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Language servers are very exciting for me. This past summer I finally installed ALE [0] and it drastically improved my experience and code quality in JS. The li

Language servers are very exciting for me. This past summer I finally installed ALE [0] and it drastically improved my experience and code quality in JS. The live in-editor linting with eslint and formatting with prettier is awesome (and these aren’t even language servers, ALE just uses them as “fixers” and “linters”). So many people denigrade these things as “crutches” for bad programming languages or underdeveloped skills, but I don’t know how you can beat getting live feedback as you type. We are mere mortals! If you don’t have something like ALE installed and you use Vim, you won’t regret the time spent getting it up and running. [0] https://github.com/w0rp/ale https://github.com/w0rp/ale

PuercoPop 8y ago
I agree that is nice idea but sadly only the JS server improves my experience compared to the alternatives, which is more an indictment on the JS toolchain than anything else. And even then its jump to definition leaves a lot to be desired. For example Robe jumps to a method inside Rails that was defined at run-time w/o any issue. Solargraph, even with experimental features enabled doesn't. I look forward to a future where language server implementations improve.
- dmitryminkovsky 8y ago
  Which JS server do you use? I tried Webstorm a while back, for example, and found it overwhelming. It tried to do a lot of things it couldn’t do well, so there were many false flags and failed refactoring, which is really frustrating if you’re coming from Java.
- tbodt 8y ago
  I wrote a javascript language server based on ESLint and Tern: https://github.com/tbodt/js-langserver https://github.com/tbodt/js-langserver
phasnox 8y ago
Take your upvote fellow vimmer
userbinator 8y ago
So many people denigrade these things as “crutches” for bad programming languages or underdeveloped skills, but I don’t know how you can beat getting live feedback as you type. As someone who turns off autocomplete and other features when forced to use an IDE, and otherwise works entirely with code in a plain text editor (sometimes Vim, sometimes Notepad --- and sometimes just good old pencil-and-paper), I can tell you that "live feedback" is a distraction. It interrupts the thinking process like a backseat driver.
- nswest23 8y ago
  I code exclusively with pen and paper. Pencils are for people that make mistakes.
- dmitryminkovsky 8y ago
  In all seriousness, I think you might be smarter than me and many/most people. What languages are you referring to? The above described setup really helps me with JS. IntelliJ really helps me with Java (I spent about a year trying to write Java in Vim!).

PuercoPop 8y ago

I agree that is nice idea but sadly only the JS server improves my experience compared to the alternatives, which is more an indictment on the JS toolchain than anything else. And even then its jump to definition leaves a lot to be desired. For example Robe jumps to a method inside Rails that was defined at run-time w/o any issue. Solargraph, even with experimental features enabled doesn't. I look forward to a future where language server implementations improve.

dmitryminkovsky 8y ago
Which JS server do you use? I tried Webstorm a while back, for example, and found it overwhelming. It tried to do a lot of things it couldn’t do well, so there were many false flags and failed refactoring, which is really frustrating if you’re coming from Java.
tbodt 8y ago
I wrote a javascript language server based on ESLint and Tern: https://github.com/tbodt/js-langserver https://github.com/tbodt/js-langserver

phasnox 8y ago

Take your upvote fellow vimmer

userbinator 8y ago

So many people denigrade these things as “crutches” for bad programming languages or underdeveloped skills, but I don’t know how you can beat getting live feedback as you type. As someone who turns off autocomplete and other features when forced to use an IDE, and otherwise works entirely with code in a plain text editor (sometimes Vim, sometimes Notepad --- and sometimes just good old pencil-and-paper), I can tell you that "live feedback" is a distraction. It interrupts the thinking process like a backseat driver.

nswest23 8y ago
I code exclusively with pen and paper. Pencils are for people that make mistakes.
dmitryminkovsky 8y ago
In all seriousness, I think you might be smarter than me and many/most people. What languages are you referring to? The above described setup really helps me with JS. IntelliJ really helps me with Java (I spent about a year trying to write Java in Vim!).