Why Neovim
Hi everyone, I’m an ordinary software engineer working mostly in embedded development, mainly using C/C++/Python. Before I discovered Neovim, I had always used VS Code. VS Code is intuitive and easy to use, with a rich plugin ecosystem that met all my development needs.
However, when using the mouse, I often unconsciously raise my shoulder, which over time caused intense pain in my right shoulder 😣. I figured that reducing mouse usage might alleviate the issue. That was the main reason I started considering Neovim. Although VS Code supports many keyboard shortcuts, I found Neovim’s keyboard-driven workflow to be more pure and enjoyable.
In my early days of using Neovim, some features of Neovim/Vim felt like a breath of fresh air — a refreshing experience that really made me appreciate Vim’s flexible and powerful design philosophy. That’s why I wanted to write this document to share my experiences and explore the question: Why Neovim.
I think Neovim doesn’t necessarily have overwhelming advantages over other modern editors, but it certainly deserves a place among them. When I started writing this document, Neovim 0.11 had just been released. I also looked at the roadmap for version 0.12, and it looks like Neovim will become even more user-friendly out of the box. I believe it will be embraced and recommended by more developers soon.
About
If you’re interested in this document, please check out the Overview and Quick Start sections.
I’ll start with Tmux, and I strongly recommend getting familiar with Tmux before diving into Neovim.
Next, a good shell can significantly improve your workflow. I recommend using Zsh.
Finally, I’ll introduce Neovim by comparing the experience of using it alongside VS Code.
Contents
At a glance
Shell