Vim -- Enumerate Lines in Base26

Question

Is there any standard way to specify the set of characters that vim uses to enumerate lines? For example, instead of numbers in succession, could I use lower-case letters {a, b, ..., aa, ab, ac, ...} (or even better, use only the characters in a keyboard's home row) and still act on specific lines by this new referencing system?

I suppose an escape key of sorts -- perhaps ':' or 'g' -- might be needed, but even so, if anyone has suggestions as to how I could implement this, I'd be quite appreciative.

Thanks.

Answer 1

There's nothing built-in other than absolute and relative line numbers, and it would be difficult to square a different addressing scheme with the numerical [count] prefixes to the Vim motions. However, plugins like EasyMotion and vim-seek implement such, though for motions like the built-in f inside a line.

For implementation tips, have a look at the RltvNmbr.vim plugin; it uses the sign column to emulate the now built-in relative numbering. As the sign column is two characters wide (and can display arbitrary characters), this would be fitting. That would take care of the visualization... you'd then only need a custom mapping to query for the Base26 line number, and translate that back into a jump.