This lil post is about a single setting in Vim that you’ll see in just about every modern .vimrc.
set nocompatible
“nocompatible” is a mode that I feel most aren’t familiar with, which is seeded in a lack of knowledge on the history of Vim.
Vim stands for Vi (Improved). Essentially all that means is Vim has modern tech built into it, Vi is antiquated and wonky.
Would anyone still prefer vi?
Realistically, they shouldn’t. But plenty of people will have to work with vi day to day, just because their OS or shell can’t (or won’t) run Vi(m).
So set nocompatible is described as such in the Vim docs:
This option has the effect of making Vim either more
Vi-compatible, or make Vim behave in a more useful way.
You can see all of the the options related to nocompatible here.
Just wanted to illuminate the meaning behind something I see in every .vimrc (including mine), yet most people don’t bother to look up.