Neovim

Neovim is a program for writing and changing text. It is used above all for writing programs, meaning the instructions that software consists of. Unlike in a word processor, there are no fonts, no images, and no toolbars. There is only text, usually in a plain window, often even in the middle of a black terminal window. The whole thing is operated almost exclusively via the keyboard: anyone who uses the mouse works more slowly in Neovim than someone who knows the keyboard shortcuts. The name comes from the fact that Neovim is a renewed version of a very old program called Vim.

Why a 30-year-old editor is still alive

Vim appeared in 1991 and itself descends from an even older program from the 1970s. Over the decades, a huge user community has grown accustomed to it. However, Vim’s code was very tangled and was maintained for years by practically a single person. Adding new ideas was therefore difficult and slow.

In 2014, a group of developers split off and started Neovim. This is called a split or fork: the existing code is copied and developed further in its own direction. The goal was to keep the way it is operated but to clean up the internals. Neovim is open source, meaning the entire program code is publicly viewable and may be modified by anyone.

The competition has benefited both programs. Vim later adopted several features that first emerged in Neovim. For users, this means: a way of working proven over decades, but built on technology that fits today’s tools.

Modes instead of menus

The central peculiarity is working in modes. In normal mode, you don’t type text but give commands: 'dd' deletes a line, 'yy' copies it, '5j' jumps five lines down. Only in insert mode do you write as in an ordinary editor. Beginners find this confusing because a wrong key in the wrong mode does surprising things.

The advantage becomes apparent after some practice. The commands can be combined like small sentences: 'c' for change, 'i' for inside, 'w' for word. Together, 'ciw' swaps out the word under the cursor. Anyone who knows such building blocks edits text very quickly without taking their hands off the keyboard.

Technically, Neovim consists of a core and a user interface that run separately from each other. This means the same core can be embedded in a terminal, in its own window, or even inside another editor. Extensions are usually written in the programming language Lua. This allows Neovim to be expanded from a plain editor into a full development environment, including a file tree, error checking, and autocompletion.

Neovim in terminals, on GitHub, and alongside AI assistants

Neovim is most commonly encountered on servers. Anyone who connects remotely to a computer without a graphical interface often only has a text window available. Basic knowledge of Vim or Neovim is therefore considered practical basic equipment in many IT professions. A classic beginner’s joke is that you can no longer leave the program: the command for that is ':q'.

In developer surveys, Neovim regularly appears among the most popular tools, even though its market share is significantly smaller than that of Visual Studio Code. On platforms like GitHub, thousands of ready-made configurations circulate, with which you can get a fully set-up configuration within minutes. Well-known examples are LazyVim or NvChad.

Neovim is also a topic in connection with AI. There are extensions that bring code suggestions from language models directly into the editor, similar to how GitHub Copilot does it in other programs. Incidentally, a common misconception is that Neovim is particularly difficult to install or only for professionals. The installation takes a minute; the only challenging part is getting used to the way it is operated.