About

Minimalistic setup of Neovim. I use it to develop programs in C/C++. Key features:

usability
speed and small runtime
lightweight and out-of-the-box install
but still capable to do many useful things

Prereqs

supported OS: Ubuntu (tested on Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04), MacOS
wget
you know how to run :q!
tinfo5 library

Install

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/xvoidee/nvi.git
$ cd nvi
$ ./install_linux-x64.sh (or ./install_darwin.sh)

Installer will download and extract all required dependencies. Installation will be portable, means PATH variable is not altered. After installation start nvi via:

~/Downloads/nvi/bin/nvi

Or add path to nvi executable into your PATH enrivonment (below is an example only):

export PATH=$PATH:~/Downloads/nvi/bin

How to use

C++

To build any C/C++ project 2 files are needed

compilation database compile_commands.json Example below shows how to generate database using cmake:

$ cd project
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON ..
$ cd ..
$ ln -s build/compile_commands.json ./

Add coc-config.json to the project (make symlink to template to share between projects or create your own file):

$ mkdir config
$ cd config
$ ln -s /path/to/nvi/config/coc-settings.json ./

clangd setup

To get clangd indexer - open any .cpp file in nvi and run these commands:

:CocInstall coc-clangd
:CocCommand clangd.install

Download takes time and once it finished clangd process will start and index your project.

Hotkeys

nvi is equipped with basic (because plugins provide huuuge amount of functionality) set of predefined hotkeys:

Key	Alternate	Action	Editor mode
Ctrl-T		Toggle file-explorer on/off	NORMAL
Ctrl-J		Jump to split to the left	NORMAL
Ctrl-L		Jump to split to the right	NORMAL
Ctrl-I		Jump to split to the up	NORMAL
Ctrl-K		Jump to split to the down	NORMAL
F2		Save contents of the buffer (equals to :w)	NORMAL
F3		Jump to definition	NORMAL
F4		Jump to implementation	NORMAL
F5		Find all references	NORMAL
F7		Open the fuzzy search [1]	NORMAL
F8		Close the buffer only if changes are saved	NORMAL
F10		Skip all changes and close the editor	NORMAL
F12		Save all changes and close the editor	NORMAL
Shift-Left	,	To the previous buffer [2]	NORMAL
Shift-Right	.	To the next buffer [2]	NORMAL
Ctrl-Space		Open the drop-down list with suggestions [3]	INSERT

Remarks:

May ask to download fzf executable - agree by pressing "y"
Will not change buffer if unsaved
May conflict with language switch

Throubleshooting

I use command line (no X11) and colors are like from 1990s

Unfortunately tty has 8-colors palette and it is not possible to use whole set of colors. Available solutions are: use fbterm, connect to machine using PuTTy/KiTTy, connect to machine using any X11 terminal (gnome terminal, terminator, etc), use headless mode of nvi and connect gui client to it.

I use PuTTy and modifier keys (shift/ctrl/etc) are not working

Use KiTTy.

I use PuTTy/KiTTy and home/end keys are not working

Change terminal type to linux under Connection/Data menu in session setup (field Terminal-type string).

I use command line (no X11) and fuzzy search (fzf) crashing

This is know issue and no fix/workaround at the moment.

I am MacOS user and my colors are messed up in terminal

Use another terminal with 256-color support, iterm2 is one of possible alternatives...

I installed nvi and do not see fancy characters in tabline/statusline

Install Gohu font from https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/Gohu. Version uni-11 would fit with size set to 12 in your terminal. Then enable nerd fonts in config/.user.nvi.vimrc by setting g:nvi_nerd_fonts to 1.