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Since I decided to keep my setup as lightweight as possible, and to rely on (Neo)vim builtins as much as I can, I have no other packages than those listed in the very first post of this series. However, I keep looking at new Neovim-related plugins, written in Lua since I expect them to be faster and easier to integrate than their Vim-only counterparts. For a full list of awesome (or not) plugins, you can check out this list hosted on GitHub.

Here is a list of plugins that I am particularly interested in:

• nvim-autopairs: I’ve been using delimitMate for a long time, then auto-pairs. Each time I had to write custom exceptions because I write a lot of text files and sometimes Lisp. I ended up with this poor man version, which has the benefit of not providing systematic but most of the time useless completion for single and double quotes, though:

  inoremap ` ``<left>
  inoremap ( ()<left>
  inoremap { {}<left>
  inoremap {<CR> {<CR>}<ESC>O
  

  This plugin, however, looks like the new kid on the block for Neovim users apparently. At present, I prefer to type parenthesis, brackets and the like myself, but I may change my mind.

• surround.nvim: Again, I used to use a handmade simplified version of Tim Pope’s awesome plugin, with the following bindings:

  vnoremap _" :call chl#text#surround('"', '"')<CR>
  vnoremap _' :call chl#text#surround("'", "'")<CR>
  vnoremap _( :call chl#text#surround('(', ')')<CR>
  vnoremap _= :call chl#text#surround('`', '`')<CR>
  vnoremap _[ :call chl#text#surround('[', ']')<CR>
  vnoremap _{ :call chl#text#surround('{', '}')<CR>
  

  It does more or less what I generally need to do: surround one or two words using specific delimiters. However, it sucks for s-expressions, and I would like a more reliable way to handle barfing and slurping, or to quickly capture forms or s-exp, without the hassle of the vim-sexp plugin. This new plugin looks interesting, though, as it provides two modes (sandwich and surround) in normal mode, but also special keybinding in insert mode.

  Here is the function I use by the way:

  "" https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Surround_selection_with_text
  function! text#surround(s1, s2) range
    exe "normal vgvmboma\<Esc>"
    normal! `a
    let lineA = line('.')
    let columnA = col('.')
    normal! `b
    let lineB = line('.')
    let columnB = col('.')
    if lineA > lineB || lineA <= lineB && columnA > columnB
      normal! mc
      normal! `amb
      normal! `cma
    endif
    exe "normal `ba" . a:s2 . "\<Esc>`ai" . a:s1 . "\<Esc>"
  endfunction
  

• neorg: As a long time Org user, I was intrigued by this new plugin, which is not completely a rewrite of Emacs Org mode for (Neo)vim but introduces some new features, like simplified key mapping, improved code blocks with Treesitter integration, and builtin completion. It looks amazing, although I’m not sure I will switch to the new “.norg” filetype for the time being. In fact, I barely write any Org document these days, except those I drafted last year that I hope to complete one day or the other, this year.

• nord.nvim: I no longer use the wonderful Nord theme since I switched back to a light theme (every app, not only CLI tools). I have a copy of the original Nord theme in my colors/ directory, but I barely use it (only when my eyes are to tired at night). However, this theme adds support for a lot of plugins I currently use, and it seems to treesitter-aware.

• vim-ultest: I’ve been using vim-test on occasional basis in the past, but since I’m not a TDD guy, nor a heavy test writer for my scripts, I stopped there. This plugin provides several enhancement to vim-test by exploiting the sign column and floating window, like gitsigns or LSP diagnostics, and by allowing a running process to be attached for debugging (e.g., using Pdb in the case of Python).