Today I Learned

hashrocket A Hashrocket project

Blank Lines Above And Below

Generally when I want to add a line above or below the line that the cursor is on, I use O and o, respectively. This has a couple potential drawbacks. First and most prominent, the cursor is moved to the new line and left in insert mode. Usually, I'd like to remain in normal mode and stay on the current line. Second, these commands will emulate indentation and other formatting rules. This is either exactly what you want or a bit of an annoyance.

The vim-unimpaired plugin provides an alternative worth adding to your toolbelt. By hitting [<space> and ]<space>, a new line will be opened above and below the current line, respectively. Additionally, it leaves you in normal mode, keeps the cursor on the current line, and moves the cursor to the first non-indented character. In the case of performing this command in the midst of a comment in a source code file, neither the indentation nor the comment character will be propagated onto the new line.

Hold on to O/o and [<space>/]<space> and know the difference. You'll likely need each of them from time to time.

h/t Josh Davey

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