Neovim is a Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability. It’s designed for users who want the good parts of Vim. The project does not seek to rewrite Vim from scratch.
Neovim is an extension of Vim: feature-parity and backwards-compatibility are high priorities. It seeks to aggressively refactor Vim source code, and to improve upon Vim’s out-of-the-box experience.
Neovim is released under an open source license.
Key Features
- Modern GUIs. GUIs are implemented as plugins, decoupled from the Neovim core. There’s a wide range of GUIs that are available. We’ve covered the best GUIs in our separate Group Test here.
- Modern terminal features such as cursor styling, focus events, bracketed paste.
- API access from any language including C/C++, C#, Clojure, D, Elixir, Go, Haskell, Java, JavaScript/Node.js, Julia, Lisp, Lua, Perl, Python, Racket, Ruby, and Rust.
- Embedded, scriptable terminal emulator.
- Neovim’s plugin API is backwards-compatible with Vim, but it also allows asynchronous execution.
- Asynchronous job control.
- Shared data (shada) among multiple editor instances.
- XDG base directories support.
- Built-in terminal emulator that not only lets you run interactive programs inside Neovim, but also script and control those programs to create advanced workflows like integration with REPLs and debuggers.
- Complete job control API for managing multiple processes asynchronously.
- Compatible with most Vim plugins, including Ruby and Python plugins.
- Advanced Vimscript engine.
- Cross-platform support – runs in Linux, macOS/OS X, Windows. The project provides an AppImage, a format for distributing portable software on Linux without needing superuser permissions to install the application.
Website: neovim.io
Support: Documentation, Wiki, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Justin M. Keyes and contributors. Neovim was started by Thiago de Arruda. Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar
License: Apache 2.0 license
Neovim is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Vim-like Text Editors | |
|---|---|
| Neovim | Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability |
| Helix | Kakoune / Neovim inspired editor. |
| Lapce | Modern editor in Rust which uses native GUI and GPU rendering |
| NvChad | Neovim config aiming to provide a base configuration |
| LunarVim | IDE layer for Neovim |
| Kakoune | Implements Vi’s "keystrokes as a text editing language" model |
| Vis | Combining modal editing with structural regular expressions |
| vile | Text editor that combines aspects of the Emacs and vi editors |
| pyvim | Implementation of Vim in Python |
| gVim | Vim with a built-in GUI |
| amp | Vim-like editor written in Rust |
| Vy | Vim-like in Python made from scratch |
| moe | Command-line editor inspired by Vim |
| ad | Adaptable text editor |
| Levee | Also known as Captain Video |
| xvi | Portable multi-file text editor |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Integrated Development Environments | |
|---|---|
| RStudio | Enterprise-ready professional software for R |
| PyCharm | Integrated Development Environment for Python |
| Neovim | Continuation and extension of Vim |
| Lapce | Fast and powerful code editor written in Rust |
| NetBeans IDE | Java based IDE from Apache |
| VSCodium | Binary distribution of VS Code |
| Eclipse | Java based environment combining a number of different Eclipse projects |
| Qt Creator | Cross-platform, complete Integrated Development Environment |
| Spyder | The Scientific Python Development Environment |
| KDevelop | An easy to use IDE for KDE |
| Helix | Post-modern modal text editor |
| Positron | Next-generation data science IDE |
| eric | Full featured Python editor and IDE |
| Thonny | Python Integrated Development Environment for Beginners |
| Lazarus | Delphi compatible cross-platform IDE |
| PyDev | Python Integrated Development Environment for Eclipse |
| Gambas | Development environment and a full powerful development platform |
| Leo | Python based IDE, Outliner and PIM |
| IntelliJ IDEA | IDE for Java, Groovy, and other languages |
| LiteIDE | Edit and build Go projects |
| Arduino IDE | Electronics prototyping platform |
| ZeroBrane Studio | Lightweight Lua-based IDE for Lua |
| CodeLite | Powerful and lightweight C/C++ IDE |
| Pyzo | Cross-Platform Python IDE focused on interactivity and introspection |
| DrRacket | IDE for the Racket programming languages |
| Builder | IDE for GNOME |
| Geany | Small and lightweight IDE based on Scintilla |
| Code::Blocks | Very extensible and fully configurable |
| Ecere SDK | Software development kit |
| Zasper | IDE for Data Science |
| U++ | Rapid application development framework |
| roobuilder | Vala and JavaScript IDE |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |