a space. (Occasionally not possible, for example when there's no undo history)

• (I think this is the best solution, but extremely backwards incompatible. Alternatively just allow it to output either a single _Action object, or a list of _Action objects)

  Allow a meta plugin to output a list of _Action objects.

• (acceptable, but more special cases)

  Add another entry/enum item for Case: cancel_prev_case to cancel the previous next_case effect.