Vim - The text editor for programmers

Vim is the best text editor available for Programmers. It is highly customize-able, robust and feature rich.

Instead of a regular blog post, vim deserves a page of its own.

Here is my vimrc - the file with which you can customize your environment.
Download vimrc

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 smarttab                  " tab and backspace are smart
set tabstop=4                 " 4 spaces
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set scrolloff=3               " keep at least 3 lines above/below
set sidescrolloff=3           " keep at least 3 lines left/right
set history=200
set backspace=indent,eol,start
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
set noerrorbells              " No error bells please
set shell=bash
set fileformats=unix
set ff=unix
filetype on                   " Enable filetype detection
filetype indent on            " Enable filetype-specific indenting
filetype plugin on            " Enable filetype-specific plugins
set wildmode=longest:full
set wildmenu                  " menu has tab completion
let maplocalleader=','        " all my macros start with ,
set laststatus=2

"  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

"  backup
set backup
set backupdir=~/.vim_backup
set viminfo=%100,'100,/100,h,\"500,:100,n~/.viminfo
"set viminfo='100,f1

set undofile
set undodir=~/.vim/undo

" spelling
if v:version >= 700
  " Enable spell check for text files
  autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt setlocal spell spelllang=en
endif

" mappings
" toggle list mode
nmap <LocalLeader>tl :set list!<cr>
" toggle paste mode
nmap <LocalLeader>pp :set paste!<cr>

nnoremap ; :

set list
set listchars=tab:▸-,trail:·,extends:»,precedes:«,nbsp:⍽