"learn about this with  :help new-filetype
if exists("did_load_filetypes")
	finish
endif
augroup filetypedetect
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.mine		setfiletype mine
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.xyz		setfiletype drawing
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.r,*.R		setfiletype r 
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.jnl		setfiletype ferret 
au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.gs 		setfiletype grads 
augroup END
"Note: this is what Brian has in .vim/filetype.vim
"The lines for r, ferret and grads are my additions.
"In my distribution, I already had an r.vim in /usr/share/vim/syntax,
"but the .R filetype was not recognized.
"I developed my own ferret.vim and grads.vim, which you can grab from my site,
"and drop into your .vim/syntax/