NVIM Studio

If you are a VS Code user, I won’t say anything. However, if you are a Vim user, you must use Neovim. The reason is that Neovim provides better plugins, better UI, and most importantly LSP support. It’s not a stretch to say that Neovim is the future.

That being said, Neovim has a steep learning curve even for Vim experts. This is where NVIM studio comes in. NVIM studio will help you understand how to set up Neovim, providing a basic platform to foster your own setting.

Features

• LSP support that provides:

  • Jump-to-definition, find-references and more powered by Telescope.
  • Static analysis
  • Auto completion
  • Linting and formatting

• Better highlighting

  

  Treesitter-based highlighting (left) vs Traditional highlighting (right)

• Git Integration

  

• Highlight marker

  

• Yank to the system clipboard and vice versa

  

• Markview that enriches markdown previews

Prerequisites

You should set up a good environment to make your NVIM life easier. NVIM Studio is running in the following environments:

• Ubuntu 20.04 or above

• Windows Terminal

• Set CaskaydiaCoveNerdFont-Regular.ttf by default to your terminal.

Setting up the Environment

1. Install the following packages. It could be a overkill to install all packages. Some of them might not be necessary depending on your environment. However, note that if you encounter any unexpected symptom throughout this guide, come back here and see what is missing.

   sudo apt install ssh keychain make cmake python3-cryptography \
   clang-format automake autoconf pkg-config python3-pip clang \ 
   libtool-bin npm curl build-essential unzip gettext ninja-build \
   clang-tidy yacc libevent-dev bison libncurses-dev

2. Install universal-ctags

   sudo apt-get install libjansson-dev
   mkdir ~/.local/src; cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags.git --depth=1
   cd ctags
   ./autogen.sh
   ./configure --prefix=$HOME/.local/
   make
   make install

3. Install tmux

   I strongly recommend using tmux if you haven't already. If you have a root privilege, sudo apt install tmux will do. If the version is lower than 3.2a in your Ubuntu or if you don't have a root privilege, you may as well build tmux >= 3.2a to enjoy true color. libevent and ncurses are prerequisites. See this page. I describe the tmux build command as an example as follows:

   cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/tmux/tmux.git
   cd tmux
   ./autogen.sh
   ./configure --prefix=${HOME}/.local \ 
   CFLAGS="-I${HOME}/.local/include \
   -I${HOME}/.local/include/ncurses" \
   LDFLAGS="-L${HOME}/.local/include \
   -L${HOME}/.local/include/ncurses -L${HOME}/.local/lib"
   make && make install

   Install tpm (Tmux Plugin Manager)

   cd
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guru245/dotfiles/refs/heads/main/.tmux.conf
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guru245/dotfiles/refs/heads/main/truecolor-test
   cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm
   tmux

   Press <leader>, i.e., Ctrl+a in this setting and then press I (capital) to install tmux plugins. You may want to run truecolor-test to check if true color is working correctly.

4. Install misc packages for Neovim

   sudo apt install ripgrep fzf fd-find bear
   ln -s $(which fdfind) ~/.local/bin/fd
   

Installing Neovim

sudo apt install ninja-build gettext cmake unzip curl build-essential
cd ~/.local/src
git clone https://github.com/neovim/neovim
cd neovim
git checkout tags/v0.10.2
make distclean <- if necessary
make deps <- if necessary
make CMAKE_EXTRA_FLAGS="-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/.local" CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make install
pip3 install pynvim

Installing NVIM Studio

cd ~/.local/src
git clone https://github.com/guru245/nvim-studio.git
cd
mkdir .config
ln -s ~/.local/src/nvim-studio/nvim ~/.config/nvim/
nvim <- Ignore some errors on the first run. It will disappear in the next run.

Setting up LSP

Before you dive in, you need to understand how to utilize LSP (Language Server Protocol). To fully utilize LSP, you need to create compile_commands.json. compile_commands.json can be created by bear. You can see how to use bear. When you succeed in creating the json file, you are ready to move on.

Next, you must install a language server that fits your needs. Run :Mason in the nvim commandline. Just then, you will see the following screen.

You can select a LSP that you want to install by pressing i. If you encounter an error, read the error message. You might need to install some dependent packages such as python3.10-venv, etc.

After installing the LSP, you need to specify the LSP name in init.lua as follows:

local servers = {
  'clangd',
  'rust_analyzer',
  'pylsp',
  'lua_ls',
  'cmake',
  'efm',
}

Basic Usage

• F1: Which key that shows key mappings

• F2: Save the current file

• F3: Toggle tagbar, source code browser on the left side

• F4: Toggle nvim-tree, file system explorer on the right side

• Esc: Clear all marks

• ctrl+h, ctrl+l: Go to the tab on the left/right

• alt+h, alt+l, alt+k, alt+j: Move between nvim panes

• ,w: Save and close the current buffer.

• <leader>p: Toggle paste option. This is useful if you want to cut or copy some text from one window and paste it in nvim. Don't forget to toggle paste again once you finish pasting.

• <leader>m: Mark the keyword under the cursor. See more mappings here

• K: Shows a function prototype in a pop up.

  

• [d and ]d: Prev/Next diagnostic message.

• <C-W>d: vim.diagnostic.open_float()

  

Tmux Usage

You can find the intuitive mappings here.

Nvim-tree Usage

Press ? to see a help screen that shows all mappings.

Gitsigns Usage

This plugin is convenient to stage, reset and navigate hunks. Check out the keymaps

Diffview Usage

Diffview allows you to cycle through diffs for all modified files for any git rev, not to mention super convenient to resolve all conflicts. You can start Diffview by pressing the following commands. Once you get in, you can press g? to see all mappings.

• <leader>do: Open diffview that shows differences against the current index

• <leader>df: Open a file history that allows you to list all the commits.

• <leader>dF: Open all files history view that allows you to list all the commits.

• <leader>dc: Close diffview

Comment Usage

This helps you write comments. See all mappings here.

Telescope Usage

Telescope helps you navigate the code. To perform telescope searching, refer to the following keymaps:

keymap	desc
<leader>sh	Search Help
<leader>ss	Search Select Telescope
<leader>ff	Lists files in your current working directory, respects .gitignore
<leader>fb	Open Telescope file browser
<leader>lg	Search for a string in your current working directory and get results live as you type
<leader>ca	Excute a code action
<leader>cs	Lists LSP references for word under the cursor
<leader>cg	Goto the definition of the type of the word under the cursor
<leader>cc	Lists LSP incoming calls for word under the cursor
<leader>ct	Searches for the string under your cursor or selection in your current working directory

For the file browser mappings, see here. Note that goto_parent_dir is mapped to u due to the conflict between Telescope and file browser. The bug report has been submitted.

For the other Telescope mappings, see here.