Nathan's Neovim Config Files

Welcome! This is a repo where I exclusively keep and maintain my neovim config. There is a lot of code that is specific to my personal computer here, so this won't work as a drop-in starter config.

Philosophy

I believe that the fundamentals of Vim should be left alone. This means that most of the "main" keys should be left as they are out of the box. All custom mappings should be under <Leader> or [ namespace. See lua/mappings.lua.

There are exceptions to this rule. For example w and b are redefined with the plugin wordmotion.vim. <Tab> in insert mode has also been remapped to autocomplete if the line is not empty. What these exceptions have in common is that they augment the previous definitions, not replace them.

The other main emphasis is speed. One of the best things about Vim is being able to quickly start up, quit, and switch files. This must be preserved. In fact, the reason I switched to neovim from Vim was Lua integration, which allows for plugins that don't significantly bog down the experience.

There are 4 "secrets" to maintaining a snappy Neovim:

1. Profile: Use tweekmonster/startuptime.vim

2. Lazy loading: Use the lazy.nvim plugin manager. Try to lazy load every plugin.

3. Compile Lua code: See lewis6991/impatient.nvim. This essentially overrides calls to require in Lua code to pre-compile, cache, and load plugins. To maximize the benefit, keep init.lua tiny. Put the rest into files that are required in init.lua.

4. Find faster alternatives to existing plugins. For example, prefer the gruvbox8 theme over the original gruvbox. Also, (plug incoming!) use nathom/filetype.nvim, which speeds up a crusty runtime file called filetype.vim.

After diligently following these steps, you should be able to maintain a config that snappy. The one in this repo starts up in ~8ms despite having 44 plugins!