How do I make Vim preserve column position when moving between lines?

Question

I'm using one of Vim distribution called SpaceVim and everything is good enough except some details. How do I make spacevim to preserve column position when moving between lines? For instance - move from first line and 10 column (1:10) to second line without any columns (2:1) and then get back (all using j and k keys). Now you are on 1:1 position instead of 1:10 as expected and how nvim behaves by default. What option or toggle is responsible for column position preserving? Thanks.

Answer 1

As author of SpaceVim, I can not reproduce this issue in master branch. and we do not map j and k in spacevim.

I think you should check result of :verbose map j or :verbose map k, this command will show what and where j and k is mapped.

if the result is empty, you need to check autocmd like CursorMoved via :au CursorMoved, the output will what autocmd will be called when move cursor.

Answer 2

I am learning light vimscripting, so I am not sure if this will work. But put these in your .vimrc:

function! NextLine()
  let c = col(".")
  execute "normal! j" . c . "|"
endfunction
function! PreviousLine()
  let c = col(".")
  execute "normal! k" . c . "|"
endfunction
nnoremap j :call NextLine()
nnoremap k :call PreviousLine()

These will not give you native vim experience because if you go down to a line of zero column, then the next line will also be on the zeroth column, not the column of the previous column. This would require, I think, another function for checking if any h or l has been pressed in between the function calls to preserve intelligent column number preservation.

But I think it should get the job done for now.