Eli
, thanks so much for your work on this. I means a lot to have this feature implemented in the timeless editor.
I'm an evil-mode user and this is one of the features I miss most in vim: relative line numbers. But let me be more clear:
Vim implements relative line numbers in a way that the "relativity" aspect is based on the visible lines of the buffer.
This means that, for example, in an org-mode buffer, where you have a bunch of lines collpsed, you would number those visible lines with numbers relative to the line of point, and not based on the "real" relativity.
Why this is useful? because it gives vim/evil-mode users the power to rapidly move through the visible lines in the window. If I want to jump to a line in the buffer that I'm interested in, I just have to take a peek at the relative number and then I know what to do. I just: 9k, to jump 9 lines down. This is actually super powerful.
another very interesting use for this specific implementation of relative line numbers is the remote copy feature of vim ex commands. A very common operation: I'm in an empty line and I want to copy a line that is 17 lines above the line where point is. Example: :-13y to copy the 13th line above the line where point is. This is only the tip of the iceber. This has all kinds of uses.
Also, implementing a toggle that would let me switch between this absolute and relative line numbering would be beyond awesome.
Again, thanks for all your work in emacs.
Filipe