File Manager tab in vim

I'm very close to figuring this out, but can't seem to find the missing piece.

I have a pretty good vim set up for development. When doing MVC projects, I need multiple tabs open, and I've gotten pretty good at shifting between them and rearranging quickly.

I can even open a vertical tab with an interactive directory listing of my files.

What I really want and can't figure out:

1. To be able to have this vertical tab persistent, that is, in the "foreground" of all tabs, and allow me open a file into a new tab. (Basically, I want vim to have a sidepane that is a file manager and when i press enter on a selected file in the directory, it will open a new tab, but the "file manager/directory tab" will stay open, and in front.开发者_运维技巧

2. To set the persistent "file manager/directory tab" to be a specific width - ie :vsplit 32(pixels?)

Does that make sense? Can anyone point me to the right part of the help section for this?

Thanks, Kevin

Are you using NERDTree? If not, it might be the answer to your prayers.

You can set the width of the NERDTree window by putting this in your .vimrc:

let g:NERDTreeWinSize=32

For the benefit of anyone passing by, you should take a look at project. It took me a bit to figure it out, but you basically get a file browser on the lefthand side. It's up to you to manage the file list though, so you can apply filters, link to source/api docs, and omit what's not important. Of course it will automatically fill in the list, if you like. Very neat. It's a help page you have to sit down and read, but I like it.

You should also look at snipMate and surround if you love efficiency. I've been using vim for ten years and this is all new to me! Life changing! Now I have to quite fiddling with the interface and get some work done.