Introductions

I made this repository to study how to use Neovim.

Neovim

• Neovim is a text editor tool that supports advanced functions through lots of plugins.
• The shortcut keys are the same as Vim, but can be customized through key mappings.

Nvim Start

Install Neovim

Home-Neovim

# Open tutorial
:help nvim

# Open Neovim
nvim

• Version: 0.10.1

Plugin Manager

• vim-plugin
• lazy.nvim
• etc.

Folder Tree

• Windows
  • AppData/Local/nvim/
    • config/
    • plugins/
    • utils/
• Linux
  • ~/.configs/nvim/
    • config/
    • plugins/
    • utils/
• Mac

Major Plugins

• indent-blankline

  • Indent guides for Neovim

• autopairs

  • Autopairs for Neovim

• comment

  • Comment for Neovim
  • Normal mode
    • gcc: Toggles current line comment
    • {count} gcc: Toggles given the number of lines comment
    • gcb: Toggle current block comment
  • Visual mode
    • gc: Toggle current line comment
    • gb: Toggle current block comment

• markdown

  • Markdown Viewer for Neovim
  • For Latex,pylatexenc and latex parser for tree-sitter are required.
    • pylatexenc can be installed with pip or conda
    • latex parser can be installed with :TSInstall latex
      • For this, you need tree-sitter-cli. If your OS is Windows, you can install tree-sitter-cli following command.
        • npm install g tree-sitter-cli

• obsidian

  • Obsidian plugin for Neovim
  • Before you start this plugin, please set the default vaults for obsidian.
    • In my case, I made ~/vaults/obsi/ for default directory.

• lualine

  • Statusline plugin for Neovim

• neo-tree

  • Manage the file system with tree structures for Neovim
  • Basically, it can handle three sources. One is a "file system", another is a "buffers", which is a list of recently used files, and the other is a "git status".
  • The "file system" gives you the same functionality as Windows Explorer.
  • The "buffers" allows you to view and move recently used and opened files at a glance.
    • If you want to move quickly between buffers, I recommend setting keymp ":bp<CR>" and ":bn<CR>" to something.
    • In my case, I set both to "<C-left>" and "<C-right>" respectively.
  • The "git-status" provides the convenience of performing "git add/git commit/git push/git rever/ etc."
    • If you need basic git functionality, you don't need to install any other plugins for neovim.

• telescope

  • Find, Filter, Preview, Pick for Neovim
  • To use telescope well, you should have a program called ripgrep
  • Major functions
    • Find Files
    • Find strings (Live grep)
    • Find words under cursor (Find word)
    • Find buffers (buffers)
    • Find helper (Help)
  • Support Quickfix
    • You don't need to memorize all positions you found.
    • You can select a list of location in "Live grep" using "Tab"
    • If you choose, "+" mark will be annotated in front of selected list.
    • <Ctl-q>: Add all itmes to Quickfixlist
    • <Alt-q>: Add selected items to Quickfixlist

• treesitter

  • Provide the syntax highlight for Neovim

• noice

  • Provide messages,cmdline and the popupmenu for Neovim
  • "Noice" is good plugin but I prefer not to use it. So I remvoed it.

• git-stuff

  • Git wrapper for Neovim
  • Provide straightforward interface for Git in Neovim

• LSP Zero:

  • Collection of LSP packages with lazy
  • lsp-zero is the collection of LSP packages, which is analyzing your code to tell you what to do.
  • The collections are as follows:
    • Neovim - LSPconfig (nvim-lspconfig): Bridges Neovim with LSPconfig
    • Mason - LSPconfig (mason-lspconfig): Bridges Mason with LSPconfig
    • Mason (mason): LSP pacakge manager for Neovim
      • Language Server Protocol (LSP):
        • lua-language-server
        • markdown-oxide
        • pyright
        • ruff
        • fortls
    • Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP):
      • debugpy
    • Linter: Check the code and provide hints on how to correct the detected problems.
    • Formatter: Provide uniform coding style
      • stylua
      • fprettify
    • Luasnip
      • Snippet engine for Neovim
      • It is a snippet engine written with lua.

• cmp

  • Auto CoMPletion plugin for Neovim

• none-ls

  • Inject Diagnostics/Code actions/Formatting/Hover/Completion to lsp
  • Lua
    • stylua
  • Python
    • Linter like mypy or formatter like black needs to be set up to uselsp.buf.*. This repository provides this setups.
  • Fortran
    • findent
    • fprettify

• dap

  • Debug Adapter Protocol
  • This repository provides python debbuger.

Tips

• Broken fonts and icons

  • Make sure you have "Nerd Fonts" or not.
  • You can install just by clicking on the *.ttf file if your OS is Windows.
  • I recommend installing it for all users. (Nerd Fonts)

• LSP

  • LSP like pyright are available through npm. On Windows, you can do this by installing the Node.js program. This can be installed via the following link Download Node.js. You can install it through the Package Manager like windget, fnm, Brew or directly using a pre-built installer.
  • For python, I recommend installing pyright (LSP) and ruff(LSP+Linter+Formatter) through Mason.

• Buffers

  • Buffers are everything you've loaded before (in-memory texts).
  • It's like a pile of books on your desk.
  • Each buffer has a unique number. Thus you can always go to a specific buffer ":bufferN"
  • If you try to quit a modified file without saving, you will get anrror message. Vim will pull the file from the buffer into the current window.
  • Buffers has 3 states.
    • Active : It is displayed in the current window.
    • Hiddne : It is not displayed in the current window, and was previously loaded.
    • Inactive: It is not displayed in the current window, and was previously loaded but closed.
  • You can check buffers through command ":buffers, :ls, :files"
    • :buffers[!] [flags] / :ls[!] [flags] / :files[!] [flags]
    • When "!" is included command, it will show not only ordinary buffers but also unlisted buffers which is a kind of help documents or neotree systems or quickfix list. -:buffers!
    • :buffers shows list in buffers.
      • Buffer No. / Indicator / Path / Line No. of cursor
      • Each buffer has a unique number. Thus you can alwasy call each buffer with
        • :buffer N or :N<C-^>
      • Indicator
        • u (unlisted buffer)
        • % (current buffer)
        • # (recently loaded buffer)
        • a (active buffer: loaded and displayed)
        • h (hidden buffer: loaded but invisible)
        • + (modified buffer)
        • - (immutable buffer)
        • = (readonly buffer)
        • ex)
          • 1: %a and 2: a
          • buffer 1 is displayed in window and cursor is in it.
          • buffer 2 is displayed in window but cursor is not in.
    • :bdelete N1 N2 delete a Nth buffer in buffers.
    • :bufdo {cmd} execute {cmd}
      • Also see tabdo,argdo,windo,cdo,ldo

• Quickfix list

  • It is list to save the location of error message (or searching pattern).
  • :vim[grep] {pattern} {file} adds lists to quickfix list.
    • :vim {pattern} /usr/**: finds {pattern} in directory /usr/ and add locations to quickfix list.
  • :copen opens a window to show the current list of searching patterns.
  • :cn[ext],:cp[revious], :cfir[st], :cla[st] are used to navigate files in the quickfix list.
  • :cc N is used to navigate Nth item in the quickfix list
  • :col[der] or :cnew[er] go to other quickfix list.
    • Data structure of quickfix is "Stack" like "git stash" or "python list". These lists are stacked in the order they are created.
      • Last In First Out (LIFO) is chacrateristic of "Stack".
    • Vim retain up to 10 quickfix lists in a session.
  • :cdo s/foo/boo is used to substitute words foo to boo in files of quickfilx list

• Location list

  • It create a location list instead of quickfix list.
  • This behaves like quickfix list. But it can be created as many panes as are enalbled in a session. But quickfix list can be created as one. For example, if you have 3 activated panes, you can create 3 location list. But you can creat only one in a session.
  • :lv[imgrep] {pattern} {file} add lists to to location list as quickfix list behaves.
  • :lopen opens a window to show the current list of searching patters.
  • :lne[xt], :lprev, :lfirst, :llast are used navigate files in the location list
  • :ll N is used to navigate Nth item in the location list
  • :lol[der] or :lnew[er] go to other location list.
    • Data structure: "Stack"
    • Vim retain up to 10 location lists per window (or pane)
  • :ldo behaves like :cdo

• Registers

  • The Vim registers are similar to the clipboard.
  • When you yanked or deleted texts, you can paste them to somewhere.
  • Vim saves these texts to registers.
  • There are 10 knds of registers.
    1. Unnamed register ("")
       • Texts deleted with d,s,c,x or copied with y are saved here at First.
    2. Numbered registers ("0 -"9)
       • "0 is for the last yanked texts.
       • "1 is for the last deleted texts more than one line with d,s,c.
       • "2 - "9 are the backup place for "1. Vim moves 1 into 2, 2 into 3, and so forth.
    3. Named registers ("a - "z or "A - "Z)
       • This registers can be allocated by only user command.
       • "Macro" will be saved in this registers.
       • Use lowercase to replace previous contents with new contetns.
       • Use uppercase to add new contents to previous contents.
    4. Small delete register ("-)
       • Deleted texts less than one line
    5. Selection registers ("+ , "*)
       • Texts copied from external program are saved in this registers.
       • You can export texts from Vim to external clipboard with "+y or "+d
    6. Read-only registers (". , ": , "%)
       • ". saves the last inserted texts after Insert Mode is activated.
       • ": saves the last executed command-line.
       • "% saves the name of current buffer (file name).
    7. Alternate buffer register ("#)
       • This register saves the alternate buffer, which is the last loaded file but not displayed in the window.
       • "#" is the indicator of the last loaded buffer.
    8. Search patter register ("/)
       • This register saved the last search pattern.
    9. Expression register ("=)
       • This register support mathmatical calculation.
       • :h expression-syntax explains various types ofxpressions.
    10. Black hole register ("_)
        • When you delete or change, Vim automatically save texts into registers. When you don't want to save, Just use this register.
        • "_dd doesn't store anything into register.
  • You can clean up the resister a with :let @a=""
    • :call range(0,9)->jap('setreg(v:val,"")') delete registers of 0-9.
    • :call range(0,26)->map('setreg(@z[v:val],"")') delet registers of a-x.
      • I saved a-x to register z.

• Macro

  • q{a - z} in Normal Mode to start recording.
    • recroding @a will be shown.
  • q in Normal mode to stop recording.
  • N@a execute the macro as N times.

• Book Marks

  • m{a - z} : Save book mark at current cursor location.
  • '{a - z} : Move to line of the book mark.
  • `{a - z}: Move to the postion of the book mark.
  • :delmarks! : Delete all lowercase marks for the current buffer.

Review

• Same behavior as VIM
  • If you're a CLI user who is familiar with VIM, this is great.
  • Very difficult to learn for GUI users.
• High degree of freedom
  • The wide world of customization opens up a whole new world for those who want to customize their text editor.
• Compatibility with Windows
  • Lint or LSP for nvim-cmp requires npm, which is the package manager for Node js.
• I've relied on the work of many people, and I'm very grateful for their help.

Reference

• Neovim-starter
• lsp-zero.nvim introduction
• Dash board theme