CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
Ethan Zhang
Ethan Zhang

Reputation: 4479

Can Vim display BOL whitespace as a special character?

Sublime (a text editor) can display beginning of line whitespace as a special character like --->:

function foo() {
--->if (true) {
--->--->alert(true);
--->}
}

It's helpful in some cases. So I want to let Vim to do the same thing. I tried using :set list, but this options only display tab characters as ^I, it doesn't display whitespace. Is there some way to do that like it is possible in Sublime?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 568

Answers (2)

ib.
ib.

Reputation: 28944

One can effectively emulate such arrows using the conceal feature (see :help conceal):

function! EnableIndentArrows()
    exe 'syntax match NonText ''\%(^\%( \{'.&sw.'}\)*'.
    \   ' \{0,'.(&sw-2).'}\)\@<= '' transparent conceal cchar=┈'
    exe 'syntax match NonText ''\%(^\%( \{'.&sw.'}\)*'.
    \   ' \{'.(&sw-1).'}\)\@<= '' transparent conceal cchar=>'
    set conceallevel=2 concealcursor=nc
endfunction

Upvotes: 0

Jonatan
Jonatan

Reputation: 2886

You can highlight BOL white space, this will not insert a special character like you ask, but it will at least make it stand out by assigning it a specific color.

:highlight BOLWhitespace guibg=red ctermbg=red
:match BOLWhitespace /^\s\+/

The first line will create a highlight group called BOLWhitespace and give it the color red (might want to use something a bit more subtle). The second line will activate this highlight for all white space at the beginning of lines.

Maybe this is an acceptable compromise?

Upvotes: 2

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