4 ms·

Neovim decision to use Lua is paying off

38 points by bpierre 2y ago

bradhe 2y ago
Recently migrated a vim script mess to Lua and got what a breath of fresh air it is.
n8henrie 2y ago
As a counterexample, I'm super perplexed at the helix team -- an editor that myself and many others migrated to because we know / like rust -- decided on a lisp for their plugin system. Having recently tried to get into lisp (3 or 4 different highly recommended books / courses)... I really wish they had gone in a different direction here. Tempted to go back to nvim -- the lua config was pretty nice!
- Scarbutt 2y ago
  Can't please everybody. I don't use Helix but I'll take scheme over lua for this. ;)
- friend_and_foe 2y ago
  I'm alright with it. I like lua. I learned to use it a little back when I'd mess with Conky, I haven't really done much with Luna otherwise but the syntax is cool. But lisp is really nice. I'm a helix user, and I'm eagerly awaiting some improvement work on Nyxt browser, both of which are designed for plugins scripted with lisp, so it will pay off for me down the road.
durandal1 2y ago
I used vim for 25 years and I expect to use neovim for another 25. Return on investment in knowledge and skill is off the charts.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
The other factor that I think is even more underscoreable is that neovim doesn't really care. Yes it integrates lua very well. But neovim is based around msgpack rpc! It's really easy to program/script neovim from any language, in a great defined way. So there's like super easy to use Deno scripting too! That was ragingly cool for a bit, has calmed down, but so easy & straightforward to work with; truly a pleasure imo. https://github.com/vim-denops/denops.vim https://github.com/vim-denops/denops.vim The msgpack rpc just so easy to take whatever libraries you run into online & smash them into doing stuff in your neovim. Colossal epic super wins possible here!
bachmeier 2y ago
I remember trying Neovim in the early days because they kept talking about scripting with Lua. The problem I had was that I was new to the Vim/Neovim ecosystem and couldn't make head or tail of the documentation for using Lua. Maybe things are in a better state for someone like me.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
  I dropped it for the same reason
- Ancapistani 2y ago
  It’s better than it was, but it’s not 100% consistent. I’ve found that once you get over the initial hump of knowing how the Lua interface works, being able to translate between vimscript and Lua for most things is very obvious. Of course, until you get to that point, it’s a huge pain :)
beej71 2y ago
I just need ^W-j and ^W-k to work with terminal windows. Then I'll consider neovim. But I'm a pretty stock vim user, so there's not a lot of difference for me.
- xigoi 2y ago
  > I just need ^W-j and ^W-k to work with terminal windows. Why not use a mapping?
flanfly 2y ago
As a long time vim users, elisp is something I always envied the emacs guys for. I love vim and bram but viml is a pos. The result were a multitude of language bindings. Of course, now everyone uses their favorite language to write extension which meant that most non trivial vim configs require a working python, perl, ruby and ocaml interpreter on the system. Lua in nvim fixes that, now I only need to install a billion language servers before I can start working :D

38 points by bpierre 2y ago

Recently migrated a vim script mess to Lua and got what a breath of fresh air it is.

As a counterexample, I'm super perplexed at the helix team -- an editor that myself and many others migrated to because we know / like rust -- decided on a lisp for their plugin system. Having recently tried to get into lisp (3 or 4 different highly recommended books / courses)... I really wish they had gone in a different direction here. Tempted to go back to nvim -- the lua config was pretty nice!

Scarbutt 2y ago
Can't please everybody. I don't use Helix but I'll take scheme over lua for this. ;)
friend_and_foe 2y ago
I'm alright with it. I like lua. I learned to use it a little back when I'd mess with Conky, I haven't really done much with Luna otherwise but the syntax is cool. But lisp is really nice. I'm a helix user, and I'm eagerly awaiting some improvement work on Nyxt browser, both of which are designed for plugins scripted with lisp, so it will pay off for me down the road.

durandal1 2y ago

I used vim for 25 years and I expect to use neovim for another 25. Return on investment in knowledge and skill is off the charts.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

The other factor that I think is even more underscoreable is that neovim doesn't really care. Yes it integrates lua very well. But neovim is based around msgpack rpc! It's really easy to program/script neovim from any language, in a great defined way. So there's like super easy to use Deno scripting too! That was ragingly cool for a bit, has calmed down, but so easy & straightforward to work with; truly a pleasure imo. https://github.com/vim-denops/denops.vim https://github.com/vim-denops/denops.vim The msgpack rpc just so easy to take whatever libraries you run into online & smash them into doing stuff in your neovim. Colossal epic super wins possible here!

bachmeier 2y ago

I remember trying Neovim in the early days because they kept talking about scripting with Lua. The problem I had was that I was new to the Vim/Neovim ecosystem and couldn't make head or tail of the documentation for using Lua. Maybe things are in a better state for someone like me.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
I dropped it for the same reason
Ancapistani 2y ago
It’s better than it was, but it’s not 100% consistent. I’ve found that once you get over the initial hump of knowing how the Lua interface works, being able to translate between vimscript and Lua for most things is very obvious. Of course, until you get to that point, it’s a huge pain :)

beej71 2y ago

I just need ^W-j and ^W-k to work with terminal windows. Then I'll consider neovim. But I'm a pretty stock vim user, so there's not a lot of difference for me.

xigoi 2y ago
> I just need ^W-j and ^W-k to work with terminal windows. Why not use a mapping?

flanfly 2y ago

As a long time vim users, elisp is something I always envied the emacs guys for. I love vim and bram but viml is a pos. The result were a multitude of language bindings. Of course, now everyone uses their favorite language to write extension which meant that most non trivial vim configs require a working python, perl, ruby and ocaml interpreter on the system. Lua in nvim fixes that, now I only need to install a billion language servers before I can start working :D