Cancel split window in Vim

Question

I have split my windows horizontally. Now how can I return to normal mode, i.e. no split window just one window without cancelling all of my open windows. I have 5 and do not wa

Answer 1

I understand you intention well, I use buffers exclusively too, and occasionally do split if needed.

below is excerpt of my .vimrc

" disable macro, since not used in 90+% use cases
map q 
" q,  close/hide current window, or quit vim if no other window
nnoremap q :if winnr('$') > 1 \|hide\|else\|silent! exec 'q'\|endif
" qo, close all other window    -- 'o' stands for 'only'
nnoremap qo :only
set hidden
set timeout
set timeoutlen=200   " let vim wait less for your typing!

Which fits my workflow quite well

If q was pressed

• hide current window if multiple window open, else try to quit vim.

if qo was pressed,

• close all other window, no effect if only one window.

Of course, you can wrap that messy part into a function, eg

func! Hide_cur_window_or_quit_vim()
    if winnr('$') > 1
        hide
    else
        silent! exec 'q'
    endif
endfunc
nnoremap q :call Hide_cur_window_or_quit_vim()

Sidenote: I remap q, since I do not use macro for editing, instead use :s, :g, :v, and external text processing command if needed, eg, :'{,'}!awk 'some_programm', or use :norm! normal-command-here.