The default behavior of the 'autoindent' option is as follow:

Copy indent from current line when starting a new line (typing <CR> in Insert mode or when using the "o" or "O" command). If you do not type anything on the new line except <BS> or CTRL-D and then type <Esc> or <CR>, the indent is deleted again.

I find that behavior quite annoying since the cursor jumps to the left when empty lines are inserted and 'escape' is pressed. Fortunately, it is possible to force Vim to keep the indentation with the following lines in your vimrc:

inoremap <CR> <CR><Space><BS>
nnoremap o o<Space><BS>
nnoremap O O<Space><BS>

Comments

Thank you. This tip is very helpful. I was getting very annoyed with Vim deleting the blank lines because it interferes with the way I type.

The way I type the following is: class A extends B {<CR><CR>}<Up><Tab>A() {<CR><CR>}<Up><Tab>super();

class A extends B {
    A() {
        super();
    }
}

I assume most other people do this: class A extends B {<CR><Tab>A() {<CR><Tab>super();<CR><BS>}<CR><BS>}. I wouldn't say either way of typing is better than the other, since they both require the same number of keystrokes.

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