A couple of weeks ago I decided to redo my Neovim configuration and lean into Lua. The goal was to optimize startup performance and improve usability.

Follow along with my neovim dotfiles repo

For years, I used Plug to manage my vim plugins, but after seeing TJ DeVries experiment with lazy.nvim, I decided to go all in!

By far, the biggest challenge was learning Lua 5.1. All the scripting languages I’ve used in the past (Ruby, Perl, Python) emphasize a “batteries included” approach. Lua, in contrast, felt like I had to assemble everything from tiny parts.

Once I got past the Lua hurdle, the rest of the conversion was straightforward. Most of the time I could swap out Vimscript with neovim Lua API methods via a regexp.

I’m pleased with the results. Startup time is faster, there are fewer weird bugs, and I understand all the configurations.