vim settings / tricks i use

Here are some settings i personally use.
I will extend this post as soon as discover more.

/etc/vimrc

syntax on (syntax highlighting)
set number (line numbers)
set keywordprg=perldoc\ -f (shift-k opens perldoc for item under cursor )

to be continued

Extended bash tab completion

Just install the package "bash-completion" in archlinux und you will get extended tab completion for the following programs: http://wklej.org/id/808581

*edit: Make sure  "/etc/bash.bashrc" is up-to-date otherwise it may not work.

Even tab completion for rsync and scp remote files structures works now.

Bash prompt shortener

Add this to your ~/.bashrc

# Bash shortener
_PS1 ()
{
    local PRE= NAME="$1" LENGTH="$2";
    [[ "$NAME" != "${NAME#$HOME/}" || -z "${NAME#$HOME}" ]] &&
        PRE+='~' NAME="${NAME#$HOME}" LENGTH=$[LENGTH-1];
    ((${#NAME}>$LENGTH)) && NAME="/...${NAME:$[${#NAME}-LENGTH+4]}";
    echo "$PRE$NAME"
}

PS1=' \[\e[0m\]\u\[\e[0;32m\]@\[\e[0m\]\h \[\e[0;32m\]$(_PS1 "$PWD" 30) \[\e[0m\]$ '

It will shorten the path in your bash prompt to 30 chars.

Start applications with the default app from console

Its as simple as. Add this to your ~/.bashrc

alias open='nohup xdg-open >/dev/null 2>&1'

 Now you can start, for example a textfile, like this "open textfile.txt". Because of nohop in the alias you can even close the console session and the text editor stays open.

Eclipse shortcuts

Ctrl + d = delete line
Alt + up = current line up
Ctrl + Alt + Up = Copy current line
F3 = open declaration
Ctrl + shift + G = Find all references
Ctrl + 1 = Quick fix popup
Ctrl + i = fixes indent
Alt + shift + R = rename variable

Ctrl + shift + f = format code

"syso" & Ctrl + space = System.out.println("");
"main" & Ctrl + space = public static void main(String[] args){}

Increase sudo timeout

There are two relevant values:

passwd_timeout  Number of minutes before the sudo password prompt times out, or 0 for no timeout.  The timeout may include a fractional component if minute granularity is insufficient, for example 2.5.  The default is 5.

timestamp_timeout Number of minutes that can elapse before sudo will ask for a passwd again.  The timeout may include a fractional component if minute granularity is insufficient, for example 2.5.  The default is 5.  Set this to 0 to always prompt for a password.  If set to a value less than 0 the user's timestamp will never expire.  This can be used to allow users to create or delete their own timestamps via sudo -v and sudo -k respectively.

I find i quit annoying when the prompt times out or you have to type in the password to often.

This are my values:

Defaults timestamp_timeout=30
Defaults passwd_timeout=0

Add them to your sudo conf with visudo.

More speed (responsiveness) for the linux desktop

Ram and file system cache:

vm.swappiness=20
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
more info

Preload most used applications/libs:

preload 
more info

Mounting /tmp to RAM

add this to your fstab:

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodev,nosuid,mode=1777 0 0

more info

BFS Kernel

There is a set of kernel patches that increases the responsiveness of the linux desktop. This is not limited to archlinux btw.

There are two main ways to get it on archlinux:
Build it from AUR: yaourt -S linux-ck

Or us a repository with precompiled packages:

[repo-ck]
Server = http://repo-ck.com/$arch

more info