VIM Scratch Buffer

Scratch buffer is one of the lesser known features of VIM (see :h special-buffers). It's just a temporary buffer without an associated underlying temporary file and file-type. Edited scratch buffers are unprotected i.e. VIM will not warn you if you try to close the buffer without saving.

Why a scratch buffer can be useful? In my case, I would like to be able to display one of my notes without open another VIM instance or display my style suggestions parallel to the file I am editing.

While it's relatively easy to create a scratch buffer from a simple set of VIM commands, this neat plugin does really help in this case. After I have installed the plugin, I have configured the scratch buffer as vertical split with a 40% width of the entire window in my .vimrc file.

    """ scratch.vim config 
    let g:scratch_horizontal =  0 "vertical split
    let g:scratch_persistence_file = '~/.scratch_buffer'              
    let g:scratch_height = 40 "40 %
    

Wintermnote and Windiction both have an option to redirect their output to the plugin's persistent file. Thus, with :ScratchPreview and :Scratch I can display its content with the cursor kept on the current buffer or inside the scratch buffer respectively.