Setting Up Vim with Python 2/3 Support and Code Completion on Ubuntu 16.04

Configuring Vim as a fast, keyboard-driven Python IDE significantly boosts developer productivity. When following standard Vim Python configuration guides on Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus), several key adjustments are required to achieve clean PEP 8 indentation, accurate syntax highlighting, and YouCompleteMe code autocompletion.

Stack: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS • Vim 7.4 / 8.0 • Python PEP 8 indentation rules

1. Enforcing Clean PEP 8 Indentation

Add the following configuration to your ~/.vimrc to ensure 4-space indentations, soft tabs, and trailing whitespace highlighting:

" PEP 8 standard formatting for Python buffers
augroup python_indent
    autocmd!
    autocmd FileType python setlocal tabstop=4
    autocmd FileType python setlocal softtabstop=4
    autocmd FileType python setlocal shiftwidth=4
    autocmd FileType python setlocal textwidth=79
    autocmd FileType python setlocal expandtab
    autocmd FileType python setlocal autoindent
    autocmd FileType python setlocal fileformat=unix
augroup END

2. Installing YouCompleteMe on Ubuntu 16.04

Install prerequisite development libraries before compiling the YCM C-extension:

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake python-dev python3-dev -y
cd ~/.vim/bundle/YouCompleteMe
./install.py --clang-completer