How do I make Vi-Vim never use tabs (converting spaces to tabs, bad!), makes the tab key == 4 spaces, and automatically indent code after curly brace blocks like emacs does?
Also, how do I save these settings so I never have to input them again.
I’ve seen other questions related to this but it always seems to be a little off from what I want.
The Best Anser:
in your .vimrc:
set smartindent
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
The help files take a bit of time to get used to but the more you read the better vim gets:
:help smartindent
Even better, you can embed these settings in your source for portability:
:help auto-setting
To see your current settings:
:set all
As graywh points out in the comments, smartindent has been replaced by cindent which “Works more cleverly", although still mainly for languages with C-like syntax:
:help C-indenting
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