.vimrc

" use Vim mode instead of pure Vi, it must be the first instruction
set nocompatible

" display settings
set encoding=utf-8 " encoding used for displaying file
set ruler " show the cursor position all the time
set showmatch " highlight matching braces
set showmode " show insert/replace/visual mode

" write settings
set confirm " confirm :q in case of unsaved changes
set fileencoding=utf-8 " encoding used when saving file
set nobackup " do not keep the backup~ file

" edit settings
set backspace=indent,eol,start " backspacing over everything in insert mode
set expandtab " fill tabs with spaces
set nojoinspaces " no extra space after '.' when joining lines
set shiftwidth=4 " set indentation depth to 8 columns
set softtabstop=4 " backspacing over 8 spaces like over tabs
set tabstop=4 " set tabulator length to 8 columns
" set textwidth=80 " wrap lines automatically at 80th column

" search settings
" set hlsearch " highlight search results
set ignorecase " do case insensitive search...
set incsearch " do incremental search
set smartcase " ...unless capital letters are used

" file type specific settings
filetype on " enable file type detection
filetype plugin on " load the plugins for specific file types
filetype indent on " automatically indent code

" syntax highlighting
set background=dark " dark background for console
syntax on " enable syntax highlighting

" characters for displaying non-printable characters
set listchars=eol:$,tab:>-,trail:.,nbsp:_,extends:+,precedes:+