Managing marks in neovim

One issue I had when switching to neovim was the inefficiency in switching tabs and moving quickly across files.

For example, if i was working on a certain function in python that spanned 2 files, I typically had both open in a vertical split.

But this creates issues when there are more than 2 files or when the codebase is large and the 2 locations on the same file are far apart.

One way of solving it is to use folds, but sometimes this hides details that might be important.

Since we already have a mental map of the sections that are required, The easier way would be to have a way of navigating across these points.

That’s when I discovered marks in neovim, which are a quick way to move within and between files.

But… there were also issues with marks.

• By default marks are invisible on neovim, hence you need a way to search/preview them
• Navigating Marks across different files and buffers is non native to neovim
• Managing global and buffer marks are also an issue

Enter the marks plugin!, documentation here.

With this plugin marks are notated in the gutterline with their mark prefix!

Other than this visual change, The use of the shortkeys have also altered my workflow:

• ma to set mark to a
• dma to remove mark a
• dm- to delete marks on the current line
• dm<space> to remove all local marks in buffer
• \^ to move to the last edited line
• m] instead of ]' to move the the next mark
• m[ instead of [' to move to the previous mark
• m:<mark> opens a buffer to preview mark

I think that this resolves most of the issues that I have with marks.

For the below items, here are my workarounds..

• Deletion of global marks - :delm A-Z0-9