VIM comment hashtag error?

Question

I thought that text editors like vim took the # to indicate a comment and pass over those lines.

Here's the content of my ~/.vimrc file:

# Testing comments
set nocompatible

# Testing comments
set number

But when I run vim, I get this:

Error detected while processing /home/user/.vimrc:

line 1:
E488: Trailing characters: # Testing comments
line 4:
E488: Trailing characters: # Testing comments

When I remove the comment lines it works fine, but I should like to be able to add comments to my text files without it fouling things up. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Also, I read that I shouldn't use """, as this isn't really commenting. That and it is also for blocks.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:31

4

vim doesn't use # for comments; it uses quotation marks. Your .vimrc should read

" Testing comments
set nocompatible

" Testing comments
set number

By your comment regarding """, it seems you are confusing Python comments with Vim comments.

answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:31

chepner

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"*confusing Python comments with Vim comments*" ... not to mention confusing Python strings with Python comments. – Robᵩ Oct 16 '13 at 17:38
I got really confused when someone used hash comments in their vimrc from [this question](http://stackoverflow.com/q/1218390/266535). Thanks for clearing that up. – styfle Nov 08 '13 at 21:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:31

1

in .vimrc to write comments you have to use " your files would look like

" Testing comments
set nocompatible

" Testing comments
set number

answered Oct 16 '13 at 17:31

Frederic Close

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VIM comment hashtag error?

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