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- Moving to Native Configuration Using Vim 8.x
Moving to Native Configuration Using Vim 8.x
![screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-7.35.42-pm-2](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/4cd38d6e-2ac1-44d3-8057-e786d9f3bcea/Screen-Shot-2017-01-03-at-7.35.42-PM-2.png)
For a long time I’ve been all about some Pathogen and Powerline. The former gave me decent plugin management (of which I had about 20), and Powerline is a Python-based status bar for Vim, which gives a nice…well, status bar at the bottom of your files.
But I just redid my laptop and my Vim config along with it. I’ve been waiting to do it for a long time.
With the update I did three major things:
Moved to Vim 8.x (compiled from source since Homebrew don’t play that).
Moved to the new (Vim 8.x) native plugin management.
Changed my status bar to Vim-Airline.
Changed my terminal font to Source Code Powerline (part of a family of fonts that look absolutely sick in cli interfaces).
![screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-7.45.55-pm](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/afa39788-b6be-491a-83d9-6e82a88f72ed/Screen-Shot-2017-01-03-at-7.45.55-PM.png)
The post I used to set up my new plugin structure is here (love the typography on that site by the way), and then it was just a matter of spending 5 hours messing with options.
I’ve gone from ~20 Vim plugins to around 5, and I’ll be doing a separate post on which those are and what I like about them. I also have on my list to go line by line through my .vimrc file and eliminate anything I no longer remember, understand, or care about.
The game for me is having a trim, optimized, and super-efficient Vim setup that makes me happy inside. And every few years I have to go through this process to get there again.
Feels good.
Next steps are:
Deep cleaning of .vimrc
A post on my remaining plugins and why I like them
Maybe some 30 second videos showing off the features of the plugins and how they can be used together
If you’re a Vim nerd as well, hit me up and we’ll swap configs.