Vim: highlight word wrap column in insert mode ◰ « Recursive Sum
» Queue Zero

2016-06-09 13:07
Code: vim
No comments

I like vim’s colorcolumn for highlighting where word wrap will occur, but I consider it a distraction when I’m not in insert mode. After some tinkering, I wrote this in my .vimrc:


" highlight textwidth column in insert mode
highlight ColorColumn ctermbg=0*
function! HighlightOn()
if &textwidth > 0
" the +1 feature in the 'colorcolumn' docs doesn't work for me
let &colorcolumn=&textwidth + 1
else
let &colorcolumn=""
endif
endfunction
autocmd InsertEnter * :call HighlightOn()
autocmd InsertLeave * let &colorcolumn=""


That note about +1 is me working around a bug. I should be able to just write:


" highlight textwidth column in insert mode
highlight ColorColumn ctermbg=0*
autocmd InsertEnter * let &colorcolumn=+1
autocmd InsertLeave * let &colorcolumn=""


Unfortunately, some tweak or plugin breaks this feature for me. I wrote this workaround rather than diagnose and fix it properly because the process just seemed too tedious.