Using neovim

Have been using neovim for a few years now and I don’t feel a thing! To remember what should be done in case of reinstallation from scratch, it is better to write down some tips and configuration.

Install: You can apt-get, or brew install. The configuration is at ~/.config/nvim/ but for compatibility with vim, I do this:

cd ~
ln -s .vim .config/nvim
ln -s .vimrc .vim/init.vim

and to make it default,

alias vi=nvim
alias vimdiff='nvim -d'

Plug-in management is recommended to use vim-plug and see here for examples of using it with neovim. Simply speaking, to install vim-plug:

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

and to install plug-ins, use :PlugInstall command inside vim or :PlugUpgrade to upgrade vim-plug. To update the installed packages, use :UpdateRemotePlugins. The list of plugins used are entered in ~/.config/nvim/init.vim as:

" https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug
call plug#begin(stdpath('data'). '/plugged')
	" tabular plugin is used to format tables
	" select lines, then `:Tab /<regex>` will look for the delimiter and tabularize
	Plug 'godlygeek/tabular'
	" JSON front matter highlight plugin
	Plug 'elzr/vim-json'
	" markdown plugin
	Plug 'plasticboy/vim-markdown', { 'branch':'master' }
call plug#end()

which the Plug command accepts full URL to git repository (e.g., https://github.com/junegunn/vim-github-dashboard.git) or a shorthand, junegunn/vim-github-dashboard. And you can choose the git tag or branch like the last example above.

and this is my other config in init.vim:

set mouse=a                 " mouse in normal, visual, and insert mode
"set expandtab               " converts tabs to white space
set nocompatible            " disable compatibility to old-time vi
set showmatch               " show matching brackets.
set ignorecase              " case insensitive matching
set hlsearch                " highlight search results
set tabstop=4               " number of columns occupied by a tab character
set softtabstop=4           " see multiple spaces as tabstops so <BS> does the right thing
set shiftwidth=4            " width for autoindents
set autoindent              " indent a new line the same amount as the line just typed
"set number                  " add line numbers
set wildmode=longest,list   " get bash-like tab completions
set cc=100                  " set an 100 column border for good coding style
"set nowrapscan				" search stop at end of file
set cursorline
filetype plugin indent on   " allows auto-indenting depending on file type
syntax on                   " syntax highlighting

" mouse release send selection to clipboard
vmap <LeftRelease> "*ygv

" terminal mode: Use ESC to back to normal mode
tnoremap <Esc> <C-\><C-n>

" toggle spell check by <F11>, [s and ]s for prev/next spell error, z= for suggestions
" https://jdhao.github.io/2019/04/29/nvim_spell_check/
set spelllang=en,cjk
nnoremap <silent> <F11> :set spell!<cr>
inoremap <silent> <F11> <C-O>:set spell!<cr>
"set spell    " turn on spell check by default
set spelllang=en_us

" https://stackoverflow.com/questions/597687/changing-variable-names-in-vim
" For local replace
nnoremap gr gd[{V%::s/<C-R>///gc<left><left><left>
" For global replace
nnoremap gR gD:%s/<C-R>///gc<left><left><left>