title: Vim | Trouble with 'showmode'
body: <p>Everything was working fine, until I forcibly closed Vim while editing my .vimrc file.  I also, not thinking straight, deleted the .vimrc.swp file.  So, I lost the changes, no big deal.  </p>
  
  <p>But now, Vim doesn't show the mode which I am currently in at the time.  Very annoying.  I only found one post saying something similar but no real solution. </p>
  
  <p>I have tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>:set showmode
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>while in a file, nothing happens.</p>
  
  <pre><code>set showmode
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in my .vimrc file, nothing happens - yes I saved, closed vim, even closed the terminal, still nothing.</p>
  
  <p>I also renamed .vimrc to important, just to make sure it wasn't something going on inside the file.  This also did not fix the issue.</p>
  
  <p>I even made sure my system was updated.  Still nothing.</p>
  
  <p>I will post my .vimrc here, nothing special or crazy, I don't think.  Any help would be appreciated.</p>
  
  <pre><code>syntax on
  set showmode
  set history=50
  set laststatus=2
  filetype plugin indent on
  filetype plugin on
  
  autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=80
  
  " set ruler on
  set ruler
  
  "set line break at blank char
  set showbreak=\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ "
  
  set linebreak 
  set wrap
  
  "set to not be completely Vi compatible
  set nocompatible
  
  "show line numbers
  set nu
  
  "search while typing
  set incsearch
  
  "hightlight search pattern
  set hlsearch
  
  "auto-index
  set autoindent
  
  set autowrite
  
  "set tab in normal mode to 4
  set shiftwidth=4
  
  "set tab to 4
  set tabstop=4
  
  set softtabstop=4
  
  set noexpandtab
  
  set textwidth=80
  
  "Remap keys: modes:
  "i insert mode
  
  "escape, exit insert move
  inoremap jk &lt;esc&gt;
  
  "quit without saving
  inoremap qq &lt;esc&gt;:q!&lt;return&gt;
  
  "save and quit
  inoremap ww &lt;esc&gt;:wq&lt;return&gt;
  
  "Shortcuts for C
  
  inoremap \io #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;&lt;CR&gt;&lt;CR&gt;&lt;CR&gt;//Main Function&lt;cr&gt;int main(int argc, char* argv[])&lt;CR&gt;{&lt;CR&gt;&lt;CR&gt;&lt;TAB&gt;return 0;&lt;cr&gt;}
  
  "Shortcuts for Rails
  
  inoremap \c &lt;div class="code"&gt;&lt;cr&gt;&lt;cr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  
  inoremap \p &lt;span class="prompt"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;
  
  "n normal
  
  "redo last undo
  "nnoremap re &lt;c-r&gt; 
  
  "quit without saving
  nnoremap qi :q!&lt;return&gt;
  
  "colon instead of semi-colon
  "nnoremap ; :
  
  "save
  "nnoremap ww :w&lt;return&gt;
  
  "save and quit
  "nnoremap wq :wq&lt;return&gt;
  
  "move to beginning of line
  nnoremap fj 0
  
  "move to end of line
  nnoremap fk $
  
  "move down one page
  "nnoremap '' &lt;c-f&gt;
  
  "switch to window on left
  nnoremap \w &lt;c-w&gt;
  
  "switch to window on right
  "nnoremap wl &lt;c-w&gt;l
  
  "v visual
  "exit visual mode
  vnoremap jk &lt;esc&gt;
  
  "c command
  "highlight Normal ctermbg=Black
  "highlight Comment ctermbg=DarkGray
  "highlight Constant ctermbg=Blue
  "highlight NonText ctermbg=Black
  "highlight Special ctermbg=DarkMagenta
  highlight Cursor ctermfg=White
  
  syntax enable
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I even left all the comments in there just for the sake of completion.  Thanks</p>