Re: [vile] Some issues/features

[Paul van Tilburg]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 10:23:53AM +0100, Chris G wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 10:53:57AM +0200, Paul van Tilburg wrote:
> > 1. Reformatting in bulleted lists.
> > 
> > I often write a paragraph for some list item as follows:
> > 
> >   * This is a nice piece of text in a bulleted list
> >     and this is the next line and there is even more
> >     on the next line but that doesn't really matter.
> > 
> > But when I try to reformat the region using ^A-f, I get:
> > 
> >   * This is a nice piece of text in a bulleted list and this is the next
> >     * line and there is even more on the next line but that doesn't
> >     * really matter.
> > 
> > This is not really what I want.  [...]
>
> Personally I never understood the logic of a row of asterisks at the
> LHS of a comment block in C.  As far as I'm concerned a comment block
> should be:-
> 
> /*
> 
>     This is a comment
>     With some more comments
>     and even more
> */

There is no logic to it, I think, it's just a convention.  Also without
syntax highlighting it is more clear if you have the repeated asterisks,
for example when a long comment is cut by the viewport starting halfway. 

> Reformatting from 'outside' the comment block should leave it
> completely alone, reformatting inside treats it as normal text (which
> is exactly what it is).

I have found out that even:

 # <a long line>
   <another long line>

is reformatted too

 # <a long line>
   # <another long line>

which is even weirder, shell-comment-style-convention-wise. :)

> > 2. The wrapmargin/fillcol settings.
> > 
> > [...]
>
> I used to use wrapmargin to limit my E-Mails to 72 columns but now
> (for some good reason that I can't remember, it was discussed here a
> *long* time ago) I use fillcol=70 and wrapmargin=0.  

But, if wrapmargin is set to 0, no wrapping is applied while you type,
right?  At least, not for me, I have just tried it.  I always have to
reformat afterwards in this case.

> This works OK in general except for the actual way that vile moves the
> text - it waits for a space after a word before moving it to the next
> line.  I'd really prefer to have the word moved as soon as it goes
> past 70 columns. 

Yes, I've accepted this as a vileism long ago already.
More so, if it goes past 70 columns it wraps.  But what if you go up a
line and add a word of 8 characters.  It can go over the threshold.

I actually abuse this quirk if I want to make a wrap exception
by just inserting text in between before the 70th column so it doesn't
trigger a wrap action because I don't press space after the 70th
column.  I do hate myself for it. :P

Paul

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