I am looking for a vim plugin that could hide or shrink block comments. For example, a block comment would be something like this:

/* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function: void print(string s)
Descript: prints input string message to the standard output and if logging is enabled, writes the messages to the log file
Programmer: John Doe
Version: 0.0.1
Called By: int main(int argc, char* argv[])
Calls To:
Input: standard 128-key keyboard
Output: writes to similarity vector, color-frequencies array
Parameters:
Returns: true if there were no problems processing the images, false if there was a problem with the image dimensions.

0.0.1 06/14/2006 C.D.
Wrote the function
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */
void print(string s)
{
// code
}

I would like the plugin to make it look something like this:
/* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void print(string s)
{

This feature is available in Kdevelop and some other text editors that will shrink your blocks of code/comments. It's really quite handy. I often have to use vim to program on the console and this would be very useful to have available.

Does anyone know of such a vim plugin?

You don't need a plug-in, the feature is built-in. It's called folding, and folks have examples for folding comment blocks here.

Wow, thanks a lot of the information. I have got the folding working very well. I have just one more question.

Currenty, I can fold anything I have my cursor over and cause all folds to re-open in the document. Is there a way to everything in the document with standard comment patterns and { } fold automatically with a key command?

You can map the folding to an unused key, using the ':map' command. You can, of course, predefine the commands in your vim profile (~/.vimrc and ~/.gvimrc).

Here's another way...

:set foldmethod=marker
:set foldmarker=/*,*/

Now all block comments are folded, automatically.

That is great, but is there a way to bind that to a key and not have it happen on startup? Also, can it be done for braces '{,}'?

Replace the open/close comment markers with braces in the foldermarker to have it work for them. You can use the foldexpr to define multiple folds.

You can bind a key to the 'zi' command, to alternately open close all folds. For example:

:map q zi

Google on "vim fold" will find many examples and creative uses.

Thanks again for the help. Sorry to keep bothering you but I still cannot get the last bit of functionality that I want.

So, thus far I have got vim to fold either fold all comments on startup, but not allow me to manually unfold or fold things individually (though I can toggle on/off for all folds). Here is my current setup if I want to have everything folded automatically:

:set foldmethod=marker
:set foldmarker=/*,*/
:map f v%zf " manually close a fold
:map F zD " manually open a fold
:map <F3> zi " toggle open/close folds
:map <F4> zn " open all folds

Now with these settings, I cannot manually fold individual things but not cause everything in the document to fold on key command. This is what I would like to do...

:set foldmethod=marker
:set foldmarker=/*,*/
:map f v%zf " manually close a fold
:map F zD " manually open a fold
:map <F3> zi " toggle open/close folds
:map <F4> zn " open all folds