Neovim features

Neovim News for new developments

Keep up to date with new features within Neovim

:help news.txt

Use the version name to view specific features of a release

:help news-0.9.5.txt

Neovim features for development

A clean UI provides for a distraction free development experience, with only the essential information presented in the Neovim statusline or inline with the code

• Conjure - automatic Clojure REPL connection, evaluation, test runners
• Treesitter
• Plug-in Manager (e.g. Lazy.nvim)
• LSP - auto-completion, snippets, inline linting, reference navigation, refactor and unit test coverage
• statusline - LSP status, diff changes, filetype, cursor position
• Selection narrowing completion of files, packages, colour schemes, etc
• File browser - telescope selection narrowing and visual file system navigation
• Version Control gutter indicators for changed lines
• todo comments todo, fix, notes, indicators with gutter icons
• relative line numbers for vim-style navigation

Conjure

Conjure An interactive environment for evaluating code, e.g. a Clojure REPL. Conjure automatically connects to an nREPL process running in the current project.

Evaluate Clojure code as its developed for an instant feedback workflow.

Run unit tests with Kaocha test runner (Cognitect Labs and ClojureScript runners also available)

Fireplace has been a long-standing plugin for Vim to support Clojure REPL connection.

Lazy Plugin manager

Lazy.nvim manages neovim plugins with a rich UI that provides an enjoyable user experience. Plugins are automatically installed during startup and lists the status of each plugins.

Plugins are automatic cached & bytecode compiled and can be lazy loaded to streamline startup time and resource usage based on events, commands, filetypes, and key mappings. Efficient plugin downlaods using partial blobless clones of plugin repositories, i.e. --filter=blob:none

Lazy.nvim

Treesitter

Neovim provides highly effective syntax highlighting of source code due to Treesitter.

Tree-sitter parses files opened in Neovim and builds a concrete syntax tree that any Neovim plugin can use to efficiently provide feedback. Treesitter uses incremental parsing to efficiently update the syntax tree as a file is edited.

• parse on every keystroke in a text editor
• provide useful results even in the presence of syntax errors

Treesitter

Language Server Protocol

Neovim includes an LSP client which uses the information recieved from a language specific LSP server in real-time to provide a range of services:

• auto-completion of function and symbol names
• live linting as code is typed or opened from a file
• formatting
• function signatures and help documentation
• diagnostics (syntax errors & idioms)
• symantic analysis providing rename through project, go-to-definition & find-references

LSP feedback is often presented in the buffer, file browser and status line of Neovim.

LSP Server implementation is not universal

LSP is a relatively new specification and many server implmentations are still evolving or are yet to be created.

Lint tools tend to be more prevelent and may be required in concert with or in the absence of an LSP server.

LSP related Plugins

• neovim/nvim-lspconfig - connect Neovim lsp client to lsp servers
• jose-elias-alvarez/null-ls.nvim - hook format and lint tools into the Neovim LSP client
• jayp0521/mason-null-ls.nvim - automatically install formatters/linters to be used by null-ls
• williamboman/mason - install and manage LSP servers, DAP servers, linters, and formatters
• williamboman/mason-lspconfig - register LSP configs with neovim so LSP client can connect to servers

Lint and format tools:

Linters check code for common problems and provide hints on how to correct any detected issues.

Format tools suppor code to conforming to a specified coding style, typically these run when save-file is run.

null-ls provides extensive builtin configuration for programming languages and configuration formats. null-ls also passes lint and format tool information to the Neovim LSP client, extending the range of language support.

Selection Narrowing

telescope.nvim is a highly extendable fuzzy finder over lists with community driven pickers, sorters and previewers.

Navigate and narrow lists of files, packages, environment variables, ports, colour schemes (themes) and any other list of items effectively.

Telescope File browser popup also explores the file system and in Normal mode can be used to create files and directories

The telescope list narrows matches as characters are typed

Version Control

Gitsigns hightlights buffer changes in the gutter

Lualine shows number of Git changes in status line

Diffview to review all changes for any git revision

Neogit provides a rich git client to add, stash, commit, push & pull changes.

Octo provides a GitHub specific client to manage issues and pull requests, using GitHub CLI authentication.

LazyGit UI

File Browser

neo-tree provides a visual file system explorer that can also create and delete files and directories

TODO Comments

Highlight tasks, fixes, notes and dragons comments, including icons in the gutter. Use Telescope to navigate TODO comments in the current project.

Status Line

LSP feedback

Markdown

• LSP server
• Marksman: select anchors and pages for links