Tab key == 4 spaces and auto-indent after curly braces in Vim

Question

How do I make vi-Vim never use tabs (converting spaces to tabs, bad!), makes the tab key == 4 spaces, and automatically indent code after curly brace blocks like Emacs does?

Answer 1

The auto-indent is based on the current syntax mode. I know that if you are editing Foo.java, then entering a { and hitting Enter indents the following line.

As for tabs, there are two settings. Within Vim, type a colon and then "set tabstop=4" which will set the tabs to display as four spaces. Hit colon again and type "set expandtab" which will insert spaces for tabs.

You can put these settings in a .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows) in your home directory, so you only have to type them once.