GNU bug report logs - #77438
[FEATURE REQUEST] Freely positioning the cursor anywhere in the buffer (Vim’s virtualedit=all Equivalent in Emacs)

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From: James Cherti <contact <at> jamescherti.com>
To: 77438 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#77438: [FEATURE REQUEST] Freely positioning the cursor anywhere in the buffer (Vim’s virtualedit=all Equivalent in Emacs)
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2025 16:02:39 -0400

Hello,

Implementing an Emacs equivalent of Vim's `set virtualedit=all`
feature would be interesting, especially for editing
indentation-sensitive file types like YAML or Python.

In Vim, the `set virtualedit=all` setting allows the cursor to move
freely to any position in the text, even beyond the end of lines and
after the last line of the file. This differs from the default
behavior, where the cursor is constrained to valid text positions.

Unlike Vim's `virtualedit=all` mode, Emacs' quarter-plane,
picture-mode, and artist-mode packages insert actual spaces into the
buffer. In contrast, Vim’s `set virtualedit=all` allows the cursor to
be placed in positions where no text exists, but real spaces are not
added until a character is typed.

This distinction is important because, in `virtualedit=all`, the
absence of real spaces ensures that the undo/redo history remains
unaffected by cursor movements alone.

--
James Cherti
GitHub: https://github.com/jamescherti
Website: https://www.jamescherti.com/

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