Prevent x from deleting fold in Vim

Question

I really like the zx key combination in Vim (it folds everything but the active area of text). However, it seems like quite a dangerous key combination. Pressing x on a fold deletes the fold. Thus, if z is omitted, or gets captured by some other preceding key combination, it becomes quite easy to accidentally delete the text in a fold by pressing x on its own.

Given that dd can also be used to delete the text in a fold, it would be good if I could disable x as a fold deletion tool.

• How can x be disabled as a fold deletion key?

Answer 1

You can disable x on folds only with the following simple <expr> mapping:

nnoremap <expr> x ((foldclosed('.')==-1)?('x'):('zx'))

Unlike @Eelvex function, it keeps all x functionality and will also remap x being run on folds to zx.

Answer 2

1. Disable x

You can completely disable x (or any other key/combination) by:

nmap x <nop>

(x, by the way, is the same as dl not dd)

A closed fold is always included as a whole when using operators, thus (afaik) it is not possible to disable x just for fold deletion.

2. Automatically open the fold

A possible workaround is to have the fold automatically open when you are "on" it, so x would delete only one character (as normal):

set foldopen=all

but this makes it more cumbersome to navigate through the code.

3. Remap x

If you don't mind disabling some of x's functionality (eg delete into register), this will also do the job:

function Foldx()
  if foldclosed(".") == line(".")
    echo "Watch it!"
  else
    call feedkeys("dl")
    echo "x"
  endif
 endfunction

 nmap x :call Foldx()<cr>