VIM improvements

If you have vim 7.x version, you should know that vim supports auto completion for certain languages like c, php, python, html, css, xml, javascript.



To enable autocompletion in vim, you need to create a file in your home directory

$ vim ~/.vimrc

Copy the following code into this file

autocmd FileType python set omnifunc=pythoncomplete#Complete
autocmd FileType javascript set omnifunc=javascriptcomplete#CompleteJS
autocmd FileType html set omnifunc=htmlcomplete#CompleteTags
autocmd FileType css set omnifunc=csscomplete#CompleteCSS
autocmd FileType xml set omnifunc=xmlcomplete#CompleteTags
autocmd FileType php set omnifunc=phpcomplete#CompletePHP
autocmd FileType c set omnifunc=ccomplete#Complete

And save the file.

Now open your file in vim and check out autocompletion

$ vim mycode.php

For autocompletion press Ctrl-X O. You should be getting a dropdown of available functions/variables and on the top of the screen a definition of the selected function.

Another thing that could be done in vim is tabs. Yup check out the following commands

:tabe oldfile.php - open oldfile.php in new tab for editing
:tabnew - open a new blank tab
:tabn - go to next tab
:tabp - go to previous tab
:tabr - go to first tab
:tabc - close current tab
:tabo - close other tabs

Coding is fun!!!

vim configuration basic

Have you ever thought about configuring vim? The same vim that you use for editing your files (you should be very familiar with vi editor if you are using unix-like systems). Yes, the editor is highly configurable.

Here are some of the basic tips for vim - Vi Improved 7.1

The global configuration file resides at /etc/vim/vimrc. And the local configuration file resides at your home folder. So if you are logged in as jayant and your home folder is /home/jayant, then your local configuration file would be /home/jayant/.vimrc. If you do not see color in your vi editor, you can do the following

syntax on
set background = dark

I have set the following as my default configuration

jayant@jayantbox:~$ cat .vimrc
set autoindent
set cmdheight=2 "command bar is 2 high
set backspace=indent,eol,start "set backspace function
set hlsearch "highlight searched things
set incsearch "incremental search
set ignorecase "ignore case
set textwidth=0
set autoread "auto read when file is changed from outside
set ruler "show current position
" set nu "show line number
set showmatch "show maching braces
set shiftwidth=2
set tabstop=2
set gfn=Courier\ 12
set t_Co=256
colorscheme oceandeep

This sets the tab width to 2 chars instead of the default 8. Color Scheme is changed to oceandeep. You can get Color schemes for vim from http://www.vim.org/scripts/script_search_results.php?keywords=&script_type=color+scheme&order_by=creation_date&direction=descending&search=search. Your color schemes have to be put in <home>/.vim/colors folder. Auto indenting has been turned on, so you dont need to press tab to indent your code.



Check out my vim using the oceandeep color scheme