Delay before 'O' opens a new line?

Question

I\'ve noticed that, occasionally, when I use O (capital \'o\') to create a new line and go into insert mode, there is a short delay before anything happens.

Answer 1

It's because the 'esckeys' option is enabled (a consequence of nocompatible as I just discovered). When you press ^[O, there's a small delay as it figures out if you're using an arrow/function key or if you just meant those two keys in sequence.

One solution is to disable that option and give up on the arrow keys in insert mode.
Another is to set 'timeoutlen' to something less than 1000, maybe 100 (but be careful over slow connections).
Another is to use ^C instead of ^[ to leave insert mode.