This is the problem though: if you come to Neovim, and ask "what is the best formatter/linter" someone will tell you "use null-ls". Then a dozen others will say "don't use null-ls, it's been deprecated, use efm-langserver".

OK, how do I set up efm-langserver with Neovim? Good luck! You could probably use a plugin, or maybe not. You'll need a way to install LSP servers. nvm-lsp-installer? Nope,that's also deprecated, use Mason. OK, MasonInstall Black. Wait, it's not formatting anything. Oh, you might need nvim-treesitter. Um...ok, but that's installed already. Ah, you just haven't configured it correctly...here is my setup (pastes 300 lines of Lua or vimscript with zero context as to where you are supposed to load it)....Why are you using efm-langserver? Formatter.nvim is all you need! What? That's old hat! You should be using neoformat!

If you mention Ale or coc.nvim...they stare at you as if you have just stepped out of a time machine from the 19th century.

I see where you're coming from. FWIW, I've been using Neovim for an odd 7 years or so and only use plugins where absolutely necessary. I'll usually just add an appropriate BufWritePost (trigger after saving the buffer) autocommand for the language's file extension that does what I want. Or I'll add a keybind in .config/nvim/ftplugin/<lang>.vim (or <lang>.lua). You can do fancier stuff with plugins but I find that I just don't need it (and you probably don't either, by the looks of it).

The default LSP client config at https://github.com/neovim/nvim-lspconfig#suggested-configura... sets everything up for you, if you're using an LSP server. I'm not sure why it hasn't been merged into the Neovim repo; possibly because they want to keep the editor core fast and minimal.

All this means you have to do a little more configuring than with something like VSCode, but to be honest, I haven't legitimately needed to make big changes to my config in a few years. There's stuff I add for fun (like little lua scripts to manage my clipboard and to layout tabs the way I want), but to maintain a 'VSCode' level of functionality none of it's needed. The advantage of spending a little extra time, for me, has been that my editor 'fits like a glove', so to speak :)

So basically your problem is feeling insecure because other people do different choices.

I didn't care following all the trends, my setup use coc.nvim[1] and I don't have any problem with that. I don't care about black, I am fine writing python stuff without it.

Your setup doesn't have to be complicated because others is.

[1] which is still maintained by the way.

It feels like you just told me that the thing that works without extra steps isn't cool. Is the problem that you're worried about not being cool?

The problem is when you are a newbie to a space, you don't know the difference between "cool" and "what is the best practice as defined by the experts".

I'm a huge Neovim user, but the amount of "hey guys I just rewrote this perfectly fine plugin in Lua [for the Nth time] check it out" posts every day are tiring.

I can see both points of view.

I’ve definitely been down the Vim config rabbit hole and struggled to find the right balance between “cool” (actively developed with newer features) vs. “best practice” (more mature and stable). My current approach is to search Hacker News comments for “vim plugin-feature-I-want” and the most popular comments usually point me in the right direction.

For what it’s worth, I use Neovim with ALE at the moment and it works just fine.

I have also been able to program for years in C with vim + ale + gutentags but if you start doing some web with all its litlle dsl, it gets overwhelming quite rapidly. In this case LunarVim (or others) is a relief.