Software:Neovim

From HandWiki
Neovim
Other namesNvim
Initial releaseError: first parameter is missing. ()
Written inC, Vim script, Lua
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows and Unix-like
LicenseApache License 2.0

Neovim is a terminal text editor forked from Vim created to refactor and improve the maintainability of Vim's original code and improving the extensibility of Vim by adding support for Lua scripting.[1][2][3][4] Some features of the fork include built-in Language Server Protocol (LSP) support, support for asynchronous I/O by using the C library libuv, a built in terminal emulator[5] and for Lua scripting by using LuaJIT language interpreter,[6] allowing both plugin scripting and running scripts in headless / batch mode. Neovim also cleans up the outdated Vim codebase, making startup faster and allowing for asynchronous code execution.[7][8][9] The project is open source and is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license,[10] its source code is available on GitHub.[11]

History

The Neovim project was started in 2014 by Thiago de Arrua as an effort to completely rework the outdated Vim source code as the "Vim's rebirth of the 21st century"[3][7] after a patch to Vim adding support for multi-threading was rejected.[12][13][14] Neovim had a successful fundraising in March 2014, supporting at least one full-time developer.[4][15][16]

Neovim is meant as a successor to Vim, not a replacement. As such, the project aims to build on top of Vim's features and source code while maintaining Vim's "character"[1] and almost all of its features.[17]

Over the years, various technical improvements were made to the source code, such as making the source code slimmer and more optimized, making features such as search faster and making Neovim extensible with the addition of support for Lua scripting.[1][9]

Neovim has gained popularity in the development scene, and as of January 2026 Neovim gained almost 96 thousand stars on GitHub[18] compared to Vim's almost 40 thousand.[19] In 2025, Neovim was voted the most admired development environment in the Stack Overflow developer survey for the fifth consecutive year.[20][21][22][23][24]

Features and versions

With the 0.5 release of Neovim on 2 July 2021, it gained built-in support for the LSP, Tree-sitter, and more complete Lua support – including the support for more powerful configuration scripts written in Lua like NvChad and LazyVim instead of the outdated Vim script,[25][26][27] scripts that extend Neovim's functionality by adding various features like text completion, syntax highlighting, mouse support and other features found in modern IDEs and text editors.[28][29]

Support for versions of Vim script prior to Vim9script still exists, maintaining retrocompatibility with older configuration files made for Vim,[30] but support for Vim9script won't be added due to the devs focusing on Lua improvements[31][32] and because Vim script is considered hard to read and unintuitive[33]

Several frontends[clarification needed] are under development which make use of Neovim's capabilities.[34][35][36]

Since version 0.9 Neovim supports EditorConfig.[37][38]

Version 0.11 of Neovim improved handling of text completion and made the configuration of LSP servers easier.[39][40]

  • Neovim featuring configured statusbar and dark colorscheme.
    Neovim featuring configured statusbar and dark colorscheme.
  • Tweaked v0.9.0-dev version.
    Tweaked v0.9.0-dev version.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Neovim Vision". https://neovim.io/charter/. 
  2. ↑ "Neovim: vim, out of the box". http://neovim.io/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Neovim: Rewriting & Modernizing The Vim Editor" (in en). https://www.phoronix.com/news/MTYxMzA. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Neovim, if you like vim... - C++ Forum". https://cplusplus.com/forum/lounge/125175/. 
  5. ↑ "Starting - Neovim docs". https://neovim.io/doc/user/starting.html#-l. 
  6. ↑ "Nvim documentation: vim_diff". https://neovim.io/doc/user/vim_diff.html. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "NeoVim vs Vim: Key Features and Differences". https://stack.tools/blog/neovim-vs-vim. 
  8. ↑ "Neovim - A Deep Dive into Its New Features and Performance Enhancements" (in en). https://samuellawrentz.com/hacks/neovim/neovim-deep-dive-features-performance-enhancements/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "What is Neovim, and how is it different from Vim?" (in en). https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/34/what-is-neovim-and-how-is-it-different-from-vim. 
  10. ↑ "neovim/LICENSE.txt at master · neovim/neovim" (in en). https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/master/LICENSE.txt. 
  11. ↑ "GitHub – neovim/neovim: Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability". 2019-08-29. https://github.com/neovim/neovim. 
  12. ↑ Eddie Kovsky (1 February 2017). "Vim's 25th anniversary and the release of Vim 8 [LWN.net"]. lwn.net. https://lwn.net/Articles/713114/. 
  13. ↑ "The author of NeoVim (Thiago de Arruda) tried to add support for multi-threaded ... | Hacker News" (in en). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7279358. 
  14. ↑ "[PATCH Proof of concept: thread-safe message queue"]. https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/65jjGqS1_VQ/m/fFiFrrIBwNAJ?pli=1. 
  15. ↑ "Vimcasts.org blog post". http://vimcasts.org/blog/2014/03/support-neovim/. 
  16. ↑ "Neovim". 23 March 2014. https://www.bountysource.com/teams/neovim/fundraiser. 
  17. ↑ "How to start using Neovim instead of Vim". http://veelenga.com/editors/how-to-start-using-neovim-instead-of-vim/. 
  18. ↑ neovim/neovim, Neovim, 2026-01-17, https://github.com/neovim/neovim, retrieved 2026-01-17 
  19. ↑ vim/vim, Vim - the text editor, 2026-01-17, https://github.com/vim/vim, retrieved 2026-01-17 
  20. ↑ "Technology | 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey § Dev IDEs". Stack Overflow. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#2-dev-id-es. 
  21. ↑ "Technology | 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey § Integrated development environment" (in en). Stack Overflow. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology#2-integrated-development-environment. 
  22. ↑ "Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023 § Integrated development environment" (in en). Stack Overflow. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-admired-and-desired-integrated-development-environment. 
  23. ↑ "Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022 § Integrated development environment" (in en). Stack Overflow. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#section-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-integrated-development-environment. 
  24. ↑ "Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021 § Collaboration tools" (in en). Stack Overflow. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2021#section-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-collaboration-tools. 
  25. ↑ Ayooluwa Isaiah (3 August 2021). "New features in Neovim 0.5 [LWN.net"]. lwn.net. https://lwn.net/Articles/864712/. 
  26. ↑ "Neovim 0.5: Lua, built in LSP, Treesitter and the best plugins for 2021" (in en-US). 2021-07-13. https://benfrain.com/neovim-0-5-lua-built-in-lsp-treesitter-and-the-best-plugins-for-2021/. 
  27. ↑ "NVIM v0.5.0 release log". https://github.com/neovim/neovim/commit/a5ac2f45ff84a688a09479f357a9909d5b914294#:~:text=This%20release%20represents,tracking%20and%20decorations. 
  28. ↑ LazyVim/LazyVim, LazyVim, 2026-01-16, https://github.com/LazyVim/LazyVim, retrieved 2026-01-16 
  29. ↑ NvChad/NvChad, NvChad, 2026-01-16, https://github.com/NvChad/NvChad, retrieved 2026-01-16 
  30. ↑ "Switching to NeoVim". 31 March 2015. http://arusahni.net/blog/2015/03/switching-to-neovim-part-1.html. 
  31. ↑ neovim. "Will neovim support vim9 script (VimL 5, VimScript 5, scriptversion 5)? · Issue #13625 · neovim/neovim" (in en). https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/13625#issuecomment-751903972. 
  32. ↑ "Vim_diff - Neovim docs". https://neovim.io/doc/user/vim_diff.html#Vim9script. 
  33. ↑ Darkholme, Herrington (2014-01-31). "Vimscript the terrible way". https://herringtondarkholme.github.io/2014/01/31/vimscript/index.html. 
  34. ↑ "NyaoVim frontend". 2019-08-29. https://github.com/rhysd/NyaoVim. 
  35. ↑ "Mac OS X frontend". 2019-08-29. https://github.com/rogual/neovim-dot-app. 
  36. ↑ "Neovim-Qt frontend". 2020-07-21. https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt. 
  37. ↑ "Notable changes in Nvim 0.9 from 0.8". 7 April 2023. https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/v0.9.0/runtime/doc/news.txt#L104. 
  38. ↑ "News-0.9 - Neovim docs". https://neovim.io/doc/user/news-0.9.html. 
  39. ↑ "News-0.11 - Neovim docs". https://neovim.io/doc/user/news-0.11.html. 
  40. ↑ "What's New in Neovim 0.11 | g.p. anders". https://gpanders.com/blog/whats-new-in-neovim-0-11/. 



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