...Rather than dumping all plugins directly into the same directories, Pathogen encourages you to install each plugin into its own subdirectory (for example under ~/.vim/bundle/), and then it automatically adds those directories into Vim’s runtimepath. This makes upgrades, removals and organization of plugins far easier and more robust. It also supports “infecting” arbitrary directory patterns, so you can keep your plugin directories wherever you like and still have them load seamlessly. While Vim 8 and newer include native “packages” support, Pathogen remains valued for its simplicity and for backward compatibility with older Vim versions. The README emphasises minimal fuss: once execute pathogen#infect() is in your vimrc, you can clone plugin repositories and they just work. ...