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tpope
vim-sensible
Vim Script2013–2025
tpope / vim-sensible

vim-sensible

sensible.vim: Defaults everyone can agree on

17Distinct people
21Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
5.3KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

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What it is

sensible.vim: Defaults everyone can agree on

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

I would recommend against starting with someone else's pimped out configs and go with something more conservative. Tim Pope's sensible.vim is a good starting point. It has…

exDM69 used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:02:05 AM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year21 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2013-01-07 04:48:22 UTC to 2025-10-11 15:59:49 UTC.

012342013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20132014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

3 sources
I made the switch to vim a few years ago. You'll want to start with learning the keybindings. Every major IDE and editor out there has a "vim mode" and an "emacs mode" so pick one you like and enable it. Whenever you need to move more quickly just switch back to your usual keybindings and get it done. Once you have the keybindings memorized, try to use them everywhere. There are browser plugins like vimium that let you navigate with vim keybindings for example. It gets a bit weirder from there. If you pick vim for example theres a whole lot of customization rabbit holes you can go down. My advice is to find some sensible defaults and layer in stuff as you need it from there. vim-sensible[0] is a good start. Good luck! [0] - https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible
In Ask HN: How to become good at Emacs/Vim?
See also `:h defaults.vim-explained` (https://vimhelp.org/usr_05.txt.html#05.3) which now comes by default. You can either copy the settings you are interested in or source it entirely in your vimrc file: source $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim --- Here's some more related resource links: * stackoverflow: useful .vimrc tips - (https://stackoverflow.com/q/164847/4082052) * vi.stackexchange: How do I debug my vimrc file? - (https://vi.stackexchange.com/q/2003/1616) * vim-sensible - (https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible) * minimal vimrc for new users - (https://gist.github.com/benmccormick/4e4bc44d8135cfc43fc3) * Vim Configuration From Scratch - (https://marcgg.com/blog/2016/03/01/vimrc-example) * vimconfig: generate `.vimrc` by selecting options - (https://vimconfig.com/)
In Vim – Minimal Setup Explained
While the information in there is good, a bunch of the settings are now redundant¹. The ones that jumped out to me were esckeys, ruler and showcmd. Not that I'm saying you can't — or shouldn't — re-set options, just that the linked documentation is a little dated. FWIW, I personally re-set a couple of default options mostly so that I have a point of reference for how an option works when I'm digging about in my config. I'm of the opinion that the combination of recent vim and Tim Pope's sensible.vim² is The Minimal Setup™. ¹ The site says the last update was 2014, and back then $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim wasn't a thing for example(7.4.2111). ² https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible
In Vim – Minimal Setup Explained

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