Why do you have to switch to NeoVIM

Marius Anghel — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:19:21 +0000

I know, I know.

When I got started in programming, I began writing code in Visual Studio Code. After that, I switched to the IntelliJ suite in college because I had free access to it with my student ID card.

But I always had the feeling that something wasn’t right—something didn’t quite fit for me.

Recently, I started watching some programming videos on YouTube and came across this tutorial.

Right after I finished that video, I watched the second part.

After finishing the second part, I started searching the internet for more information about NeoVIM and additional plugins I could use to configure my new IDE.

And the feeling of writing and setting up every detail yourself—things that usually come as defaults in an IDE—is amazing. It truly gives you the power of programming.

It takes some time to get used to the key bindings, but… it’s worth it, I swear!

I used to be the guy who closed the terminal whenever I accidentally opened VIM because I didn’t know how to exit. Not long ago, I finally learned :wq to close it when merging two branches.

But now, the feeling of not using the mouse, the feeling of not wasting time figuring out which tab I’m on—it's incredible.

I’m warning you now: NeoVIM has no tabs. You can install plugins to display a file drawer on the left side, but everything is controlled from the keyboard.

Finally, I’ll recommend you a book about VIM.

DEV Community: Marius Anghel

Why do you have to switch to NeoVIM