Command Center

Since my site is named after a Vim command. I figured that I should eventually write something talking about my favorite text editor, and how I like it configured. What follows is the explanation of my .vimrc, as well as a description of the plugins that I use. A lot of the credit for this configuration goes to Bart Trojanowski, who has an excellent Vim configuration. At the bottom I’ll have a link to download any of the files themselves if you so desire. I hope you find it useful (everything in fixed-width font is the actual text, everything else is comments about it):

My ~/.vimrc:

Modelines have been abused in the past, and while I haven’t heard of anything lately that would abuse them, it’s always better safe than sorry. This requires the securemodelines vim script

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" first the disabled features due to security concerns
set modelines=0               " no modelines [http://www.guninski.com/vim1.html]
let g:secure_modelines_verbose=0 " securemodelines vimscript
let g:secure_modelines_modelines = 15 " 15 available modelines

Since these are all simple features, I won’t bother to explain them besides the inline comments:

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" operational settings
syntax on
set ruler                     " show the line number on the bar
set more                      " use more prompt
set autoread                  " watch for file changes
set number                    " line numbers
set hidden
set noautowrite               " don't automagically write on :next
set lazyredraw                " don't redraw when don't have to
set showmode
set showcmd
set nocompatible              " vim, not vi
set autoindent smartindent    " auto/smart indent
set expandtab                 " expand tabs to spaces
set smarttab                  " tab and backspace are smart
set tabstop=6                 " 6 spaces
set shiftwidth=6
set scrolloff=5               " keep at least 5 lines above/below
set sidescrolloff=5           " keep at least 5 lines left/right
set backspace=indent,eol,start
set showfulltag               " show full completion tags
set noerrorbells              " no error bells please
set linebreak
set cmdheight=2               " command line two lines high
set undolevels=1000           " 1000 undos
set updatecount=100           " switch every 100 chars
set complete=.,w,b,u,U,t,i,d  " do lots of scanning on tab completion
set ttyfast                   " we have a fast terminal
filetype on                   " Enable filetype detection
filetype indent on            " Enable filetype-specific indenting
filetype plugin on            " Enable filetype-specific plugins
compiler ruby                 " Enable compiler support for ruby
set wildmode=longest:full
set wildignore+=*.o,*~,.lo    " ignore object files
set wildmenu                  " menu has tab completion
let maplocalleader=','        " all my macros start with ,
set foldmethod=syntax         " fold on syntax automagically, always
set foldcolumn=2              " 2 lines of column for fold showing, always

set dictionary=/usr/share/dict/words " more words!

I do like candycode for my terminals (which tend to be black) and I like macvim for my GUI, so I change schemes depending on which I’m using.

if !has("gui_running")
     colorscheme candycode   " yum candy
end
if has("gui_running")
     colorscheme macvim      " macvim == win
     set guioptions-=T       " no toolbar
     set cursorline          " show the cursor line
end

For the taglist plugin, I want it to appear on the right and to quick vim as soon as I close the last file I’m working on.

" Settings for taglist.vim
let Tlist_Use_Right_Window=1
let Tlist_Auto_Open=0
let Tlist_Enable_Fold_Column=0
let Tlist_Compact_Format=0
let Tlist_WinWidth=28
let Tlist_Exit_OnlyWindow=1
let Tlist_File_Fold_Auto_Close = 1

Misc TOhtml settings

" Settings for :TOhtml
let html_number_lines=1
let html_use_css=1
let use_xhtml=1

My status line is basically [] [+] # /,

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" status line
set laststatus=2
if has('statusline')
       function! SetStatusLineStyle()
               let &stl="%f %y "                       .
                       \"%([%R%M]%)"                   .
                       \"%#StatusLineNC#%{&ff=='unix'?'':&ff.'\ format'}%*" .
                       \"%{'$'[!&list]}"               .
                       \"%{'~'[&pm=='']}"              .
                       \"%="                           .
                       \"#%n %l/%L,%c%V "              .
                       \""
       endfunc
       call SetStatusLineStyle()

       if has('title')
               set titlestring=%t%(\ [%R%M]%)
       endif

endif

More simple search options, see inline comments

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"  searching
set incsearch                 " incremental search
set ignorecase                " search ignoring case
set hlsearch                  " highlight the search
set showmatch                 " show matching bracket
set diffopt=filler,iwhite       " ignore all whitespace and sync

I *occasionally* use the mouse. If I have to.

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"  mouse stuffs
set mouse=a                   " mouse support in all modes
set mousehide                 " hide the mouse when typing
" this makes the mouse paste a block of text without formatting it
" (good for code)
map  "*p

I prefer not to litter my current directory with backup files, so I put them all in ~/.backup. I also save a lot of line positions in the viminfo file.

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"  backup options
set backup
set backupdir=~/.backup
set viminfo=%100,'100,/100,h,\"500,:100,n~/.viminfo
set history=200
"set viminfo='100,f1

I use ,ss to toggle between spellcheck on and spellcheck off.

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" spelling...
if v:version >= 700

 setlocal spell spelllang=en
 nmap ss :set spell!

endif

Here are all the keyboard shortcuts I use most often:

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" some useful mappings
" Y yanks from cursor to $
map Y y$
" for yankring to work with previous mapping:
function! YRRunAfterMaps()
   nnoremap Y   :YRYankCount 'y$'
endfunction
" toggle list mode
nmap tl :set list!
" toggle paste mode
nmap pp :set paste!
" change directory to that of current file
nmap cd :cd%:p:h
" change local directory to that of current file
nmap lcd :lcd%:p:h
" correct type-o's on exit
nmap q: :q
" save and build
nmap wm  :w:make
" open all folds
nmap fo  :%foldopen!
" close all folds
nmap fc  :%foldclose!
" ,tt will toggle taglist on and off
nmap tt :Tlist
" ,nn will toggle NERDTree on and off
nmap nn :NERDTreeToggle
" When I'm pretty sure that the first suggestion is correct
map r 1z=

I use this one quite often, as I often forget to do “sudo vim file” in the first case, now I don’t have to exit vim to write the file with sudo.

" If I forgot to sudo vim a file, do that with :w!!
cmap w!! %!sudo tee > /dev/null %
" ruby helpers
iab rbang #!/usr/bin/env ruby
iab idef def initialize

I think candycode looks good in all the color modes, but it’s still nice to set it up for different terms.

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" setup for the visual environment
if $TERM =~ '^xterm'
       set t_Co=256
elseif $TERM =~ '^screen-bce'
       set t_Co=256            " just guessing
elseif $TERM =~ '^rxvt'
       set t_Co=88
elseif $TERM =~ '^linux'
       set t_Co=8
else
       set t_Co=16
endif

Switch between tabs with ,tn and ,tp

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" tabs
" (LocalLeader is ",")
map tc :tabnew %    " create a new tab
map td :tabclose    " close a tab
map tn :tabnext     " next tab
map tp :tabprev     " previous tab
map tm :tabmove         " move a tab to a new location

Load extensions we need and change some format options for markdown files.

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
" auto load extensions for different file types
if has('autocmd')
       filetype plugin indent on
       syntax on

       autocmd BufReadPost *
               \ if line("'\"") > 0|
               \       if line("'\"") <= line("$")|
               \               exe("norm '\"")|
               \       else|
               \               exe "norm $"|
               \       endif|
               \ endif

       " improve legibility
       au BufRead quickfix setlocal nobuflisted wrap number

       " improved formatting for markdown
       " http://plasticboy.com/markdown-vim-mode/
       autocmd BufRead *.mkd  set ai formatoptions=tcroqn2 comments=n:>
       autocmd BufRead ~/.blog/entries/*  set ai formatoptions=tcroqn2 comments=n:>
endif

Well, hope someone out there finds these configuration files useful. I welcome any feedback

Soon to come: an explanation of the project that I’ve been working on that has taken me away from blogging for so long, an Intrusion Detection System based on Locality events.

Update 10/23/08: After some theme changes, updated screenshot (no NERDtree or taglist shown in the image):

Update 12/9/09: Been over a year, just for a teaser of what it looks like now: