====== vim ======
As you might have noticed on other pages here, my editor-to-go-to is ''[[https://www.vim.org/|vim]]''. Fast, versatile, always available.

The Debian default settings need some tweaking however, to make it //really// useful.

===== Packages =====
First of all, when you install ''vim'' in Debian, it (for some reason) also installs ''vim-tiny''. There have been occasions when this was suddenly the default editor and to prevent that from happening and always being able to use the fully-featured version, I just uninstall ''vim-tiny'':
<code bash>
sudo apt purge vim-tiny
</code>

Then, Debian packages lots of ''vim'' plugins by default. Have a look at the list and decide for yourself which ones you need or want:
<code bash>
apt-cache search vim|sort|grep ^vim
</code>

For me, I install these packages/plugins by default for some [[git]] added value as well as syntax highlighting for [[Puppet]] (''.pp'') files.
<code bash>
sudo apt install vim-gitgutter vim-puppet
</code>

===== Settings =====
These settings make ''vim'' a lot more usable, especially when it comes to the information it gives you as well as some handy functionality.
<code vim>
" DeskTux Handy Dandy vim settings
syntax on               " Enable Syntax Highlighting
set background=dark     " Use colors suited for dark backgrounds
set showcmd             " Show (partial) command in status line.
set showmatch           " Show matching brackets.
set ignorecase          " Do case insensitive matching
set smartcase           " Do smart case matching
set incsearch           " Incremental search
set autowrite           " Automatically save before commands like :next and :make
set hidden              " Hide buffers when they are abandoned
set mouse-=a            " Enable mouse usage (all modes)
set ruler               " Show current column and row
"set number             " Show line numbers

" The 'Insert' mode knows two different operations, 'Insert' and 'Insert
" (paste)'. The following settings make it possible to toggle between these
" two modes using the <F2> key (and show the current mode in the status line)
" so indentations of copied code will not get destroyed on pasting code.
nnoremap <F2> :set invpaste paste?<CR>
set pastetoggle=<F2>
set showmode

" Tabstops and indentation for Python and Puppet
filetype plugin indent on
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.py set tabstop=4 softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab smarttab autoindent
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.pp set tabstop=2 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 expandtab smarttab autoindent
</code>

~~DISCUSSION~~