Hi Scott,
>
> excuse me
>
> this transcends ridiculous
>
> i am editing text, and i have gone around the bend to tell vim
> that i am doing so
>
Apparently you can just make a file like this:
~/.vim/ftdetect/txt.vim:
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt set filetype=txt
All done. See ':help new-filetype' for more infomration
>
> to have to create an entire "text" syntax, where NOTHING HAPPENS,
> seems against every premise that vim was built on
>
No, you don't need to make syntax files or anything like that, all you need is
the 'set filetype=txt' part.
> why do i have to be surprised by 'cindent' when i am editing text?
> it is, after all, text, and i went out of my way to define these
> modules with the .txt extension, even here in linux -- specifically
> so he'd know
>
> why would cindent kick in if i'm not editing c?
>
Perhaps because cindent is useful in languages other than c. Therefore, it
won't automatically 'switch off' in other file types. However, you can switch
it off manually for certain filetypes like so:
~/.vim/after/ftplugin/txt.vim
set nocindent
set nosmartindent
set noautoindent
>
> i don't remember having this problem before -- before what exactly
> i'm not sure -- but i've been surprised with indenting behavior enough
> to go out of my way to turn every indenting feature off i can find,
> but still i get surprises
>
Are you using one of the example .vimrc files? If so, I would recommend that
you go through and disable every feature unless you are sure you want it and
you know how it works. This way, you can get a 'cleaner' Vim without the bad
surprises. Many Vim features require time to learn, otherwise they are just
confusing and frustrating, so it's best to avoid them until you know how they
work.
regards,
Peter
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