cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/9648279
I would like to premise this with the following:
- The best approach is probably just testing out each and every editor that interests me until I’ve found what works best for me.
- However, I wonder to what degree a test as such would be representative when the likes of Emacs and (Neo)Vim are considered; both of which are known for being a life time learning process.
- I don’t literally expect Emacs or (Neo)Vim to be drop-in replacements for any IDE. Some of the most basic IDE-functions are absent by default and some (perhaps more advanced) functionality might simply not be attainable at all.
- I am not interested in anything that remotely resembles a flame war. The community at Lemmy has so far been very kind to me; let’s keep it that way 😜.
Motivation
I’ve had experiences with Atom, VS Code and some of Jetbrains’ IDEs like Pycharm and Rider. While I’ve been generally content with all of them, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth whenever I’m forced to switch IDEs because their lifetimes and/or lack of extensibility doesn’t allow me to responsibly continue using them. As such, I’m interested in a long time investment that will grow as I will. Both Emacs and (Neo)Vim have passed the test of time and I honestly don’t think they’ll cease to exist in the upcoming decades, that’s why I would love to start using either one of them.
Furthermore, Vi(m) keybindings seem to be somewhat ubiquitous and almost any IDE offers some support. As such, improving my Vi(m)-game should only net-positive my productivity (at least eventually). Also, fluency will benefit me whenever I’m remote accessing any random server as they will always have Vi(m) installed. Thankfully, this doesn’t force me to use Vi(m) (or Neovim) just yet, because Emacs offers with Evil perhaps the single best Vi(m) implementation; outside of native Vi(m)*.
My setup:
- I’m on a custom image of uBlue using their startingpoint as template. For those unaware; an oversimplification would be that it is Fedora Silverblue with some extras.
- As such, I would like to have my developer environments local and have used Distrobox to that extent using steps similar to the ones outlined over here. But I’m not married to that specific way of utilizing local containers. So please feel free to recommend me something that’s at least as good.
- If I go for Emacs, then I will definitely rely on Evil.
- If possible, I would like to use it for C#, Python and Rust. Furthermore, I engage in editing Bash scripts, Dockerfiles, Linux config files, texts written in Latex and/or Markdown and other files written in Nix or JSON. As both are very extensible, I don’t expect any issues, but I might be wrong.
Questions:
- First of all, does it make sense for me to only consider these two?
- Can the split between Vim and Neovim be interpreted as the first schism and as such be a forebode for what’s yet to come?
- Google Trends suggests that Neo(Vim) is ever-popular. On the other hand; not only is Emacs relatively less popular, but its popularity seems to be slightly declining. Should this worry me regarding their long-time future? Especially considering that a thriving community is literally the lifeline for both of them.
- For those that have used both extensively, which one do you prefer (if any) and why?
- While I understand that the power of both of them lies primarily in how one can literally make them behave however suits their workflow best. Therefore, the use of premade configs and/or starter kits/distributions should (ideally) only be used either temporary or as a starting point. However, at this point, they provide a decent showcase of what each ‘platform’ has to offer. So:
I’ve been using code editors for over 40 years. I’ve gone back and forth between Emacs and NeoVim/Vim. The last five years has been extensively Neovim since it is faster than Emacs. On Emacs, I’ve loved DoomEmacs. It’s the fastest on Emacs. I prefer NeoVim over Vim because it is faster (especially when using plugins with Lua or Python). In NeoVim, I’ve used all the mentioned setups and have settled on LazyVim due to it’s starting speed and ease of changing configurations around. LazyVim also requires the latest NeoVim, but it is worth upgrading to it. I use bob to manage my NeoVim versions and mostly I use the nightly version without any hiccups.
I’ve been using code editors for over 40 years. I’ve gone back and forth between Emacs and NeoVim/Vim.
Wow, a veteran! Thank you for sharing your insights!
In NeoVim, I’ve used all the mentioned setups and have settled on LazyVim due to it’s starting speed and ease of changing configurations around.
That’s very valuable information! If it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind offering me a short rundown of what you think of each?
LazyVim also requires the latest NeoVim, but it is worth upgrading to it. I use bob to manage my NeoVim versions and mostly I use the nightly version without any hiccups.
Noted.
I use lunarvim almost exclusively. It’s fast, has great defaults and with the right lsp Plugins installed, it supports most languages. It’s based on the more recent versions of neovim, so e.g. standard debian version would require an upgrade.
I use lunarvim almost exclusively.
Was it a very conscious choice? Like have you tried the others but (somehow) didn’t like them etc? And if so, why do you prefer LunarVim over the others?
I had become heavily into vim, but needed something easy to set up as I no longer have time for tinkering, and also wanted to replace so called ide’s with something in my terminals. Paired with byobu for terminal multiplexing, I rarely need to leave my terminal. As an aside, I am also toying with ollama in a byobu split as my sme/ man page wrangler for when I’m too busy to waste time looking for the exact syntax it library to do what I want. Working well so far
Thanks! Those should provide some decent pointers.
Would it be a fair assessment to suggest that LunarVim was chosen primarily for the fact that it came out first? Like, either one Astronvim, LazyVim and NvChad might have done a similarly great job, but you were already using LunarVim and saw no reason to switch as the functionality they provide is relatively close to one another.
Furthermore, because you were already accustomed to Vim, you were able to properly utilize LunarVim as a startingpoint. As such, switching from startingpoint would only amount to more work without any real benefits.
