Backspace functionality in normal mode

Question

I'm trying to allow using backspace in normal mode. My best attempt is adding the following to my vimrc:

nnoremap <BS> i<BS><ESC>l.

This works great except for two situations:

• I'm at the second character in the line
• I delete a tab which is the first tab in the line.

In either case, after deleting, my cursor is on the second character of the line, not the first, as one would expect/desire. I get why this happens, but am not sure if there's a better way to get backspace functionality without having these problems. Any solutions?

Answer 1

I'm glad I can share a command I just learned after few years of vim ! The X command in normal mode does what you want. You can remap <BS> to it if you want :

nnoremap <BS> X

Edit

Indeed, if you have spaces in place of tabs, it will delete the space. In the same vein you already achieved, you can do

nnoremap <BS> i<BS><Esc>`^

the ^ mark is

the position where the cursor was the last time when Insert mode was stopped

Sidenote : I suggest you beware of mashing the <BS> key and use normal mode motions to delete things backward, because one <BS> is one "chunk" of editing (pressing u will undo just 1 character deletion). Try db, dge, d^, d0, dF{char}, dT{char} d?{pattern} and more generally d{motion}

Answer 2

As well as X, another normal command dh does exactly that and can be preceded with a number to do it n times.

Answer 3

My favorite way of deleting things in normal mode is to press 'd' followed by a motion. This technique is transferable to more things like yanking and visual mode selection. I find the following motion maps useful:

" Go to beginning of line.
map H <C-[>OH

" Go to end of line.
map L <C-[>OF

" Go to beginning of previous word.
map W b

" Go to end of previous word.
map E ge