[digitaltoad]

You shouldn't ever have to count lines in vim. The five line deletion example could have been done as:

  10dG

Which would delete from the cursor to the tenth line.

[dhimes]

d5j

delete five from where you are- inclusive

[digitaltoad]

This still means you would be counting 5 lines whereas I'm just specifying what line to delete to.

[dhimes]

I am subtracting, but your point is valid.