Vim 80 column layout concerns

Question

The way I do 80-column indication in Vim seems incorrect set columns 80   At times I also set textwidth  but I want to be able to see and anticipate line overflow with the set columns alternative   This has some unfortunate side effects    I can t set number for fear of splitting between files that have different orders of line numbers  i e   lt  100 line files and    100 line files will require two different set columns values because of the extra column used for the additional digit display   I also start new  g Vim sessions instead of splitting windows vertically  This is because vsplit forces me to set columns every time I open or close a pane  so starting a new session is less hassle    How do you handle the 80-character indication when you want to set numbers  vertically split  etc

User · Answer

You also can draw line to see 80 limit   let  amp colorcolumn join range 81 999       let  amp colorcolumn  80   join range 400 999         Result

User · Answer

Simon Howard s answer is great  But    81v     fails to highlight tabs that exceed column 81   So I did a little tweak  based on the stuff I found on VIM wiki and HS s choice of colors above   highlight OverLength ctermbg darkred ctermfg white guibg  FFD9D9 match OverLength     gt 80v       And now VIM will highlight anything that exceeds column 80

User · Answer

A nice way of marking just the first character going out of the specified bounds   highlight ColorColumn ctermbg magenta  set to whatever you like call matchadd  ColorColumn      81v   100   set column nr   From Damian Conway s talk

User · Answer

Well  looking at the  help columns  it s not really being made to mess with   In console  it s usually determined by console setting  i e  it s detected automatically    in GUI  it determines  and is determined by  the width of the gvim windows   So normally you just let consoles and window managers doing their jobs by commented out the set columns  I am not sure what you mean by  see and anticipate line overflow   If you want EOL to be inserted roughly column 80  use either set textwidth or set wrapmargin  if you just want soft wrap  i e  line is wrapped  but no actual EOL   then play with set linebreak and set showbreak

User · Answer

Well  looking at the  help columns  it s not really being made to mess with   In console  it s usually determined by console setting  i e  it s detected automatically    in GUI  it determines  and is determined by  the width of the gvim windows   So normally you just let consoles and window managers doing their jobs by commented out the set columns  I am not sure what you mean by  see and anticipate line overflow   If you want EOL to be inserted roughly column 80  use either set textwidth or set wrapmargin  if you just want soft wrap  i e  line is wrapped  but no actual EOL   then play with set linebreak and set showbreak

User · Answer

I m afraid that you ve put constraints on the set of solutions that  well  leave you with the null set   Using  set textwidth 80 will fix all of the problems you mentioned except that you can t easily see the line limit coming up  If you  set ruler  you ll enable the x y position display on the status bar  which you can use to see which column you re in   Aside from that  I m not sure what to tell you  It s a shame to lose the number column  fold column and splits just because you have to  set columns 80

User · Answer

You can try this   au BufWinEnter   if  amp textwidth  gt  8     let w m1 matchadd  MatchParen   printf      lt  dv     gt  dv    amp textwidth 1   amp textwidth-8   -1      let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg   printf      gt  dv       amp textwidth   -1      endif   That will set up two highlights in every buffer  one for characters in the 8 columns prior to whatever your  amp textwidth is set to  and one for characters beyond that column  That way you have some extent of anticipation  Of course you can tweak it to use a different width if you want more or less anticipation  which you pay for in the form of loss of syntax highlighting in those columns

User · Answer

I have this set up in my  vimrc   highlight OverLength ctermbg red ctermfg white guibg  592929 match OverLength    81v       This highlights the background in a subtle red for text that goes over the 80 column limit  subtle in GUI mode  anyway - in terminal mode it s less so

User · Answer

I have this set up in my  vimrc   highlight OverLength ctermbg red ctermfg white guibg  592929 match OverLength    81v       This highlights the background in a subtle red for text that goes over the 80 column limit  subtle in GUI mode  anyway - in terminal mode it s less so

User · Answer

I have this set up in my  vimrc   highlight OverLength ctermbg red ctermfg white guibg  592929 match OverLength    81v       This highlights the background in a subtle red for text that goes over the 80 column limit  subtle in GUI mode  anyway - in terminal mode it s less so

User · Answer

As of vim 7 3  you can use set colorcolumn 80  set cc 80 for short    Since earlier versions do not support this  my  vimrc uses instead   if exists   colorcolumn     set colorcolumn 80 else   au BufWinEnter   let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg       gt 80v      -1  endif   See also the online documentation on the colorcolumn option

User · Answer

You can try this to set the window size to allow 80 characters of actual text  This still doesn t work with vertical splits though   let  amp co 80    amp foldcolumn     amp number     amp relativenumber    amp numberwidth   0   This requires vim 7   7 3 for relativenumber

User · Answer

I prefer   highlight ColorColumn ctermbg gray set colorcolumn 80

User · Answer

You can try this   au BufWinEnter   if  amp textwidth  gt  8     let w m1 matchadd  MatchParen   printf      lt  dv     gt  dv    amp textwidth 1   amp textwidth-8   -1      let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg   printf      gt  dv       amp textwidth   -1      endif   That will set up two highlights in every buffer  one for characters in the 8 columns prior to whatever your  amp textwidth is set to  and one for characters beyond that column  That way you have some extent of anticipation  Of course you can tweak it to use a different width if you want more or less anticipation  which you pay for in the form of loss of syntax highlighting in those columns

User · Answer

I m afraid that you ve put constraints on the set of solutions that  well  leave you with the null set   Using  set textwidth 80 will fix all of the problems you mentioned except that you can t easily see the line limit coming up  If you  set ruler  you ll enable the x y position display on the status bar  which you can use to see which column you re in   Aside from that  I m not sure what to tell you  It s a shame to lose the number column  fold column and splits just because you have to  set columns 80

User · Answer

Newer versions of vim allow a  set numberwidth x value  which sets the width of the line number display  I don t really use folding etc  so I wouldn t know about that though  Drawing a thin vertical line is beyond the abilities of a console application though  GVim may allow this  I don t use it  so can t comment there

User · Answer

I m afraid that you ve put constraints on the set of solutions that  well  leave you with the null set   Using  set textwidth 80 will fix all of the problems you mentioned except that you can t easily see the line limit coming up  If you  set ruler  you ll enable the x y position display on the status bar  which you can use to see which column you re in   Aside from that  I m not sure what to tell you  It s a shame to lose the number column  fold column and splits just because you have to  set columns 80

User · Answer

As of vim 7 3  you can use set colorcolumn 80  set cc 80 for short    Since earlier versions do not support this  my  vimrc uses instead   if exists   colorcolumn     set colorcolumn 80 else   au BufWinEnter   let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg       gt 80v      -1  endif   See also the online documentation on the colorcolumn option

User · Answer

Shorter way   match ErrorMsg     gt 80v

User · Answer

I prefer   highlight ColorColumn ctermbg gray set colorcolumn 80

User · Answer

this one is out of left field but its a nice little map for resizing your current split to 80 characters if you ve got the line numbers on     make window 80   some for numbers wide   noremap  lt Leader gt w  let  w float2nr log10 line        82   vertical resize  lt c-r gt w lt cr gt

User · Answer

You can try this to set the window size to allow 80 characters of actual text  This still doesn t work with vertical splits though   let  amp co 80    amp foldcolumn     amp number     amp relativenumber    amp numberwidth   0   This requires vim 7   7 3 for relativenumber

User · Answer

Newer versions of vim allow a  set numberwidth x value  which sets the width of the line number display  I don t really use folding etc  so I wouldn t know about that though  Drawing a thin vertical line is beyond the abilities of a console application though  GVim may allow this  I don t use it  so can t comment there

User · Answer

I have this set up in my  vimrc   highlight OverLength ctermbg red ctermfg white guibg  592929 match OverLength    81v       This highlights the background in a subtle red for text that goes over the 80 column limit  subtle in GUI mode  anyway - in terminal mode it s less so

User · Answer

this one is out of left field but its a nice little map for resizing your current split to 80 characters if you ve got the line numbers on     make window 80   some for numbers wide   noremap  lt Leader gt w  let  w float2nr log10 line        82   vertical resize  lt c-r gt w lt cr gt

User · Answer

Newer versions of vim allow a  set numberwidth x value  which sets the width of the line number display  I don t really use folding etc  so I wouldn t know about that though  Drawing a thin vertical line is beyond the abilities of a console application though  GVim may allow this  I don t use it  so can t comment there

User · Answer

You also can draw line to see 80 limit   let  amp colorcolumn join range 81 999       let  amp colorcolumn  80   join range 400 999         Result

User · Answer

You can try this   au BufWinEnter   if  amp textwidth  gt  8     let w m1 matchadd  MatchParen   printf      lt  dv     gt  dv    amp textwidth 1   amp textwidth-8   -1      let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg   printf      gt  dv       amp textwidth   -1      endif   That will set up two highlights in every buffer  one for characters in the 8 columns prior to whatever your  amp textwidth is set to  and one for characters beyond that column  That way you have some extent of anticipation  Of course you can tweak it to use a different width if you want more or less anticipation  which you pay for in the form of loss of syntax highlighting in those columns

User · Answer

Newer versions of vim allow a  set numberwidth x value  which sets the width of the line number display  I don t really use folding etc  so I wouldn t know about that though  Drawing a thin vertical line is beyond the abilities of a console application though  GVim may allow this  I don t use it  so can t comment there

User · Answer

Minimalistic  not-over-the-top approach  Only the 79th character of lines that are too long gets highlighted  It overcomes a few common problems  works on new windows  overflowing words are highlighted properly   augroup collumnLimit   autocmd    autocmd BufEnter WinEnter FileType scala java           highlight CollumnLimit ctermbg DarkGrey guibg DarkGrey   let collumnLimit   79   feel free to customize   let pattern                 lt      collumnLimit 1     v    gt     collumnLimit    v    autocmd BufEnter WinEnter FileType scala java           let w m1 matchadd  CollumnLimit   pattern  -1  augroup END   Note  notice the FileType scala java this limits this to Scala and Java source files  You ll probably want to customize this  If you were to omit it  it would work on all file types

User · Answer

Shorter way   match ErrorMsg     gt 80v

User · Answer

You can try this   au BufWinEnter   if  amp textwidth  gt  8     let w m1 matchadd  MatchParen   printf      lt  dv     gt  dv    amp textwidth 1   amp textwidth-8   -1      let w m2 matchadd  ErrorMsg   printf      gt  dv       amp textwidth   -1      endif   That will set up two highlights in every buffer  one for characters in the 8 columns prior to whatever your  amp textwidth is set to  and one for characters beyond that column  That way you have some extent of anticipation  Of course you can tweak it to use a different width if you want more or less anticipation  which you pay for in the form of loss of syntax highlighting in those columns

User · Answer

Minimalistic  not-over-the-top approach  Only the 79th character of lines that are too long gets highlighted  It overcomes a few common problems  works on new windows  overflowing words are highlighted properly   augroup collumnLimit   autocmd    autocmd BufEnter WinEnter FileType scala java           highlight CollumnLimit ctermbg DarkGrey guibg DarkGrey   let collumnLimit   79   feel free to customize   let pattern                 lt      collumnLimit 1     v    gt     collumnLimit    v    autocmd BufEnter WinEnter FileType scala java           let w m1 matchadd  CollumnLimit   pattern  -1  augroup END   Note  notice the FileType scala java this limits this to Scala and Java source files  You ll probably want to customize this  If you were to omit it  it would work on all file types

User · Answer

Simon Howard s answer is great  But    81v     fails to highlight tabs that exceed column 81   So I did a little tweak  based on the stuff I found on VIM wiki and HS s choice of colors above   highlight OverLength ctermbg darkred ctermfg white guibg  FFD9D9 match OverLength     gt 80v       And now VIM will highlight anything that exceeds column 80

User · Answer

A nice way of marking just the first character going out of the specified bounds   highlight ColorColumn ctermbg magenta  set to whatever you like call matchadd  ColorColumn      81v   100   set column nr   From Damian Conway s talk

User · Answer

I m afraid that you ve put constraints on the set of solutions that  well  leave you with the null set   Using  set textwidth 80 will fix all of the problems you mentioned except that you can t easily see the line limit coming up  If you  set ruler  you ll enable the x y position display on the status bar  which you can use to see which column you re in   Aside from that  I m not sure what to tell you  It s a shame to lose the number column  fold column and splits just because you have to  set columns 80

[vim] Vim 80 column layout concerns

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