24
2
I recently started using <Space> as my mapleader, and I find it very comfortable and fast. I can slap that key with either thumb, freeing up whichever hand I need for the next keystroke, and even one-handed combos are pretty easy. I'm curious why I haven't heard more Vim users recommend this. Is there a downside I'm missing? I see a lot of people recommending , but that feels awkward to me for a lot of combos.
ivan
Posted 2013-12-26T23:34:20.810
Reputation: 855
29
I use space as my leader and love it. I've found that for me, (with their default actions) , is occasionally useful and <space> is literally never useful.
I can't think of any downsides to the spacebar,* and likewise have no idea why , is so apparently common.
* Except for one easily-solvable one. Space doesn't appear for 'showcmd'. I work around this by using \ as my leader and mapping (must be :map, not :noremap) space to \.
pandubear
Posted 2013-12-26T23:34:20.810
Reputation: 406
3
It doesn't take long to get used to , (compared to the default \ anyway). However, given that most people map their leader-key to ,, some plugins (nerdcommenter for example) are written with this in mind and using <Space> may interfere with some functionality. If you can live with that, go for it.
krystah
Posted 2013-12-26T23:34:20.810
Reputation: 1 337
When having space as the leader doing <space>c<space> still works for toggling the comments, so it doesn't seem like an issue. – fbence – 2019-11-29T15:25:42.447
2
I have been comfortable using ; as the leader. It helps the fingers stay on the home row and has been easy enough to use. But now, space seems to be a good option too. It doesn't conflict with my workflow. I'll probably give it a try.
Sriharsha
Posted 2013-12-26T23:34:20.810
Reputation: 31
4You should definitely ditch ; for space. ; is the command for "jump to next f/t-result. I find it very useful. – krystah – 2013-12-27T05:36:01.283
I haven't used f or t a lot. So, ; has worked for me all along. Using space instead of ; will be the first thing I'll try after the holidays. – Sriharsha – 2013-12-28T06:41:49.277
1
I don't know why I've never heard anyone else use <space> for mapleader. It makes sense to me as long as you don't use <space> for navigation, which I don't either. I can't think of any other disadvantage.
garyjohn
Posted 2013-12-26T23:34:20.810
Reputation: 29 085
2Found the tip for
'showcmd'helpful. One problem I ran into which I wasn't able to come up with a work around for was with that mapping it didn't seem possible to invoke keybindings mapped to<leader><leader>[key]– Mike S – 2014-08-22T18:55:19.1171Space does appear as <20> in the "showcmd" for me. (I'm using gVim for Windows version 7.4, patches 1-1965) – Niko Bellic – 2016-08-31T17:28:30.230
@pandubear What do you like <space>x as i? It seems longer, although it is left handed. – Casey Rodarmor – 2017-02-07T06:47:51.273
1@rodarmor It was just an example for debugging ivan's problems. – pandubear – 2017-04-25T18:53:23.907
Nice workaround! I'm going to try this. – ivan – 2013-12-27T16:50:57.973
It's not working for me. The mapping works, but
showcmddoesn't show\when I hit<Space>. Am I missing something? – ivan – 2013-12-27T17:05:26.640Hmmm... Here's the minimal version of what I did.
map <Space> <Leader> ** nnoremap <Leader>x i ** set showcmd. (replace the**s with newlines since comments have to be one line) Use that as yourvimrc. Does it work? On my machine, I'm able to use<space>xasi, and \ appears when I hit the spacebar. – pandubear – 2013-12-27T21:27:56.053I tried it again, and it seems to work if I start a new Vim session. I tried to isolate it but couldn't figure out what was interfering. Anyway, it works now. Thanks! – ivan – 2013-12-29T03:37:21.830