[evmar]

My vimrc is cleaner:

    $ cat ~/.vimrc
    cat: /home/evanm/.vimrc: No such file or directory

I mean, it's cool and all that you love your tools, but I suspect these sorts of blog posts are net harmful when you consider the number of people who will read it and take it as an opportunity to fiddle around with settings in a program as a way of further putting off making something meaningful.

[lunarscape]

I couldn't disagree more. The point of being able to configure tools in the first place is to be able to make them suit the user and enhance the users experience and hence increase productivity. 'Fiddling' around with ones tools and discussing configurations with people is a fantastic way to discover new shortcuts or usage patterns than can make using them a lot more pleasant. Of course people looking to procrastinate can spend hours editing their dotfiles but that's no reason to suggest it's 'net harmful' to talk about them.

[hack_edu]

This doesn't deserve downvotes. Its a legitimate, and smart, way of approaching vi for a lot of reasons. In my opinion, it should be <10 lines

I'll agree with you though I like to have at least a few in there like autoindent, various tabstop and search related settings, or syntax highlighting.

[burgerbrain]

I often hear that one should not customize their Vim settings because when they have to use another machine they will be at a disadvantage but I must say that I really cannot understand this attitude.

My .vimrc is has a good deal of custom stuff that I rely on during day to day coding, but on occasion when I have to use, say, busybox's 'vi' (which by the way isn't even quite POSIX) I very rarely have any trouble at all. Certainly not enough trouble to negate the productivity gain I see with my .vimrc.

[asparagui]

alias vim=pico

this is a good approach to vi, as well :P

[lukeschlather]

    alias vim=pico
    alias pico=nano
    alias nano=emacs

[sliverstorm]

It even represents the spirit of emacs!

;)

[joshmanders]

    alias emacs=vim

Recursion++;

[lordlarm]

I was hoping to find your reply on the top.

As so many I started my 'vim-experience' by adding a lot of plugins, rc-settings, themes etc.

Finally I almost used as much time configuring, backing up my dot files and tweaking as I used on real actual programming.

I understand some settings are crucial (or may be nice), but I would recommend you use more time thinking and implementing your application.

I firmly believe that the KISS-principle (Keep it simple, stupid) is as important to IDE/Editors as it is writing software code.

[skwp]

Spending a few hours up front improving the tools I use saves me hours every day. A small investment in getting your tools right more than pays off. I am insanely productive in my workplace while saving myself from RSI by using smart vim configs.