When using nowrap, how can I delete a line and stay in the same screen?

Question

I sometimes work with files that have longish (200+ characters) lines, and I've recently discovered the joy of :nowrap mode. It's quite convenient.

However, when I'm scrolled over to the right by a few screen widths, and I use dd to delete a line, the screen jumps back to the leftmost position of the following line.

Is there a way to avoid this? I'd prefer that the screen stay where it is, and the cursor just travel down one row. (The following line is equally long.)

Answer 1

You can set nostartofline to get this.

It would also make it stay on the same column while using jumps like gg or G, CTRL-F, L etc.

See :h startofline for more details.

'startofline' 'sol' boolean (default on)
            global
    When "on" the commands listed below move the cursor to the first
    non-blank of the line.  When off the cursor is kept in the same column
    (if possible).  This applies to the commands: CTRL-D, CTRL-U, CTRL-B,
    CTRL-F, "G", "H", "M", "L", gg, and to the commands "d", "<<" and ">>"
    with a linewise operator, with "%" with a count and to buffer changing
    commands (CTRL-^, :bnext, :bNext, etc.).  Also for an Ex command that
    only has a line number, e.g., ":25" or ":+".
    In case of buffer changing commands the cursor is placed at the column
    where it was the last time the buffer was edited.