> 1. I checked my vi's :set options, there are a lot options...
As mentioned before, vi has many parameters that are preset and without a file $HOME/.exrc, then the :set command shows you these settings. There are two ways to set the options to different values:
1. use the :set command as in :set ignorecase
or
2. create a .exrc file in your $HOME directory. There is an example .exrc file in /usr/newconfig/etc/skel/.exrc but for the options, only the first line starting with set is useful. The rest of the lines are specific to HP terminals and emulators.
A good starting .exrc file would be:
set noautoindent nowrapscan autowrite ignorecase wrapmargin=0
The word: 'no' in front of an option turns off the feature. wrapscan is very useful because vi searches (the / or the ?) will wrap around bottom to top without warning. Setting wrapscan will stop the search at the end of the file. autowrite will write the current changes to the file if you run an external command. ignorecase means that vi will search for UPPER and lower case characters equally (ABC=abc=aBc) and wrapmargin will automatically add a newline if you reach the right margin. Note that wm=70 does not mean wrap at column 70 -- it means wrap at 70 characters to the left of the end of the line. wrapmargin=10 will insert a new line when you reach 10 characters before the right margin.
Note that most of the set options can be abbreviated like this:
set noai nows aw ic wm=0
Here is one of many quick references to vi commands and set options:
http://people.cis.ksu.edu/~bhoward/vi/vi60.html > Should I change VI to VIM or shouldn't yet?
I would not use vim because it won't be found on many systems and if you get familiar with all the vim features that are not in vi, you'll have difficulties on those other systems.
> purpose of autoindentation. How and what should I use for?
AS mentioned above, indentation is part of good programming style. It shows sections of code that belong together. You would type extra spaces at the beginning of each line to line up the code. After a while, typing all those spaces in front of many lines becomes tedious. So autoindent (automatic indentation) inserts the additional spaces automatically. Here is an example of indentation:
line1
line2
line3
line4
line5
line6
line7
To move back to the beginning of a new line, use the command: CTRL-D (the control key plus the letter d). CTRL-D will backspace one tab space to the left. Press it several times and you'll be back to column where you can start typing.
Bill Hassell, sysadmin
