Neovim

Context

I like Neovim because it provides a Vim interface that’s implemented in Lua, so it’s modern and consistent, but also requires fewer resources when running on a low-power machine, like my old Chromebook running PostmarketOS.

Quickstart

I was recently working in VSCode and forgot how to orient myself in Neovim, so, a refresher:

1. Open Neovim:

   nvim
   

2. Verify LazyVim is up to date:

   :Lazy
   

3. Use Telescope to browse around:

   :Telescope 
   

4. Press <space> k to browse keymaps
5. Handy default keymaps:
   1. Ctrl-i / Ctrl-o for jumping back and forth
   2. Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u for half-page scrolling
   3. PageDown / PageUp for full-page scrolling
   4. Ctrl-f / Ctrl-b for forward and backward (when tmux is not intercepting ctrl-b)

Set Up

1. Install Neovim on Alpine/PostmarketOS:

   sudo apk add neovim
   

2. Install the LazyVim plugin manager, using ~/.config/nvim/init.lua

3. Install Telescope, which provides an elegant consistency for browsing: “Find, Filter, Preview, Pick”

4. Define keymaps for common operations:

   require("lazy").setup({
   	spec = {
   	    {
   		    'nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim',
   				...
   			    config = function()
   			        local builtin = require("telescope.builtin")
                       vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>b", builtin.buffers,
   	                    { desc = "Telescope buffers" })
                       vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>f", builtin.find_files,
                           { desc = "Telescope find_files" })
                       vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>g", builtin.live_grep,
                           { desc = "Telescope live_grep" })
                       vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>k", builtin.keymaps, 
                           { desc = "Telescope keymaps" })
                       vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>o", builtin.oldfiles, 
                           { desc = "Telescope oldfiles" })
   			      end,
   ...
   

5. Install Stylua and Black for Lua and Python formatting:

   sudo apk add stylua black
   

6. Install Conform for code formatting in Neovim:

   require("lazy").setup({
   	spec = {
   	...
   		{
   			"stevearc/conform.nvim",
   			opts = {
   				formatters_by_ft = {
   					lua = { "stylua" },
   					python = { 'black' }
   				},
   				format_on_save = {
   						timeout_ms = 2000, -- Black can take awhile
   						lsp_fallback = true,
   				},
   			},
   		},