Configuring Built-in Vim on Mac OS X 10.8

While Mac OS X 10.8 ships with vim, it doesn't ship with any vim infrastructure--like a .vimrc file!

Here is how to setup the built-in vim to be more useful. Note that these tips are not tested on MacVim which is a standard Mac App that makes vim a GUI app. I have run the equivalent in Windows XP and  7. I so far have not needed this on my Mac.

Vim Infrastructure
Enter these commands to create a vim infrastructure:

touch ~/.vimrc
mkdir ~/.vim
cd ~/.vim;mkdir backups;mkdir colors;mkdir swaps;mkdir undo;

Go to vimninjas.com and pick a color theme. I like Disgruntled.

Download the color theme file, like disgruntled.vim and save it in ~./vim/colors.
If you get errors about "^M", you'll have to edit the file later and remove these with:

:%s/Ctrl+v,<Enter>//g

Note: In case you don't recognize the above vim command, you don't type what I show. Instead, you have to hold down the ctrl key, press "v", release both and press "Enter". Vim will display "^M".

vimrc
Copy and paste the following code into your ~/.vimrc file:

" Make Vim more useful

set nocompatible

" Use the OS clipboard by default (on versions compiled with `+clipboard`)

" Set color scheme!¬

colorscheme disgruntled¬

set clipboard=unnamed

" Enhance command-line completionset wildmenu" Allow cursor keys in insert mode

set esckeys

" Allow backspace in insert modeset backspace=indent,eol,start" Optimize for fast terminal connections

set ttyfast

" Add the g flag to search/replace by default

set gdefault" Use UTF-8 without BOM

set encoding=utf-8 nobomb

" Change mapleader

let mapleader=","

" Don’t add empty newlines at the end of files

set binary

set noeol

" Centralize backups, swapfiles and undo historyset backupdir=~/.vim/backupsset directory=~/.vim/swapsif exists("&undodir")

        set undodir=~/.vim/undo

endif

set viminfo+=! " make sure vim history worksset wmh=0 " reduces splits to a single line 

" Enable per-directory .vimrc files and disable unsafe commands in themset exrcset secure" Enable syntax highlighting

syntax on

" Highlight current lineset cursorline" Make tabs as wide as two spaces

set tabstop=2

" Enable line numbersset number" Show “invisible” characters

set lcs=tab:▸\ ,trail:·,eol:¬,nbsp:_

set list

" Highlight searchesset hlsearch" Ignore case of searches

set ignorecase

" Highlight dynamically as pattern is typedset incsearch" Always show status line

set laststatus=2

" Respect modeline in filesset modelineset modelines=4

" Enable mouse in all modes

set mouse=a

" Disable error bellsset noerrorbells" Don’t reset cursor to start of line when moving around.

set nostartofline

" Show the cursor positionset ruler" Don’t show the intro message when starting Vim

set shortmess=atI

" Show the current modeset showmode" Show the filename in the window titlebar

set title

" Show the (partial) command as it’s being typedset showcmd

" Start scrolling three lines before the horizontal window border

set scrolloff=3

" Strip trailing whitespace (,ss)

function! StripWhitespace()

        let save_cursor = getpos(".")

        let old_query = getreg('/')

        :%s/\s\+$//e

        call setpos('.', save_cursor)

        call setreg('/', old_query)

endfunction

noremap <leader>ss :call StripWhitespace()<CR>

" Save a file as root (,W)

noremap <leader>W :w !sudo tee % > /dev/null<CR>

" Automatic commandsif has("autocmd")

        " Enable file type detection

        filetype on

        " Treat .json files as .js

        autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.json setfiletype json syntax=javascript

endif

hi Normal ctermbg=black ctermfg=white

Note: This code is only slightly modified from Tim's. I made a grand total of three changes because his code did not work for me as is. But I want to give him credit for the bulk of this code.