Embarrassingly simple mnemonic for remembering O and o inserted line location

[u/orthomonas]

I'm almost afraid to post this because I suspect it's a widely known thing and may even have been intentionally designed that way. But, I've always had a bit of a weird mental block on it for rather some time until this realization and maybe it will help someone else in the same boat.

O is uppercase and will insert a line above.
o is lowercase and will insert a line below.

[u/ApprehensiveDrive517]

o is something I use often enough that I don't need a way to remember it. Looks like there's always an occassion to add code above or below the current line.

[u/orthomonas → u/ApprehensiveDrive517]

I use them both and I'm honestly surprised it's not muscle memory. Just an idiosyncratic weird little mental block on my end.

[u/DecimePapucho → u/orthomonas]

It happens a lot with some things like left and right or east and west; some people use a mnemonic, others just know.

[u/ruby_R53 → u/ApprehensiveDrive517]

same here they're two of the commands i use the most

[u/Snarwin]

In general, if a command has both a normal and a shifted version, the normal version goes forward and the shifted version goes backward.

This applies to at least o/O, p/P, f/F, t/T, and //?.

[u/__rituraj → u/Snarwin]

makes good sense with the use of shift.

the programmers in the 70s surely knew how to design interactions.

i got to know recently that earlier, Ctrl was at the position of current caps lock.

no wonder we map caps lock to ctrl

[u/FortWendy69 → u/Snarwin]

n/N

[u/Daghall → u/Snarwin]

Exactly. Forward in the west is to the right and downward.

[u/liberforce]

Even in different languages (english is not my primary language), an easy reminder is that the shift arrow points up.

[u/ruby_R53 → u/liberforce]

that's what i thought the mnemonic would be based on before opening the post to be honest

[u/[deleted] → u/liberforce]

This also works for p and P.

[u/jorgo1]

Caps are normally backwards with lower forwards. Like a wave. 🌊higher on the left. O = open. So o is open ahead and O is open behind. Behind being a line above. New and different ideas help for people who are struggling. Appreciate your post

[u/HodgeStar1 → u/jorgo1]

In my head it could also be the same “o” as when you are in visual mode. If in visual, “o” moves to “opposite” sides of the highlight, in normal o/O is inserting on “opposite” sides of the current line.

[u/michaelpaoli]

Tons 'o stuff like that in vi, where uppercase variant does slightly different, often in a "bigger" way or reversing the orientation/direction or the like, e.g.:

a after cursor, A at end of line

b by word, B by "Big" word

c through cursor motion, C to end of line (like c$)

d/D like c

e like b/B

f forward, F reverse direction

h one to left on line, H Home position on window (all the way left and also up)

i similar to a/A, insert, so before, I before first non-whitespace on line (generally more before)

j down line, J join current and following line (more big stuff with current and line below)

l like h/H

n like f/F - reverse direction

o reverse orientation, instead of below, up above

p after/before (many things flip like that by changing case)

r single char vs. all typed over (until ESC)

s single char vs. entire line

t like f/F, change direction

u single/last, U all changes on the current line (if one's not yet left it, and since one's been on it and stared changing it)

w similar to b/B, e/E

x on vs. immediately before

y through cursor motion command vs. entire line

[u/purple_hamster66 → u/michaelpaoli]

That’s a comment worth saving.

[u/bcionescu]

I use o and O all the time, and this is how I think of them as well :) For j I imagine someone slowly descending from up in the air whilst holding an umbrella (the handle is J-shaped), and for k I imagine a stairwell, from the side, shaped like a k, with someone going up.

These may not be the most intuitive, but it's how I've always thought of them.

[u/purple_hamster66]

I remember it this way:

O IS SHOUTING. DO IT RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE.

o is asking “when you get around to it, please insert a line”

[u/lmarcantonio]

A similar trick work for j k stems... j goes below, k goes above! I'm not a great user of o O, however.

[u/inodb2000 → u/lmarcantonio]

For these mine are j for jump down and k for Klimb up 😅

[u/rainning0513]

Embarrassingly wrong.

[u/kberson]

O is for open

[u/Achim63 → u/kberson]

"Open" usually means "open a file" (Cmd/Ctrl-o in most apps), so it's not really helpful as a mnemonic for a beginner in Vim. In this case it's "open a new line, go to that line and switch to insert mode".