Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 8th Edition

Chapter 10. Multiple Windows in Vim

By default, Vim edits all its files in a single window, showing just one buffer at a time as you move between files or to different parts of a single file. But Vim also offers multiwindow editing, which can make complex editing tasks easier. This is different from starting multiple instances of Vim on a graphical terminal. This chapter covers the use of multiple windows in a single instance of a running Vim process (which we’ll call a session).

You can initiate your editing session with multiple windows or create new windows after a session starts. You can add windows to your editing session up to the limit imposed by sanity, and you can delete them back to a single window.

Multiple windows today makes more sense than ever with high-resolution monitors being the norm. At the time of the seventh edition of this book, WXGA (1280x800) was considered decent resolution. Today (late 2021), for about the same price, it’s easy to find monitors in 4K resolution (Ultra HD: 3840x2160) for around $400. That’s around nine times the resolution!

Then Vim’s multiple-windows feature enhanced users’ editing by offering multiple viewports and glimpses into a single file or multiple files simultaneously. This was a giant step forward for powerful editing, but it was often at the cost of compromising real estate by either setting line wrap parameters so entire lines remained visible or setting line shift options to scroll left and right as lines were clipped at ...