Configuring VIM

Generally, vim installation comes with a .vim diectory and .vimrc file in your home directory. If these are not present in your directory, please feel free to create them manually. Configurations for vim goes in the .vimrc file and the plugins are stored in the .vim directory.

Here is what my current .vimrc configurations look like:

 1 "Vundle Setup 
 2 set nocompatible " required 
 3 filetype off " required 
 4 
 5 " set the runtime path to include Vundle and initialize 
 6 set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim 
 7 call vundle#begin() 
 8 " 
 9 " " alternatively, pass a path where Vundle should 
 10 install plugins call vundle#begin('~/.vim/plugins') 
 11 " 
 12 " " let Vundle manage Vundle, required 
 13 Plugin 'gmarik/Vundle.vim' 
 14 " 
 15 " " Add all your plugins here (note older versions of Vundle 
 16 " used Bundle instead of Plugin) 
 17 Plugin 'tmhedberg/SimpylFold' 
 18 Bundle 'Valloric/YouCompleteMe' 
 19 Plugin 'jnurmine/Zenburn' 
 20 
 21 " All of your Plugins must be added before the following line 
 22 call vundle#end() " required 
 23 filetype plugin indent on " required 
 24 
 25 "vim native configuratiions 
 26 " 
 27 "This allows copy and paste between terminals 
 28 set clipboard=unnamed 
 29 
 30 " enable 256 color mode 
 31 set t_Co=256 
 32 
 33 " enable syntax highlighting 
 34 syntax on 
 35 
 36 " show line numbers 
 37 set number 
 38 
 39 " show the matching part of the pair for [] {} and () 
 40 set showmatch 
 41 
 42 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.py 
 43 set tabstop=4 
 44 set softtabstop=4 
 45 set shiftwidth=4 " when using the >> or << commands 
 46 set textwidth=79 
 47 set expandtab 
 48 set autoindent 
 49 set fileformat=unix 
 50 
 51 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.js, *.html, *.css 
 52 set tabstop=2 
 53 set softtabstop=2 
 54 set shiftwidth=2 
 55 
 56 " plugin specific configs 
 57 
 58 "automatically load zenburn color scheme 
 59 colors zenburn

Installing plugins

The easiest way to install plugins in Vim is through Vundle. Its like PIP for Python. The instruction to setup Vundle is given in its github site. If you have git already installed, you can get Vundle by simply cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim 

After you setup Vundle, adding plugins to Vim is a matter of simply adding one line to your .vimrc. For example,

Plugin 'tmhedberg/SimpylFold') 

and relaunching vim and calling this command :PluginInstall

Some useful plugins

SimplyFold: This plugin is a really simple plugin for correctly folding your python code. Once installed, you can fold and unfold your python code by the commands: zc (close) and zo (open)

YouCompleteMe: This is a very extensive plugin that has auto-complete engines for various programming languages such as C, C++, JavaScript, Python among others. You can use ctrl+space to trigger the completion suggestions anywhere and use tab to scroll through the suggestions.

Zenburn: This is a nice low-contrast color scheme for Vim. It’s easy for your eyes and designed to keep you in the zone for long programming sessions. If your vim doesn’t automatically load this color schema, you can activate it by command - :colors zenburn and turn off by :colors default. You may also need to set up 256 color in your .bashrc or bash_profile using export TERM=xterm-256color

• Miscellaneous