" Save the shift keystroke with these mappings
:map ; :
:map q; q:

    " Preferred backspace behavior
set backspace=2

set expandtab        " expand tabs - replace tabs with spaces

    " Behavior of shift, tabs, and indent
            " shiftwidth, not tabstop, controls program indentation, and smarttab
            " causes entering tabs at the start of a line to enter shiftwidth chars.
            " It also causes backspaces at the start of a line to backup over shiftwidth 
            " chars
set tabstop=4       " 8 is too much 

set shiftwidth=4     " 8 is too much
set smarttab         " Enters shiftwidth spaces at line start when tab entered
set softtabstop=4
set shiftround       " indents are rounded to multiples of shiftwidth

    " Behavior of Searching
set ignorecase    " Ignore case when searching
set smartcase     "    but, if case is used in the pattern, DON'T ignore it

    " Recognize syntax of programs and display appropriately
            " Switch on syntax highlighting (load syntax file from syntax dir) 
            " syntax enable and syntax on both set up syntax, but enable keeps the 
            " user's color settings.  syntax on uses the default color settings
:syntax enable

    " Recognize filetypes and respond appropriately
            " Load indent files (from indent dir) based on file type.
            " Turns filetype on and enables loading indent/plugin files 
            "    when the filetype is detected and an indent/plugin file exists
filetype indent on
    " Load plugin files (from ftplugin dir) based on file type
filetype plugin on

    "Automatically writes buffer when do ;make, ;next, etc
set autowrite 

set nobackup      " backup files are useful, but they create clutter

" Filetype indent on gives indent in programs 
            " and this gives it in other files
set ai                   " autoindent 

set wrap                 " wrap lines that are too long
set wrapmargin=6         " wrap 6 characters from the end

set ruler             " Show line and column numbers, as well as percent of file
set showcmd           " show partial command in status line