Configuring Vim in Ubuntu

Vim, like most programmer’s editors is highly configurable. Every programmer has an idea of the “best” way to set things up, but one programmer’s settings will annoy another programmer somewhere.

You need to learn how to tune up the editor so YOU are happy with it.

Fortunately, this is pretty easy, but there are a ton of options you can play with.

In fact do a search for the name of the configuration file (.vimrc) in GitHub, and stand back.

Warning

Much of this discussion is aimed at Linux/Mac users. FOr PC uses, watch the notes closely. The exact commands are a bit different.

Personal Settings

All settings in Linux/Mac are stored in a hidden file in your home directory. That file is this:

• /users/<accountname>/.vimrc

This is just a text file with commands to Vim to set certain options to the values specified. This file can have comments, which are anything after a double-quote character to the end of the line. The comments are not needed, but I am including them in this note to explain what each option does.

Note

On a PC, the file is named _vimrc and lives in the folder where you install gvim.

Create/edit .vimrc

If this .vimrc file does not exist, you can create it with Vim naturally!). The same command will edit an existing configuration file:

$ vim ~/.vimrc

That the “~” character is just an alias for /home/<accountname>.

Note

Windows is just realizing that having an easy way to specify where your home directory is actually is a good idea. For Windows you create your file by navigating to the right folder, then typing this vim _vimrc:

Here are the absolute minimum settings I use:

" Chage tab stops to every 4 chars
set tabstop=4

" this setting makes indents match the line above
set autoindent

" make <Tab> and <BS> work together
set softtabstop=4

" highlite code as recommended based on the language
syntax on

" this setting must match the tabstop values if using auto indenting
set shiftwidth=4

" Replace tabs with spaces
set expandtab

" Do not create backups
set nobackup

The last line eliminates the backup files Vim creates. Those files all end with a “~” character after the name. I use Git, so I do not need backups.

Here ia a link to a web page with more information on teaching Vim how to indent the way you like.

Other Settings

These are useful for a beginner:

" Show line numbers
set number

" Make searches case insensitive
set ic

There are short forms for all options. That last setting was actually “ignorecase”. “ic” is shorter!

Spell Checking

If you type a lot of text, like you might for documentation (or lecture notes), you can turn on spell checking by entering this while in command mode in Vim:

:set spell

I do not add this to the .vimrc file, since there are tons of spelling errors in typical code.

But there is a neat trick you can do in your documentation files.

In my lecture notes, usually at the bottom, you will see this line:

.. vim:ft=rst spell:

That line is telling Vim that when it reads this file, after processing anything in the .vimrc file, it should add two more options. The ft is short for filetype, which causes Vim to highlight the file as though it was written in reStructuredText (those files usually end in .rst). It will do that even if this file does not end in .rst. Some Python programmers like to use .txt on their reStructuredText files. Vim will handle both.

If I am editing a lecture note file, or documentation file, using reStructuredText, I do want spell checking on, so the one line will make sure it is happening.

Any misspelled word will be shown with a red squiggly line underscoring it. If you right-click on something Vim thinks is misspelled, it will offer to correct it, or you can tell it to add this word to its dictionary. I have to do that, since Vim insists that my name is misspelled! (Silly Vim!)

More Vim Tricks

You can search for some text in your file easil. Mke sure you are in command mode, then type a forward slash, followed by the text you are looking for. When you hit enter, it will put you on the first line below the current cursor position that contains that text. It will wrap around, and search from the start of the file, if needed.

Typing just that slash and enter again will find the next occurrence of that text.

Explaining everything you can do to tune this editor would take an entire semester. You can set up custom key combinations that issue a whole string of text, and some programmers use that trick to create starter code for projects. You can also run common commands on your system’s command line, and see the output (error messages, anyone?) back in the editor. In fact, you could turn Vim into an IDE if you like. I prefer not to do that!

Do some research, and more reading, and tune this critter up to suit you. Believe it or not, you can even customize this editor, adding entire new commands, written in Python! You can set up key combinations that will fire off those custon commands easily. Of course, you need to learn a lot more about how Vim manages an edited file, but there are examples around that can get you started on this.

Learn Your Tools

As a software developer, you will spend a lot of time using your editor. Once we learn how powerful a good editor is (and Vim is certainly not the only editor around), you job is to learn the basics of how to use your chosen tool, then you learn how to tune it so you get your work done quickly.

I have used this Vim editor, or its predecessor, the Vi editor, since around 1976! It keeps getting better all the time. And, I keep finding new tricks, I did not know about! Those tricks that make me like it even more. I have tried to kick the Vim habit, just to see if I really can get more productive using something else. So far, Vim has always won! YMMV!