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Do you use (){}[] and others to move about? I rarely need to know the line number to move to on the screen.

That only really works well if the line you want is visible.

I've found searching to be much quicker, since I know class/method/variable names more than I know line numbers - we follow reasonably standard names for things in the projects we work on.

I do that by jumping to the particular line. :<linenum> or <linenum>G does that.

I think the point is that it's harder to see what line number you want to jump to if you don't have line numbering on. . . .

Right, the alternative is to just sort of guess how much you need to ctrl-u/d or j and k to get to a specific line. Also, I guess it depends on screen size. I usually have plenty so the line numbers' usefulness outweighs the extra space required, at least for me.

Yes, that's exactly my point

Yes, that's how we all jump to a particular line :) It's just easier to target a specific line when numbering is turned on, as hesitz said.

They also make it much easier to find the line number named in an exception backtrace. :)