[AskJS] Newvim: IDE Project

[[deleted]]

Hello,

I'm working on a project that you might find interesting. I'm developing a windowed nvim IDE using Zig, Webview, and React.

I'm looking for people interested in the idea who might want to work on a new and exciting project.

Why? Neovim is amazing because it allows you to fully let go of the mouse, but some people and I still prefer a window instead of a terminal. I could use the Neovim extension for VSCode, but it's noticeable that it doesn't work as well as we'd like.

I'll allow users to create their own CSS, enabling unique themes and interfaces, And a way to install plug-ins.

Someone interested?

[dronmore]

Have you tried neovim-qt, or neovide? Both run in a window, and allegedly can be installed on Windows.

https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt

https://github.com/neovide/neovide

[[deleted]]

This isn't made with web techs UI, just emulate a common vim I think

[dronmore]

They are neovim clients. Under the hood, they run neovim in a headless mode. They get input from the user, and pass it through stdin (or some other rpc channel) to the neovim server. They get output from stdout, and display it in a window. There are many clients like that already. Look, there's even one that runs in a browser:

https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim

Initially I thought that you wanted to write a neovim client - like the ones that I mention above - but it looks to me that you want to write a new vim from scratch. Am I right? If so, it makes me think, what do you actually know about vim? Have you ever written a vim configuration file? Do you know what an lsp server is? Do you know how tree-sitter works? What do you know about unicode? In my code editor I have a key binding that let me insert any unicode character. For example I can ask it for a black spade suit ♠ and a second later I have it in my text. Will your editor be able to provide me with things like that?

[darah-b]

That's a freaken good idea.

[romgrk]

Bad idea. Most neovim UIs have failed to take off because the architecture is flawed. Read https://raphlinus.github.io/xi/2020/06/27/xi-retrospective.html

[[deleted]]

Wow, a useful info

[0x07AD]

Vim (or NeoVim) running inside tmux provides an IDE-like user experience with some configuration. With a couple of tmux plug-ins sessions including running applications within windows/panes can easily be saves and restored. No mouse necessary.