Setting Vim whitespace preferences by filetype

Question

At my work, I am required to follow the house style for indentation, which goes as follows:

• 2 spaces when coding html and ruby
• tabs when coding javasc

Answer 1

To insert space characters whenever the tab key is pressed, set the 'expandtab' option:

:set expandtab

Next step is to control the number of space characters that will be inserted when the tab key is pressed, set the 'tabstop' option. For example, to insert 2 space for a tab, use:

:set tabstop=2

ref: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Converting_tabs_to_spaces