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I often press ESC/^[ to ensure that I've left insert mode and entered normal mode. However, if I'm already in normal mode, Vim displays an annoying flashy screen effect:
How can I prevent Vim from making this flashy screen effect, when pressing ESC/^[ in normal mode?
Bonus: I guess it has no effect of pressing ESC/^[ in normal mode, other than cancelling the current command e.g. d, so why does Vim makes this flashy screen effect?
That's a bell (a visual bell). You can turn off bells for Esc in normal mode using belloff:
*'belloff'* *'bo'*
'belloff' 'bo' string (default "")
global
Specifies for which events the bell will not be rung. It is a comma
separated list of items. For each item that is present, the bell
will be silenced. This is most useful to specify specific events in
insert mode to be silenced.
item meaning when present ~
all All events.
[...]
esc hitting <Esc> in |Normal-mode|.
So:
set belloff=esc
set belloff=esc both cover ESC and ^[ (Ctrl-[), because I most often use the latter form to escape insert mode (if so, why?). Can you say why anyone would want this bell in normal mode?
Ctrl-[ is ESC? But will pressing ESC not always get you into normal mode? Could there be a situation, where I needed to press ESC multiple times to get into normal mode?
= in insert mode, you'll need two Esc to get back to normal mode.