Vim can do an insane number of things with windows in Vim. I take a minimalist approach to windows in Vim and try to make it as simple for myself as possible. There are a number of factors that drive my configuration:

  • I always use my left hand to hit the CTRL key. The main key that is used for windowing is CTRL-W.
  • I prefer to have multiple key sequences to occur on opposing hands when possible. CTRL-W is two simultaneous keys on the same hand.
  • It’s all about reusing existing habits when I can. So h, j, k and l are important to reuse. The existing Vim solution actually already does this.

Those points lead me to have the following mappings for window management:

" Move the cursor to the window left of the current one
noremap <silent> ,h :wincmd h<cr>

" Move the cursor to the window below the current one
noremap <silent> ,j :wincmd j<cr>

" Move the cursor to the window above the current one
noremap <silent> ,k :wincmd k<cr>

" Move the cursor to the window right of the current one
noremap <silent> ,l :wincmd l<cr>

" Close the window below this one
noremap <silent> ,cj :wincmd j<cr>:close<cr>

" Close the window above this one
noremap <silent> ,ck :wincmd k<cr>:close<cr>

" Close the window to the left of this one
noremap <silent> ,ch :wincmd h<cr>:close<cr>

" Close the window to the right of this one
noremap <silent> ,cl :wincmd l<cr>:close<cr>

" Close the current window
noremap <silent> ,cc :close<cr>

" Move the current window to the right of the main Vim window
noremap <silent> ,ml <C-W>L

" Move the current window to the top of the main Vim window
noremap <silent> ,mk <C-W>K

" Move the current window to the left of the main Vim window
noremap <silent> ,mh <C-W>H

" Move the current window to the bottom of the main Vim window
noremap <silent> ,mj <C-W>J