How can I set gvim's window width to 80 columns of text, plus the ones needed to show the line number

Question

I use gvim with

set number

in my .vimrc so it shows the linenumber, plus a space, before every line.

If the document has less than 10 lines, this takes 2 columns, If it has more than 10, 3 columns and so on.

If I put

set lines=40 columns=80

in .gvimrc, it will show 78 columns of code and 2 for the linenumber plus pace, or 77 + 3 and so on.

I'd like the window width to be set to 80 columns + whatever number of columns are necessary to show the linenumber.

It doesn't need to be dynamic, but I'd like to be able to read the number of lines of a given file and set columns according. (Of course, a dynamic solution would be really neat, but not essential)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Try this in your ~/.vimrc:

au BufRead * let &numberwidth = float2nr(log10(line("$"))) + 2
          \| let &columns = &numberwidth + 80

Every time you load a buffer (i.e., open a file), that will determine the number of columns required to show the largest line number, set the 'numberwidth' option accordingly, and set 'columns' to that number plus 80 for your text.

Answer 2

I use

set lines=24 columns=84

in my $HOME/.gvimrc which gives me what you want. I rarely (if ever) have files that are longer the 999 lines so it works for me.