Vim - Personalization

Vim - Personalization and Configuration

Vim is highly customizable. You can tailor its appearance and behavior to suit your preferences and workflow. This section explores key aspects of Vim personalization.

• Configuration files (vimrc)
• Changing fonts (for GVim/MacVim)
• Applying color schemes
• Custom highlighting and visual aids
• Customizing the status line

Configuration Files

Vim’s settings are primarily controlled by a configuration file, commonly known as vimrc. There can be system-wide and user-specific configuration files.

vimrc File

User vimrc: This is where you’ll put most of your personal configurations. The location depends on your OS:

• Linux/macOS: ~/.vimrc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vim/vimrc (if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, defaults to ~/.config/vim/vimrc).
• Windows: $HOME/_vimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/vimrc, or $VIM/_vimrc.

For Neovim, the user configuration is typically at ~/.config/nvim/init.vim (Vimscript) or ~/.config/nvim/init.lua (Lua).

System vimrc: This file contains global defaults. Its location can be found by typing :echo $VIM/vimrc in Vim. On Linux, it’s often /etc/vim/vimrc or /usr/share/vim/vimrc. Modifying this file affects all users on the system and is generally less common for personal settings.

gvimrc File (for GVim/MacVim)

If you use a GUI version of Vim like GVim or MacVim, you can have GUI-specific settings in a gvimrc file. These settings are loaded after the vimrc.

• Linux/macOS: ~/.gvimrc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vim/gvimrc.
• Windows: $HOME/_gvimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/gvimrc, or $VIM/_gvimrc.

exrc File (Legacy)

The .exrc (in the home directory) or exrc (in the current directory, if set exrc is enabled for security) files are for backward compatibility with ex and older vi versions. Modern Vim usage generally prefers vimrc files. Vim will ignore .exrc if a vimrc is found in the same location.

Changing Fonts (for GVim/MacVim)

In GUI versions of Vim, you can change the font and its size using the guifont option. This setting is typically placed in your gvimrc file.

The syntax varies slightly by operating system:

" Example for Linux (GVim):
set guifont=Monospace\ 10

" Example for macOS (MacVim):
set guifont=Menlo:h12

" Example for Windows (GVim):
set guifont=Consolas:h11:cDEFAULT

Spaces in font names must be escaped with a backslash. You can often use :set guifont=* to open a font selection dialog to find the correct syntax.

Changing Color Schemes

Vim supports color schemes to change the syntax highlighting and editor colors. To apply a color scheme:

:colorscheme <scheme_name>

You can type :colorscheme (with a space) and then press Tab to cycle through available built-in schemes (e.g., desert, elflord, murphy). Many more can be downloaded and installed.

To set a default color scheme, add the command to your vimrc: colorscheme wombat

Personal Highlighting and Visual Aids

Highlight Characters Beyond a Certain Column

To visually indicate a line length limit (e.g., 80 characters), use colorcolumn:

:set colorcolumn=80  " Highlights the 80th column
:set cc=80,100     " Highlights columns 80 and 100

The old method using match is still available for more complex patterns:

:match ErrorMsg /\%>79v.\+/  " Highlights text beyond column 79

Description of the match command elements: \%>79v means ‘after virtual column 79’, . matches any character, \+ matches one or more occurrences. ErrorMsg is a highlight group.

Display Line Numbers

To show line numbers:

:set number         " Show absolute line numbers
:set relativenumber  " Show relative line numbers (current line is 0)
:set nu rnu         " Show both (current line absolute, others relative)

To disable: :set nonumber, :set norelativenumber.

To set the width of the number column (e.g., to 4 characters):

:set numberwidth=4

Spell Check Configuration

To enable spell checking:

:set spell

To set the spell checking language (e.g., British English or German):

:set spelllang=en_gb
:set spelllang=de

You might need to download dictionary files for some languages. See :help spell.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations automatically expand short typed text into longer strings. They are useful for correcting common typos or inserting boilerplate text.

Define an abbreviation (works in Insert and Command mode):

:abbr adn and       " Corrects 'adn' to 'and'
:abbr myemail user@example.com

For Insert mode only abbreviations, use :iabbrev or :iab.

Now, if you type myemail followed by a space or punctuation in Insert mode, it will expand to user@example.com.

Customizing the Status Line

The status line at the bottom of each window displays information about the current file and mode. By default, it might only show when there are multiple windows.

To always show the status line:

:set laststatus=2

Other values: 0 (never), 1 (only if more than one window), 3 (global status line, Neovim only).

You can extensively customize the content of the status line using the statusline option. This can involve Vim script to display various details like file name, file type, cursor position, Git branch, etc. For example, a simple custom status line:

:set statusline=%F\ %y\ %r%m\%=Line\ %l/%L,\ Col\ %c

Many users opt for plugins like Airline or Lightline for highly configurable and aesthetically pleasing status lines. See :help 'statusline' for details on formatting options.