{"id":171,"date":"2011-02-17T11:26:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T11:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nathanko_website.com\/blog\/?p=171"},"modified":"2016-11-13T17:12:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T17:12:34","slug":"configuring-gvim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nathankowald.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/configuring-gvim\/","title":{"rendered":"Configuring gVim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A friend introduced me to the excellent Vi editor<\/a>.\u00a0His constant talking about how great it is made me curious.\u00a0I purchased\u00a0Learning the Vi and Vim Editors – O’Reilly<\/a> and learnt the basic commands.<\/p>\n

My boss prefers Windows: so all our servers are Windows.
\nI wanted to continue using Vim so started using\u00a0gVim<\/a>.\u00a0gVim\u00a0is a modified version of the UNIX\u00a0Vi editor.<\/p>\n

Here are some things I’ve needed to configure while using gVim.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maximising gVim Windows on file open<\/h2>\n

The default window size when opening a file in gVim is small.
\nTo make gVim maximise windows on file open add the following to you _vimrc<\/strong> \u00a0file.<\/p>\n

\r\n"start maximised\r\nau GUIEnter * simalt ~x<\/pre>\n
Your _vimrc<\/strong> will be in the root folder of your Vim install, mine’s located in:\u00a0C:\\Program Files\\Vim\\<\/strong><\/p>\n
The _vimrc<\/strong> file contains optional runtime configuration settings to initialize Vim when it starts.
\nOn Unix based systems, the file is named\u00a0.vimrc<\/strong>, on Windows systems it’s _vimrc<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Removing ^M characters in gVim<\/h2>\n
^M<\/strong> characters are DOS\/Windows line-ending characters.
\nPrevious developers at my work used Notepad++ to edit files. When I’d open these files in gVim they were littered with ^M<\/strong> characters and appear without line breaks or indents. Hard to read and edit.<\/p>\n
To remove these use the ex command<\/strong><\/p>\n
:%s\/^M\/\\r\/g<\/pre>\n
I encountered a problem typing control characters in Windows.
\nIn a UNIX environment you type a control character using Ctrl<\/kbd>–V<\/kbd>. In Windows Ctrl<\/kbd>–V<\/kbd> is used to ‘Paste’ so you must use Ctrl<\/kbd>–Q<\/kbd> instead.
\nTo type ^M<\/strong> in gVim you type (Ctrl<\/kbd>–Q<\/kbd>) <– keep your finger on Ctrl<\/kbd> then press M<\/kbd>.<\/p>\n
\r\n:help CTRL-V-alternative\r\n\r\n*CTRL-V-alternative* *CTRL-Q*\r\nSince CTRL-V is used to paste, you can't use it to start a blockwise Visual\r\nselection.  You can use CTRL-Q instead.  You can also use CTRL-Q in Insert\r\nmode and Command-line mode to get the old meaning of CTRL-V.  But CTRL-Q\r\ndoesn't work for terminals when it's used for control flow.<\/pre>\n
Good explanation of ^M<\/strong> characters copied from here<\/a><\/p>\n
There is a difference between how a Windows-based based OS and a Unix based OS store end-of-line markers.
\nWindows based operating systems – thanks to their DOS heritage – store an end-of-line as a pair of characters – 0x0A0D. Unix based operating systems just use 0x0A. ^M is a visual representation of 0x0D.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Changing the location of gVim swap and backup files<\/h2>\n
When editing a file in gVim a backup file is created after saving changes to a newly opened file.
\nIt is a copy of the file before changing the file. \u00a0It is named the same as the file with a ~<\/strong> at the end.
\nThis creates a lot of clutter in your directories.
\nThankfully you can change the default behaviour by disabling swap and backup files or moving the location of these.<\/p>\n
To disable swap and backup files add this to your _vimrc file<\/strong><\/p>\n
\r\nset nobackup\r\nset nowritebackup\r\nset noswapfile<\/pre>\n
I like to keep these files as it saves the line location that I was last editing.<\/p>\n
To change the swap and backup file location add this to your _vimrc file<\/strong><\/p>\n
\r\n"set where to store backups\r\nset backupdir=C:\\vimbackups\r\n\r\n"set where to store swap files\r\nset dir=C:\\vimbackups<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A friend introduced me to the excellent Vi editor.\u00a0His constant talking about how great it is made me curious.\u00a0I purchased\u00a0Learning the Vi and Vim Editors – O’Reilly and learnt the basic commands. My boss prefers Windows: so all our servers are Windows. I wanted to continue using Vim so started using\u00a0gVim.\u00a0gVim\u00a0is a modified version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vim","category-web-development"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t