Re: Changing the defaults with Vim 8

On 2016-07-24 15:02, Bram Moolenaar wrote:
> What has stopped me from changing this is the unexpected change.
> Many users will notice that Vim suddenly behaves differently. Some
> may be upset. The release of Vim 8.0 might be the best point in
> time to do this. If we do this.

Agreed that 8.0 is a good break-a-little-compatibility-if-needed
moment compared to a point release.

Though my understanding is that vim behaves differently if invoked as
"vi" vs. "vim"/"gvim" and if there's a .vimrc vs no .vimrc

So if invoked as "vi" and there's no .vimrc, I'd expect 'compatible'
behavior with no/minimal breaking changes. However if there's
indication that the user wants vim-not-vi (either invoking as "vim"
or having a .vimrc/.gvimrc), then I'd be more open to more
invasive/incompatible changes.

> If someone wants to start in the old way, the -C flag should be
> used: vim -C

I'd also include "or invoking as `vi` or having no .vimrc"

> What we can probably always do:
>
> set backspace=indent,eol,start

+1 here

> set history=50 " keep 50 lines of command line history

at *least* 50 but otherwise +1

> set ruler " show the cursor position all the time

I'm slightly concerned about things that eat more screen real-estate
unbidden. Not *greatly* concerned, but at least enough to raise the
issue. +0

> set showcmd " display incomplete commands

+1

> set incsearch " do incremental searching

My only concern here is that some regexps can have pathological
search time, and searching unbidden (either by hitting enter or by
using 'incsearch') can hang vim.

> " Don't use Ex mode, use Q for formatting
> map Q gq

I don't object in vim; only mildly concerned regarding vi (would have
to dredge up a POSIX vi to check whether Q was used). But mostly Q
is an annoyance to just about everybody I've talked to, good only for
VimGolf hacks.

> " In many terminal emulators the mouse works just fine, thus
> enable it. if has('mouse')
> set mouse=a
> endif

I don't have much input here as I don't use the mouse with vim (other
than middle-button pasting content as if I typed it)

> if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")
> syntax on

It may ruffle some feathers, but again, if it's vim-not-vi, I think
most users already do something like this; and that those who don't
prefer to invoke it as vi.

> set hlsearch

The 'hlsearch' annoys me and is the sort of thing I only turn on as
needed and then promptly turn back off again. Pretty -1 on this one.

> if has("autocmd")
> " Enable file type detection.
> filetype plugin indent on

Might get some detractors, but I don't object here.

> " For all text files set 'textwidth' to 78 characters.
> autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=78

I'd find this more annoying. I tend to jockey 'tw' based on my
environment/content. Email gets tw=65, my HTML is usually tw=75, my
prose is often tw=0, etc.

> autocmd BufReadPost *
> \ if line("'\"") >= 1 && line("'\"") <= line("$") |
> \ exe "normal! g`\"" |
> \ endif

How would this interact with command-line offsets if the file had
been previously edited?

$ vim +21 file.txt

I'd also want to ensure it doesn't impact scripts/macros that assume
files start at the same place. Currently, I can do things like

$ vim *.html
:argdo /<h\d\>\c/put='below first HTML heading'

and know where things will go. But if the cursor location is
restored when a buffer is opened, that might drop me in an unexpected
location.

So I'd vote as a -0 on that one.


As a backwards incompatible change, my biggest want would be that the
outer-quotation text objects (a" and a') would no longer eat leading
whitespace. I've never wanted the out-of-box behavior, always
wanting to change just the string-cum-quotes.

http://vim.1045645.n5.nabble.com/quotation-text-object-consternation-td5725045.html

Or at least an option to control that.

-tim




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