> you can bring over your vim config and it'll just work.
Except when it doesn't:
$ nvim init.vim
Error detected while processing /home/martin/.config/nvim/init.vim:
line 44:
E474: Invalid argument: completeopt=menuone,popuphidden,noselect
line 50:
E518: Unknown option: completepopup=highlight:Pmenu,border:off
E824: Incompatible undo file: /home/martin/.cache/vim/undo/%home%martin%.config%nvim%init.vim
Or when opening a Go file:
$ nvim a.go
Error detected while processing function edc#init[34]..<SNR>66_apply[40]..<SNR>66_save:
line 8:
E121: Undefined variable: v:none
E116: Invalid arguments for function get
E15: Invalid expression: get(b:edc_save, a:setting, v:none) isnot v:none
Error detected while processing function edc#init[34]..<SNR>66_apply[32]..<SNR>66_save:
line 8:
E121: Undefined variable: v:none
E116: Invalid arguments for function get
E15: Invalid expression: get(b:edc_save, a:setting, v:none) isnot v:none
Error detected while processing function edc#init[34]..<SNR>66_apply[2]..<SNR>66_save:
line 8:
E121: Undefined variable: v:none
E116: Invalid arguments for function get
E15: Invalid expression: get(b:edc_save, a:setting, v:none) isnot v:none
Error detected while processing function edc#init[34]..<SNR>66_apply[14]..<SNR>66_save:
line 8:
E121: Undefined variable: v:none
E116: Invalid arguments for function get
E15: Invalid expression: get(b:edc_save, a:setting, v:none) isnot v:none
Error detected while processing function gopher#go#set_build_package[11]..gopher#go#module:
line 12:
E117: Unknown function: chdir
And they don't even always show properly on startup (just "press ENTER", need to use :messages).
There's loads of incompatibilities; some behaviour is different as well. I can't get it to stop clearing the terminal on exit for example; my 'nnoremap <Leader>p "*p' mapping just inserts '"', my Control+space mapping doesn't work for whatever reason, for some reason a lot of stuff looks different even though it has the same colour scheme, quite a number of my custom functions/commands/mappings error out for various reasons, etc. etc. And not all of these are very complex either: <C-Space> is a simple expression map: inoremap <expr> <C-@> pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" : "\<C-x>\<C-u>" – Pressing <C-x><C-u> works, but this doesn't(?)
"You can bring over your vim config and it'll just work" might be true is you have a simple vimrc with a few basic ":set"s, but it breaks down very fast.
Yeah, that's Neovim 0.5. But it's been like this for years: when I tried Neovim 0.2 (or something? I don't recall the exact version, years ago anyway) I also got many errors and incompatibilities.
At this point, I think it's probably better to see Neovim as its own editor rather than "an improved Vim". Obviously based on Vim and still with close ties (many Vim patches are still backported), but the "it's just like Vim but with async + true colours"-days are long gone, and the differences will only increase in the future.
Personally, I even stopped making my plugins compatible with Neovim. For example methods ('foo bar'->split(' ')) aren't supported, but were added to Vim close to two years ago (Aug 2019). It's not that the Neovim people are against it: just no one bothered to port it as they prefer to work on the Lua stuff. I find it very convenient so I use it, and Neovim users... well... Sorry :-(
As an inveterate vim user, I jumped to neovim in hopes of a leaner, meaner and faster editor with an easier configuration process ( i don't like vimscript as compared to emacs lisp).
After 5 years, neovim has hit a lot of milestones and I see it going places, yet the only thing that still attracts me to it is the energy and enthusiasm of the community.
I still don't fancy learning an entirely new language to configure my editor, but that's the fun part! ymmv I guess.
Except when it doesn't:
Or when opening a Go file: And they don't even always show properly on startup (just "press ENTER", need to use :messages).There's loads of incompatibilities; some behaviour is different as well. I can't get it to stop clearing the terminal on exit for example; my 'nnoremap <Leader>p "*p' mapping just inserts '"', my Control+space mapping doesn't work for whatever reason, for some reason a lot of stuff looks different even though it has the same colour scheme, quite a number of my custom functions/commands/mappings error out for various reasons, etc. etc. And not all of these are very complex either: <C-Space> is a simple expression map: inoremap <expr> <C-@> pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" : "\<C-x>\<C-u>" – Pressing <C-x><C-u> works, but this doesn't(?)
"You can bring over your vim config and it'll just work" might be true is you have a simple vimrc with a few basic ":set"s, but it breaks down very fast.