echo set ts=3 > ~/.vimrc
echo "Toggle search highlighting on and off with F5 >> ~/.vimrc
echo map "<F5> : set hls\!<bar>set hsl?<CR>" >> ~/.vimrc
Everything else is gravy for me. While an extended rc is handy and I often store one where I can get to it, if I'm just editing a couple of files, vanilla + the tab size I want and a shortcut to highlighting search terms gets me going. YMMV
I tried to get into emacs, but I kept coming back to vim. Probably because the first editor I really used was a version of 'ed' back when I played MUDs.