Convert hard line breaks to soft wrap: In visual mode ipJ.

Show whitespace characters: :set list.

Open up a buffer with no name:

• enew for the current window,
• vnew for a new vertical split,
• new for a horizontal split.

Fugitive

Vim Fugitive is a nice extension that allows Vim to work seemlessly with Git.

Use Gdiff to compare changes between the current file and the last commit.