How neovim made me a better developer

Switching to neovim has been the most impactful decision I’ve made as a developer in the last couple of years.

Neovim optimizes the keyboard experience. As developers, we tend to edit more code than we create. Having a great set of tools to make that process easier makes all the difference.

Here’s 4 ways how neovim has changed my developer experience:

Improved File Navigation#

• Using j, k, h, l makes it really easy to move in any direction without leaving the keyboard
• Jump to any line by typing <line_number>G and pressing ENTER
• Supercharge your file search using regular expressions by pressing /

Different interaction modes (Normal, Insert, Visual)#

• Use normal mode to quickly navigate through a file
• Use insert mode to quickly jump into the editing process
• Use visual mode to quickly select text
• Keybindings to make switching easy

Improved Code Refactoring (Macros)#

• Press <q><char> to start recording the macro
• Perform several commands (e.g.):
• Capitalize the first letter of a sentence
• Add a period at the end of the sentence
• Press <q> to stop the recording
• Go to the next line and press <@><char> to auto repeat the action

Easily extendable using lua or vimscript#

• Neovim comes with a lot of built in commands, but allows an easy way to extend its functionality
• Add keybindings, global functions or use plugins to make your editor do anything you want

There's limitless potential.

Neovim = supercharged code editing