textmate >> vim for python - teething troubles: especially indenting

Question

I'm (attempting) to move from textmate to vim [macvim to be exact] as my primary editor. I have already installed snipmate - wondering if there are other plugins you would suggest I install?

In particular I seem to be having a lot of trouble with indenting (<< seems to really do some very strange/unpredictable things), and I can't seem to find a solution for this - are there plugins I need for this to work properly?

Thanks!

Answer 1

For source code,

:h =

In a nutshell, in normal mode inside a block you wish to work with:

• =a{ to re-indent a block. =a} and =aB work as well.
• =2a{ to re-indent this block and its outer block.
• If you happen to stand on a brace then =% will re-indent up to the matching brace.
• >a{ to increase the indent of this block.
• <a{ to decrease the indent of this block.
• . repeats the last command, so <a{. decreases the indent of this block twice.

Make sure you have filetype set so Vim recognizes the filetype. Indenting is a function of the file type, after all.

For text,

:h gq

• gq{ will format this paragraph.
• gq( will format this sentence.
• gqgq will format this line.
• gggqG will format the entire document.

Answer 2

Set the filetype setting in your vimrc file

filetype plugin indent on

That should enable filetype plugins and automatic indentation

Answer 3

I am not sure what you need exactly as I have not used textmate. But I do use these Plugins for VIM. They have helped me a lot.