Neovim is a pretty cool successor to Vim, focusing on compatibility while adding asynchronous plugin functionality and trying to clean up the code base. Having been fed up at various times with both Sublime Text (2 and 3) and Atom, and after realizing how much development I do over SSH, it seemed reasonable to check out using vim (or nvim, in this case) as my IDE. The advantages essentially boil down to:

  • Consistent IDE over SSH or locally,
  • No need to ever use the mouse while coding (takes longer to learn, but is faster; this is aided by vim-easymotion and Ctrl-P),
  • It’s been around forever, and frankly, probably always will be.

Some work really benefits from visual (mouse) input, but I have never found that to be the case while programming.

So, I present my init.vim file, pieced together using Vundle. Vundle has its own install instructions. Aside from the filesystem changes, all of the .nvimrc changes necessary are reflected in the file below. For nvim, one small change was needed to the instructions for vim (reflected in the .nvimrc file below); vundle#begin() requires an argument to redirect for nvim-specific settings: vundle#begin('~/.nvim/bundle'). For everything else, simply copying the below file as ~/.config/nvim/init.vim, and running nvim +PluginInstall +q will be sufficient to set up the IDE. It’s that easy!

Complete instructions to Neovim as your IDE:

  1. Create the paths for neovim config and download Vundle:

    $ mkdir -p ~/.config/nvim/bundle
$ git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.config/nvim/bundle/Vundle.vim

  2. Install neovim

    • Linux

      $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/unstable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install neovim

  3. Save the below init.vim file as ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

""""""" Plugin management stuff """""""
set nocompatible
filetype off

set rtp+=~/.config/nvim/bundle/Vundle.vim
call vundle#begin('~/.config/nvim/bundle')

Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'

" Custom plugins...
" EasyMotion - Allows <leader><leader>(b|e) to jump to (b)eginning or (end)
" of words.
Plugin 'easymotion/vim-easymotion'
" Ctrl-P - Fuzzy file search
Plugin 'kien/ctrlp.vim'
" Neomake build tool (mapped below to <c-b>)
Plugin 'benekastah/neomake'
" Autocomplete for python
Plugin 'davidhalter/jedi-vim'
" Remove extraneous whitespace when edit mode is exited
Plugin 'thirtythreeforty/lessspace.vim'

" Screen splitter.  Cool, but doesn't work with nvim.
"Plugin 'ervandew/screen'

" LaTeX editing
Plugin 'LaTeX-Box-Team/LaTeX-Box'

" Status bar mods
Plugin 'bling/vim-airline'
Plugin 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'

" Tab completion
Plugin 'ervandew/supertab'


" After all plugins...
call vundle#end()
filetype plugin indent on

""""""" Jedi-VIM """""""
" Don't mess up undo history
let g:jedi#show_call_signatures = "0"


""""""" SuperTab configuration """""""
"let g:SuperTabDefaultCompletionType = "<c-x><c-u>"
function! Completefunc(findstart, base)
    return "\<c-x>\<c-p>"
endfunction

"call SuperTabChain(Completefunc, '<c-n>')

"let g:SuperTabCompletionContexts = ['g:ContextText2']


""""""" General coding stuff """""""
" Highlight 80th column
set colorcolumn=80
" Always show status bar
set laststatus=2
" Let plugins show effects after 500ms, not 4s
set updatetime=500
" Disable mouse click to go to position
set mouse-=a
" Don't let autocomplete affect usual typing habits
set completeopt=menuone,preview,noinsert
" Let vim-gitgutter do its thing on large files
let g:gitgutter_max_signs=10000

" If your terminal's background is white (light theme), uncomment the following
" to make EasyMotion's cues much easier to read.
" hi link EasyMotionTarget String
" hi link EasyMotionShade Comment
" hi link EasyMotionTarget2First String
" hi link EasyMotionTarget2Second Statement


""""""" Python stuff """""""
syntax enable
set number showmatch
set shiftwidth=4 tabstop=4 softtabstop=4 expandtab autoindent
let python_highlight_all = 1


""""""" Keybindings """""""
" Set up leaders
let mapleader=","
let maplocalleader="\\"

" Mac OS X option-left / right
noremap â b
noremap æ e
inoremap â <C-o>b
inoremap æ <C-o>e<right>
" Note - this required binding in preferences (Cmd-,) option+backspace to
" escape+z.
" Why this one is complicated - <C-o> at end of line moves cursor by one
" character, which means a trailing character could be left.
inoremap <expr> ú col('.')>1 ? 'T<Left><C-o>db<Delete>' : '<Backspace>T<Left><c-o>db<Delete>'
" Requires binding option+forward delete to escape
inoremap ø <C-o>dw

" Linux / windows ctrl+backspace ctrl+delete
" Note that ctrl+backspace doesn't work in Linux, so ctrl+\ is also available
imap <C-backspace> ú
imap <C-\> ú
imap <C-delete> ø

" Arrow keys up/down move visually up and down rather than by whole lines.  In
" other words, wrapped lines will take longer to scroll through, but better
" control in long bodies of text.
" NOTE - Disabled since <leader><leader>w|e|b works well with easymotion
"noremap <up> gk
"noremap <down> gj

" Neomake and other build commands (ctrl-b)
nnoremap <C-b> :w<cr>:Neomake<cr>

autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.tex,*.bib noremap <buffer> <C-b> :w<cr>:new<bar>r !make<cr>:setlocal buftype=nofile<cr>:setlocal bufhidden=hide<cr>:setlocal noswapfile<cr>
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.tex,*.bib imap <buffer> <C-b> <Esc><C-b>

Update 2016-04-26 - Updated paths to reflect neovim’s current recommendations (.nvimrc became .config/nvim/init.vim, moved plugins there as well).

*Update 2015-10-01 - Non-Mac ctrl+backspace and ctrl+delete work appropriately in insert mode (except Linux, known bug with mapping . In Linux, use ctrl+\).*

Update 2015-09-22 - For when the terminal has a light background, added commented hi link lines to improve EasyMotion visibility

Update 2015-09-01 - Added set completeopt=menuone,preview,noinsert to prevent autocomplete features from affecting normal typing