Tip #248: Auto-save the current buffer periodically.

I have no  idea if this was implemented  in vim 5.3 or not,  but you can
definitely  do the  following  kludge  in 6.x  by  using CursorHold  and
localtime:

- When you  start reading a file,  set a buffer variable  to the current
  time:

  au BufRead,BufNewFile * let b:start_time=localtime()

- Set a  CursorHold event  to check  to see if  enough time  has elapsed
  since the last save and save if not:

  au CursorHold * call UpdateFile()

- Define a function to save the file if needed:

  " only write if needed and update the start time after the save
  function! UpdateFile()
    if ((localtime() - b:start_time) >= 60)
      update
      let b:start_time=localtime()
    else
      echo "Only " . (localtime() - b:start_time) . " seconds have elapsed so far."
    endif
  endfunction

- Reset the start time explicitly after each save.

  au BufWritePre * let b:start_time=localtime()

Obviously, you  should get rid of  the else portion once  you're certain
that this does indeed do what you wanted.

The  thing  to  note  is  that  the  CursorHold  will  only  fire  after
'updatetime' milliseconds  of inactivity have  elapsed. So, if  you type
rapidly for  one and  a half  minutes non-stop,  it won't  actually save
anything until you STOP activity long  enough. This may be what you want
anyway because it won't interrupt your activity with a forced save.

The actual save-delay can be changed from '60' to another number (in seconds) or a variable or anything like that.  This entire functionality can be easily wrapped inside a nice script which enables/disables this on a per-buffer basis (maybe with maps etc.).  If desired, I can provide that also.

<<Preexisting code indentation | C/C++: Quickly insert #if 0 - #endif around block of code >>

Additional Notes