index.md (2654B)
1 --- 2 title: "2024, Day 11: Another Neovim plugin makes my life easier" 3 description: "Instead of code, here’s a list of other useful (neo)vim plugins" 4 date: 2024-12-11T19:56:42-08:00 5 draft: false 6 --- 7 8 After [my last update]({{< relref "/december-adventure/2024-09/" >}}) I had 9 a plan in place to make a short shell script to simplify my usage of 10 Neovim’s built-in terminal. But then I found the 11 [nvim-unception](https://github.com/samjwill/nvim-unception?tab=readme-ov-file#working-with-git), 12 plugin, which does exactly what I want. I set it up and it works great. 13 14 So instead of code I’ll take this opportunity to share some of the other 15 plugins I use. I only got started installing external plugins after 16 I switched from Vim to Neovim about a year ago[^switch]. I’m not running 17 _too_ many at the moment, and all of them see near-daily use. 18 19 ## Some plugins 20 21 - <https://github.com/preservim/vim-textobj-quote> 22 23 This adds support for the automatic insertion of “curly quotes” in documents 24 (cf. \"straight quotes\"). Nice for writing text, but inappropriate for code 25 (be sure to enable the built-in `filetype` plugin and enable this only for 26 carefully-chosen types of files). 27 28 - <https://github.com/preservim/vim-pencil> 29 30 This is another plugin to support writing text; it handles both hard and 31 soft line wrapping nicely. 32 33 - <https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim> 34 - <https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim> 35 36 Two more plugins (a matched pair) for writing text. Together they support 37 a “focused writing” mode. I use these the least often of the set---they’re 38 better for longer documents than short notes---but they’ve helped me get 39 into the habit of using Neovim for almost everything I write. 40 41 - <https://github.com/jpalardy/vim-slime> 42 43 A “code runner”; it automates sending code to a REPL (such as an R or 44 IPython session) running in another terminal window or within Neovim’s 45 built-in terminal. This replicates what I find to be the most useful feature 46 of IDEs (or... _Emacs_). 47 48 - <https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround> 49 50 This makes it much easier to add or change “surroundings” in text (e.g., 51 quotes, brackets, and tags). This one is funky, and took some getting used 52 to, but I couldn’t live without it now. Using it improved my proficiency 53 with “text object motions”, makes me feel like a Vim wizard. 54 55 [^switch]: I’m inconsistent about how I talk about “Vim” vs. “Neovim”, and 56 in practice I can be pretty haphazard in which one I open. I made the 57 switch to see what all the fuss was about, but since I’m not writing 58 plugins myself, I don’t really experience any differences between them.