TJ made a nice video about how to start with neovim and its configuration. I hope that this link is not against the rules since it’s about neovim and not about vim … Personally I find those 2 very very alike and with the features that I need for my daily work, I can use either one of them without noticing any difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stqUbv-5u2s
Enjoy !
Hi!
kickstart.nvim maintainer here, please don’t follow the advice given in the video to just dump init.lua into place.
Please follow the instructions in the README for the repo and git clone it into your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME instead.
If you just copy pasta init.lua things will break. This is a result of converting Kickstart to lazy.nvim
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I think I already answered my own question - I just need to learn lua really well, and then start over from scratch. Being a total rookie, I have been experiencing endless catch-22’s and rabbit holes. If you can’t sort the simplest fundamentals, then everything is a black box until you learn what’s under the hood. That’s why I chose vim/neovim over vscode. Kickstart should be good when I learn how to configure it. Thanks!
I installed the kickstart.nvim the other day by following the video. I skimmed through the README but I am a total newb and it didn’t make sense so I figured that I would just come back to it later when I know more about lua and plugins. I just copied and pasted into init.lua. Some things seem to work, but what did I do? Should I start over?
Also, it’s a bit frustrating. That video is out of date as it’s prior to the conversion to lazy.nvim
You should rather than just dumping init.lua in place actually git clone the repo into your ~/.config directory. There are instructions for that in the README.
@rickmalek @feoh too many plugins, too many key bindings, too many redundant features - i just don’t get these bloated vim / nvim distributions.
It’s not a distribution.
It’s a bag of Lua files you can use to get started.
Also, it’s not for you :) Users who know enough to hold such opinions aren’t the target audience.
I appreciate your honesty about the README!
You say it didn’t make sense, was it:
- Too long so you felt overwhelmed and stopped?
- Too complicated in some way? Which bit caused you to stall out?
I feel like we need to do better here, but also I’m not a writer myself so I could definitely use all the specific feedback we can get.
Please feel free to file bugs, even if it’s “I don’t understand what <$tech_phrase> means” or similar. I’ll action ever single one of them :)
The README seems fine to me; I’m just overwhelmed with what I don’t know. I’m getting there but it’s an agonizingly slow process. Fyi… I was able to install kickstart.nvim properly and it works, but it will take me awhile to figure out what is what. Thanks!
That’s not just understandable but how could it be any other way?
Heck just Vim itself is layer upon layer of powerful functionality. Now layer in the immense potential of Neovim’s Lua based plugin ecosystem and client/server architecture? 🤯
Give yourself the time to learn. Focus on just the things you need to get the task you’re doing RIGHT NOW done, then focus later on things that can level up your knowledge and productivity.
I’ve been thinking about making Neovim tutorial videos for Youtube. If I did, what kinds of things would be useful to you?
I’m not sure I’m the right person to ask (my learning path has been pretty unconventional) but really basic lua scripting would have helped me. I’m at the beginner stage where too many things don’t make sense, but I just keep attacking from different angles and now some things are starting to click. It just takes time.
Oh I totally agree. The Lua idioms can be confusing and the documentation ecosystem is currently in a place where if you already know Lua well it’s incredibly helpful, but bridging the gap for beginners is a challenge - one worth embracing!
