Vim has the ftplugin (filetype plugin), which makes this easy as pie, and extremely configurable, too. You simply set filetype plugin on then put configu

Vim has the ftplugin (filetype plugin), which makes this easy as pie, and extremely configurable, too. You simply set filetype plugin on then put configuration files for a filetype into ~/.vim/ftplugin/$filetype.vim (for example, python.vim, text.vim or even gitcommit.vim). Within those, you can do things like setting expandtab or the tab/shift width - they are full local subconfigurations which override your global configuration. They are usually not very large (5 lines on average for me), but it sure helps keep things organized and easy to find and change.