set nocompatible            " disable compatibility to old-time vi
set ignorecase              " case insensitive 
set mouse=v                 " middle-click paste with 
set incsearch               " incremental search
set tabstop=4               " number of columns occupied by a tab 
set softtabstop=4           " see multiple spaces as tabstops so <BS> does the right thing
set shiftwidth=4            " width for autoindents
filetype plugin indent on   "allow auto-indenting depending on file type
syntax on                   " syntax highlighting