Hanging operators in Vim

Is there a way to have hanging operators when indenting with tabs in Vim? For instance, if I have code:

class some_class
{
<tab>some_class();
<tab>~some_class();
};

I want it to look like this:

class some_class
{
        some_class();
       ~some_class();
};

The question is about the appearance of whitespace, not its composition. So, abbreviations and indentation rules would not do.

From stackoverflow

• I'm not sure I understand the concept of "hanging operator" but it seems you would like to substitute your tabs with spaces.

  You can set the expandtab and tabstop options:

  :set expandtab
  :set tabstop=8
  

  That will expand any new tab characters you type into 8 spaces.

  To apply the tab-expansion to existing tabs in your file, use the retab command:

  :retab
  

  Don Reba : No, I do not want to substitute tabs with spaces. Rather, I want a better visual representation of tabs. There are many instances when this would make code more readable. The term comes from typography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_punctuation

• I think he's asking if the ~ will move backwards one space if vim can detect that it's an operator, thereby "hanging" the ~ to the left of the some_class().

  The answer as far as I know is it might be possible, but won't be easy. Insert-mode abbreviations are always patchy, and more complex solutions are...well more complex.

  Unless you really need this behaviour, I don't think it's worth the effort.

  EDIT:

  I think I get what you're saying. In which case I can say with reasonable certainty that what you're asking is not possible. You cannot change how vim displays text that is indented by tabs and happens to start with an operator that you want hanging off the left margin. That simply will not work. Vim is set up to display text as-is, you can't change it to suit a typographical style without changing the source code, which I doubt you'll want to do.

  Don Reba : Just to reiterate, the question is about indentation with tabs, not spaces. Besides, abbreviations can't condition on whitespace.

  sykora : I think I understand a bit better, I'll update my answer.

  Don Reba : Well. There is 'tabstop'. But, I strongly suspect you are right.

• It seems like you would have to write your own indent file for this, examples of which are in $VIMRUNTIME/indent. But like sykora says, that probably is not worth the effort.

  Don Reba : If I understand correctly, indenting rules determine which characters to use for indentation, but have nothing to do with their appearance.

  Peter van der Heijden : That's correct. I either missed your remark about just wanting the text appear indented or it wasn't there when I replied.

• I think what you want is called "autoindent". See :help ai

  'autoindent' 'ai'   boolean (default off)
        local to buffer
      Copy indent from current line when starting a new line (typing <CR>
      in Insert mode or when using the "o" or "O" command).  If you do not
      type anything on the new line except <BS> or CTRL-D and then type
      <Esc>, CTRL-O or <CR>, the indent is deleted again.  Moving the cursor
      to another line has the same effect, unless the 'I' flag is included
      in 'cpoptions'.
      When autoindent is on, formatting (with the "gq" command or when you
      reach 'textwidth' in Insert mode) uses the indentation of the first
      line.
      When 'smartindent' or 'cindent' is on the indent is changed in
      a different way.
      The 'autoindent' option is reset when the 'paste' option is set.
      {small difference from Vi: After the indent is deleted when typing
      <Esc> or <CR>, the cursor position when moving up or down is after the
      deleted indent; Vi puts the cursor somewhere in the deleted indent}.
  

  Don Reba : What I am asking has more to do with things like 'tabstop', which affect appearance of indentation.