On Sep 7, 2007, at 7:09 PM, markd@macports.org wrote:

# -*- Mode: Tcl; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 4

-*- vim:et:sw=4:ts=4:sts=4


I have not had time to follow the thread, and I've found out that "soft

tabs" are tabs emulated with spaces.  But though some are obvious, can

someone explain what all the elements of the modeline do?  Are any current

ports using it?  This needs to be documented.


I constructed the modeline myself, so nothing's using it yet (except macports1.0/macports.tcl).

There's 2 parts. The first is the -*- stuff -*-, which is for emacs. The second starts with vim:

1st part:

Mode: Tcl
sets the emacs mode to Tcl

tab-width: 4
sets the tab width to 4

indent-tabs-mode: nil
use soft tabs (yeah, the name is weird)

c-basic-offset: 4
I don't know if this is necessary, but it declares the auto indent width as 4.

2nd part:


vim:
just the prefix that tells vim to use the rest of the line

et
Expand tabs, or use soft tabs

sw=4
shift width = 4, used with the auto indentation mechanism

ts=4
tabstop is 4

sts=4
soft tab stop is 4

-- 
Kevin Ballard
http://kevin.sb.org
eridius@macports.org
http://www.tildesoft.com