1   General remarks

vi (vim) resides in: /usr/share/vim/current (vim_root).

Syntax definitions are in vim_root/syntax/*.vim files. Linking file types to extensions is done in vim_root/ftdetect/*.vim. (The the star denotes the extension and would be replaced with map to define highlighting of Mapserver config files).

2   Installation

The installation process requires two steps:

1. Copy the map.vim syntax file to the syntax directory

   Copy map.vim to the vim syntax directory (on Suse: /usr/share/vim/current/syntax)

2. Register the syntax file in the custom filetype directory

   If absent, create a new directory called ftdetect in vim_root (on Suse Linux: /usr/share/vim/current). Create a new file called map.vim in ftdetect according to the example shown below:

   " Mapserver config file
   au BufNewFile,BufRead *.map         setf map
   

Now restart vim and open a map file ....

3   Closing Remarks

The keywords are based on the TextPad Symbol Map_40.syn file contributed by Christopher Thorne, which can also be found on the Mapserver utility page. I hope the file is somehow useful to anybody out there. If there are any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.