Make Vim look good

Overview

> For this step, it's best if you have iTerm2 on OS X or mobaXterm on
> Windows. If you're using Linux, I'll leave it up to you to choose a
> sensible terminal emulator.
>
> This step is also really long. Here's a TL;DR:

1. Change your terminal's preferences to use Solarized
2. Install a patched font
3. Make the appropriate changes to your vimrc
4. Uncomment the line with `g:airline_powerline_fonts`

In addition, depending on your machine, you may want to see the
Troubleshooting section at the end.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Solarized

To make Vim look good, you can install extra color schemes. For the
purposes of this demo, I've chosen two: Solarized (the most widely used
color scheme) and Molokai (a port of the Textmate/Sublime color scheme).
Feel free to pick one by changing the

    colorscheme solarized

line to something else.

Solarized is a special kind of color scheme. For it to work properly,
you need to make changes in two places:

- Your ~/.vimrc
- Your terminal emulator's preferences (like iTerm2, MobaXterm, etc.)

For macOS, I recommend using iTerm2, and for Windows, I recommend
MobaXterm. If you're using one of these terminals, you already have
Solarized installed; you just need to select it from your preferences.
Otherwise, install a Solarized theme for your terminal emulator:

    http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized

If you can't figure out how to do this for your terminal, just uncomment
the line that says

    let g:solarized_termcolors=256

Note that Solarized is one of many great colorschemes; feel free to
explore and find one you love!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patched Fonts

We're also installing a plugin called vim-airline that makes Vim look
pretty awesome. It adds tons of information to your Vim and adds style
too. It works best if you have what's called a "patched font". There are
a number of patched fonts that you can install, but the one I recommend
is

    https://github.com/abertsch/Menlo-for-Powerline

Once you've downloaded all the .ttf files, change your default font in
your terminal emulator's preferences.

If you do manage to install a patched font, you can tell vim-airline to
use them by uncommenting the line that reads

    let g:airline_powerline_fonts = 1

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Troubleshooting

If you make all the changes here and nothing seems to be working, check
that you have this line in your ~/.bashrc:

    export TERM="xterm-256color"

> Update (2016-11-12):
>
> Betewen when I first gave this talk and now Windows announced the
> Windows Subsystem for Linux. I've heard that it is actually very good.
> Unfortunately, I've never used it and so I can't attest to how well it
> works or what instructions prescribed here need to be adjusted.

Setting up Solarized and vim-airline is basically impossible on PuTTY.
Instead, you should go download mobaXterm, which is an SSH client that
lets you a) comes pre-installed with Solarized colors and b) lets you
choose a patched font:

    http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

For detailed installation instructions and a sneak peak at some of it's
more powerful features, see here

    http://blog.jez.io/2014/09/28/setting-up-mobaxterm-for-ssh-on-windows/

And while once upon a time I managed to get a patched font working with
MobaXterm, I haven't managed to get it to work since. Your mileage may
vary.

Author: jez

vimrc.vim

@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@ call vundle#begin()
 
 Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'
 
+" ----- Making Vim look good ------------------------------------------
+Plugin 'altercation/vim-colors-solarized'
+Plugin 'tomasr/molokai'
+Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline'
+Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline-themes'
+
 call vundle#end()
 
 filetype plugin indent on
@@ -23,3 +29,37 @@ set hlsearch
 syntax on
 
 set mouse=a
+
+" ----- Plugin-Specific Settings --------------------------------------
+
+" ----- altercation/vim-colors-solarized settings -----
+" Toggle this to "light" for light colorscheme
+set background=dark
+
+" Uncomment the next line if your terminal is not configured for solarized
+"let g:solarized_termcolors=256
+
+" Set the colorscheme
+colorscheme solarized
+
+
+" ----- bling/vim-airline settings -----
+" Always show statusbar
+set laststatus=2
+
+" Fancy arrow symbols, requires a patched font
+" To install a patched font, run over to
+"     https://github.com/abertsch/Menlo-for-Powerline
+" download all the .ttf files, double-click on them and click "Install"
+" Finally, uncomment the next line
+"let g:airline_powerline_fonts = 1
+
+" Show PASTE if in paste mode
+let g:airline_detect_paste=1
+
+" Show airline for tabs too
+let g:airline#extensions#tabline#enabled = 1
+
+" Use the solarized theme for the Airline status bar
+let g:airline_theme='solarized'
+