vimvi

Show 'space' character via listchars only for leading spaces


Is it possible in Vim to have my editor (when editing .c and .h files), show via listchars, a special character only for leading space characters?

I found a separate post that noted, as of version 7.4, Vim now supports highlighting all space characters via listchars. Here's my current listchars variable:

set list listchars=tab:>-,trail:.,extends:>,precedes:<,space:.

And here is a render of how it appears on my screen:

This it appear on my screen

However, I would like it to appear like so (below), where only leading spaces are rendered via listchars, and spaces occurring after indentation-related spaces are not rendered. ie:

The desired behaviour

Is there a simple way to accomplish this, either via color scheme or .vimrc changes?


Image diff in case the difference isn't obvious due to low contrast:

Image diff in case the difference isn't obvious due to low contrast


Solution

  • I don't think that linechars will help you, but this highlight might help:

    highlight WhiteSpaceBol guibg=lightgreen
    match WhiteSpaceBol /^ \+/
    

    Change the color scheme for whatever you like best.

    If you insist on having the fancy · you can get them with a bit of a hack:

    set listchars=space:·
    highlight WhiteSpaceBol guifg=blue
    highlight WhiteSpaceMol guifg=white
    match WhiteSpaceMol / /
    2match WhiteSpaceBol /^ \+/
    

    Now, only the starting · are visible! (change the white for whatever color you use as background and blue with the color of your choice).

    NOTE: If you use the console Vim, replace (or add) guibg with ctermbg and the proper colors.