That been said, I think my configuration has become pretty neat. See for yourself

I only use Vim in the terminal, but most of the configuration also works in gVim (you may have to modify some of the bindings for the special characters like <C-Space>).

Although the .vimrc is long, I have tried to avoid making the configuration too heavy, so you will only find mappings that I actually use. Usually, I discover a work pattern that I want to speed up, and create a binding. Then I try it some time to see if I will get used to it; if not, I remove again. That’s the methodology

Major features

• Usable with both the Colemak and Qwerty layout
• Readable colorscheme
• Makes heavy use of alt/meta bindings (as alt is easier to hit than control)
• Efficient tabbed navigation
• Custom status line
• Quick access to often used Ex commands
• Many navigation improving bindings (examples: next occurence of visual selection, tag jump in new tab reusing existing tabs, search outline ({{{), open visual selection in split window)
• Plugins are configured to be pervasive (they will not get in your way; at least not my way )

As of writing, I use these external plugins, which you may download from vim.org.

• AlignPlugin
• NERD_commenter
• a (alternate)
• imaps
• matchit
• project
• rhs (not yet published)
• securemodelines
• surround
• taglist
• timestamp
• vcssvn

Of “major” filetype plugins, I use haskellmode and latexsuite.

These are the files of interest. Enjoy

• .vimrc (html, html folded)
• colors/mntnoe.vim
• ftplugin/python.vim
• ftplugin/java.vim
• ftplugin/xml.vim
• ftplugin/c.vim
• ftplugin/cpp.vim
• ftplugin/cpp/cppindent.vim
• ftplugin/netrw.vim
• ftplugin/tex.vim
• syntax/text.vim

On March 27, 2008:

When you use the normal gf and <C-]> bindings, you change the buffer in the current window. There is also an option to create a new window when doing it, but there are no way to reuse windows that already show the corresponding buffer, at least not natively.

You can reuse tabs and windows (like other IDE’s) with findtab.py, which is a simple Python script consisting of three functions. To use it, add something like the following to your .vimrc:

pyfile ~/.vim/extern/findtab.py

nnoremap <M-]> :python TabTag()<Cr>
nnoremap <C-w><M-f> :python TabFile()<Cr>

I have tried to make TabFile() work like gf, supporting path, includeexpr and suffixesadd. I think TabTag() works like <C-]>. The script also supplies a general Python function called FindTag(filename). It works as you think…

Suppose we do not want to indent stuff in namespace declarations. I found out that it is enough to adjust the indentation of the first definition (except for a special case when using inheritance (“: public …“), see the code):

setlocal nolisp
setlocal noautoindent

setlocal indentexpr=GetCppIndent(v:lnum)

if exists("*GetCppIndent")
    finish
endif

function! GetCppIndent(lnum)
    let cindent = cindent(a:lnum)
    if a:lnum == 1 | return cindent | endif

    let pattern1 = 'namespaces+S+s*{s*%$'
    " pattern2 is used to match this case:
    " class c : public b
    "     { <-- cursor
    let clspat = 'classs+S+s*:s*[^{]*'
    let pattern2 = 'namespaces+S+s*{s*'.clspat.'%$'

    let lines = join(getline(max([ a:lnum - 10, 1]) , a:lnum-1), ' ')

    if  lines =~ pattern1
        return indent(CppFindOccurence('namespace', a:lnum))
    elseif  lines =~ pattern2 && getline(a:lnum) =~ '^s*{'
        return indent(CppFindOccurence('class', a:lnum))
    else
        return cindent
    endif
endfunction

function! CppFindOccurence(pattern, lnum)
    for line in range(a:lnum-1,a:lnum-10,-1)
        if getline(line) =~ a:pattern
            return line
        endif
    endfor
    return -1
endfunction

Please note that this is a hack, and thus not perfect. For instance, it does not take comments or preprocessing directives into account, but that should be easy to implement if it is an issue for you…

Put something like this in your .vimrc:

vnoremap <M-s> :<C-u>call VisualSplit()<Cr>

function! VisualSplit()
	let top = getpos("'<")[1]
	let bot = getpos("'>")[1]
	let height = bot - top + 1
	normal <Esc>
	only
	split
	execute "1 wincmd w"
	" position and size the top window
	execute "normal '<z" . height . "<Cr>z<Cr>"
	" return to 'main' window
	execute "normal <C-w>2<C-w>"
endfunction

Tabbed interfaces have emerged everywhere, and also Vim 7 comes with support for it. For projects consisting of multiple files, I find it easier to work with tabs than with split windows and multiple buffers. Of course we need some better keybindings:

inoremap <M-n> <C-o>gt
inoremap <M-p> <C-o>gT
inoremap <M-w> <Esc>:tabclose<Cr>
inoremap <M-t> <Esc>:tabe<Cr>

nnoremap <M-n> gt
nnoremap <M-p> gT
nnoremap <M-w> :tabclose<Cr>
nnoremap <M-t> :tabe<Cr>

Also, making the tab bar always visible encourages you to use them more:

set showtabline=2

Now remember to use the -p parameter when you open Vim with multiple files:

vim -p *.tex

Having multiple files open in for instance LaTeX projects also allows you to use completion in references to labels in the corresponding files.

BTW add colon and underscore to iskeyword to enable completion for labels like fig:nice_figure. Oh yes, and use latex-suite…