Moving up and down using relative line numbers (e.g., 3j, 15k) is a very
simple and precise way of moving around vertically, and shouldn't require your
hands to leave home row.
To show how Vertigo works, let's look an example: Say you want to go to some
line that you can see (with relativenumber) is 14 lines down.
With this plugin, you'd press <Space>j to activate "jump mode." Vim then waits
for two home-row keypresses representing a two-digit number, mapping
asdfghjkl; to 1234567890. You then press af for 14, and just like
that, you're 14 lines down. Easy! For one-digit numbers, just hit shift.
(<Space>jF goes four lines down)
If you use a keyboard layout other than QWERTY, that's not a problem! Dvorak
users: Just add let g:Vertigo_homerow = 'aoeuidhtns' to your .vimrc file.
Other keyboards should work too. (see :h vertigo-homerow)
Can't I just use 14j or 2k with vanilla Vim (no plugin needed)? And
doesn't EasyMotion cover this, and more? Yes! But:
- Vertigo is lightning fast: You never have to leave home row.
- Faster than EasyMotion?: You don't have to read EasyMotion's "targets" that appear on-screen in order to complete the motion -- if you have line numbers turned on, you always have targets visible on-screen.
- It's easy to learn, because your fingers already know where all the numbers are.
I should admit: As a Dvorak user, I find this very useful, but I think it's
probably less useful for QWERTY users. This is because in QWERTY, something
like 14j or 2k with vanilla Vim moves smoothly from the left hand (1,
4, 2) to the right (j, k).
But in Dvorak, the placement of the j and k keys makes sequences like this
quite cumbersome to type: To type 2j or 2k, your left hand has to jump all
the way up to the number row, and then all the way down to the bottom row.
(And this is all with one hand -- so slow. We Dvorak users like our
"alternating hands!")
I like micro-optimizations. :) If you do too, (and maybe use Dvorak) this might be the plugin for you.
Important note: Regardless of what installation method you use, Vertigo requires you to add some mappings to your .vimrc file. (see below)
I use Pathogen:
cd ~/.vim
git clone https://github.com/prendradjaja/vim-vertigo.git bundle/vertigo
Alternatively, with Pathogen, using a git submodule:
cd ~/.vim
git submodule add https://github.com/prendradjaja/vim-vertigo.git bundle/vertigo
I haven't personally used other plugin managers, but this should work with any of the ordinary plugin managers.
For manual installation, copy into ~/.vim, so plugin/vertigo.vim goes to
~/.vim/plugin and doc/vertigo.txt goes to ~/.vim/doc.
After installing, you'll have to put in a few mappings into your .vimrc.
Here's one option: (though of course you can change <Space>j and <Space>k
to whatever works for you.
nnoremap <silent> <Space>j :<C-U>VertigoDown n<CR>
vnoremap <silent> <Space>j :<C-U>VertigoDown v<CR>
onoremap <silent> <Space>j :<C-U>VertigoDown o<CR>
nnoremap <silent> <Space>k :<C-U>VertigoUp n<CR>
vnoremap <silent> <Space>k :<C-U>VertigoUp v<CR>
onoremap <silent> <Space>k :<C-U>VertigoUp o<CR>
One last thing. Make sure you've got relativenumber and/or number (while
the examples above used relative numbering, Vertigo works just as well with
absolute line numbers) turned on, and you're good to go!
set relativenumber
(and/or)
set number
- Emacs port by noctuid (I have not tried it)