Unfortunately the vim that ships with Mac OS X 10.5.* (Leopard ) doesn’t have an optimized configuration file to allow for syntax highlighting , auto indentation , etc.
To fix this, open a new Terminal window and enter these commands to open vim ’s configuration file:
cd /usr/share/vim sudo vim vimrc
Press the ‘i ‘ key to switch vim to Insertion Mode , then enter these lines below the ‘set backspace=2 ‘ line:
set ai " auto indenting set history=100 " keep 100 lines of history set ruler " show the cursor position syntax on " syntax highlighting set hlsearch " highlight the last searched term filetype plugin on " use the file type plugins " When editing a file, always jump to the last cursor position autocmd BufReadPost * / if ! exists("g:leave_my_cursor_position_alone") | / if line("'/"") > 0 && line ("'/"") <= line("$") | / exe "normal g'/"" | / endif | / endifPress the Escape key to take vim out of Insertion Mode , then press ‘: ‘ (colon ) followed by ‘x ‘ to save the file and exit. Enter this command again:
sudo vim vimrc… and you’ll see that vim now automatically indents code , displays the cursor position , has syntax highlighting , etc.