[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> My issue with tabbing is that since actual source coding starts in
> card column 12 and tabs generally occur every 4 columns there after
> (16, 20, 24, 28, etc.).  The problem is that, since the cursor starts
> in column 1 instead of column 0 and assuming a tab width of 4 columns,
> pressing the tab key advances the cursor from column 1 to column 5, 9,
> 13, 17, 21, 25, etc.
> 
> This tabbing behavior causes me to tab “almost” to where I need to be
> then add sufficient individual spaces to get to where I need to be.
> Backspacing causes a similar action to be used namely backspacing
> (which moves back an amount equivalent to a tab width) then once again
> adding sufficient individual spaces to get to where I need to be.  It
> would seem that if the tab action was 0-relative instead of 1 the
> tabbing activity would result in cursor arriving at the desired column
> without additional space characters.
> 
> Question 1:
> How do I change the cobol.vim file to start tabbing from a 0-relative
> position instead of the current 1-relative location?

Yuck. That's horrible. I don't think you can easily do it with standard
Vim. You could write a bunch of maps/functions to implement it, I think.
But easier would be to dig up Matthew Winn's variable tabstops patch
which was posted to vim_dev a while back and use it to do what you want.
Make the first tabstop 11 spaces and then 4 spaces after that (or 7 or 3
and then 4, I suppose; whatever works best).

:set vts=11,4

The patch is here, and a useful helper function for automatically
setting variable tabstops based on tabular data.

http://groups.google.com/group/vim_dev/msg/039495cd5b0f4fd0
http://groups.google.com/group/vim_dev/msg/2d10cc523c98ded7

To use the patch you need to compile Vim yourself, though, of course.
Still, it's well worth it. It's a great patch, and I've had no problems
with it (all my Vims--and I have two or three of them--are compiled with
the patch, and get pretty heavy use).

Note to whoever maintains the Vim patches page: it currently links to an
older version of the variable tabstop patch. The most recent one and the
AutoTabs command/function that goes with it are at the links above.
Could the page be updated, please?

Cheers,

Ben.





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