NVF | The Superior Way To Configure Neovim With Nix

I'm just finishing the transition of my Neovim configuration to Nixvim and now you present NVF.

[@winder2412]

same 😂 I'll probably start transitioning to nvf since i love raf's work

[@randomexplosion6527]

Rip

[@MD.TaufikKhan-g3c]

I completed nixvim just a month ago now you give me this

[@caffeine01]

was literally thinking about configuring neovim with nix earlier today, and then you post this, thanks!

[@santiagowu5365]

I'll definitively try this out. I feel like NixVim is a little bit restrictive, but this seems to be better.

[@JohnMichaelVoudouris]

Hooray! More quality NixOS information/education!!

[@jacekpoz2203]

raf is the goat

[@Omaaar-e7o]

raf is woke

[@min3craftpolska514]

this comment has been sponsored by raf

[@CountDookuful]

I used nixvim for ages and finally just switched to nixCats. That way I can just configure everything in Lua. And I don't need to wait for my maintainer to add support for the plugins I want. I can also set up custom behaviors way more easily.

[@tommy.3377]

cool sounds amazing, I am checking it out right now :")

[@ggorg0]

I recently switched from neovim to vscode, mainly because of some problems I've been having with NixVim and some VSCode-exclusive plugins I had to use. Will reconsider switching to nvim once NVF becomes a bit more mature and has all the plugins I need!

[@vimjoyer]

Nice

[@Omaaar-e7o]

it doesn't need to adopt all your fav plugins just load custom ones, I already made it complete for my use :)

[@jahanson]

Been waiting for something like this, thanks!

[@kalyanoliveira3224]

cant tell you how much I needed this video right now, thanks!

[@emersonzapata1611]

Pretty Nice ✨️ Today I'm starting to migrate my nvim lua configuration to this approach 😎✨️

[@bastiana3611]

I think I'll stick to NixVim for right now, I don't feel like migrating again, and I don't see too many benefits over NixVim with NVF to warrant a swap. Good video! :) What about you?

[@vimjoyer]

I'll decide during next neovim rewriting ritual :D

[@levoganisian5852]

Omg! Its the coolest nix video again! 🤩 Btw what terminal are you using with this beautiful cursor/carriage animation?

[@vimjoyer]

It's kitty with a new trail feature

[@ZiggleFingers]

tell me more about this cursor move animation thing.

[@vimjoyer]

It's a new kitty feature. programs.kitty.settings.cursor_trail = 3; option in home-manager

[@ZiggleFingers]

smear-cursor?

[@Gary-mq2ci]

In the NVF documentations it states: 'Not comfortable with a full-nix config or want to bring your Lua config? You can do just that, no unnecessary restrictions.', and yet I don't see any reference in the manual on how to achieve that. Do you know if that's achievable or are the devs planning to implement it in the future ? I'm interested in bringing my Lua config as standalone lua files and just make nvf reference it via nix path.

[@vimjoyer]

You can use vim.extraLuaFiles vim.luaConfigPre vim.luaConfigPost etc

[@ImperiumLibertas]

I'd definitely prefer an incremental approach to preserve my current config. I hardly need my nvim config to be declarative but installations absolutely should be. Right now I take in my dotfiles as a flake and bind it using home-manager which allows me to keep the original format of my configs. I absolutely could not migrate my entire config in one go without a massive lift which would be majorly disruptive.

[@moutyum]

it's really cool for neovim newcomers. but there should be a big warn sign. everything will be great if you requirements are covered by framework. but if not, you will end up in a situation when you need to actually learn how to configure nvim in lua in order to package the missing parts. boom and now you know how to achieve the same result in lua instead of nix. and new question arise: why do you need two languages for the same purpose when the later will be translated to the first? lua configuration also could be modular and extensible.

[@spfab3429]

Honestly, that seems pretty cool. I don't really care much about configuring neovim anymore or keeping my config up to date, since I mainly use emacs right now, so this could eliminate a lot of hassle easily and get me a "good-enough" neovim setup quickly. (BTW does something similar exist for emacs?)

[@Bubuntux]

this is great, is there something like it for desktop environments?

[@vimjoyer]

There's plasma manager for kde

[@tommy.3377]

Ah Mr. Vimjoyer! Assalam-0-Alaikum ! =) I wanted to ask you that how did you set up your cursor to look so cool? I also want that type of effect on my cursor, can you tell me how ? :")

[@vimjoyer]

It's a new feature in kitty terminal

[@asahfikir]

Please do also make a video about nixcats so I can compare that with this one

[@VSurya-vt4nd]

I was literally thinking of migrating from Lua to Nix tomorrow, as I had been waiting for the lazy feature to mature a bit. I came here for the nixvim framework, and lo and behold, a new one is already out. Should I wait a bit more for both of them to mature a bit more and then decide which one to pick?

[@RedbeardyMcGee]

best advice is to never leave the lua behind. use something like nixCats so you can manage packages, plugins and other dependencies with nix (and pin them to specific commits!) but write your configuration in pure Lua. Keep the Lua. Use the Lua. Discarding the Lua will make your experience worse. But also just whatever works for you homie. I found that wrapping programming languages inside nix is a fool's errand -- stick to nix for config formats, not languages.

[@VSurya-vt4nd]

@@RedbeardyMcGee I can fully understand where you are coming from. Lua is already used for configuring the neovim and using nix to configure Lua to configure neovim just seems bit silly... But nix also has a lot of advantages as well, when writing Lua code I need to break down complex function to smaller but more manageable ones, which inevitably reduces performance, but using nix I dont need to bother with that, the final Lua code can be as complex as it need to be as I only need to bother with nix and using nix I can batter integrate neovim with the system like using sops for secret management

[@RedbeardyMcGee]

@@VSurya-vt4nd I think your issue is not the tools, but the application of those tools. You probably could get better results if you learn lua more thoroughly. Plus nixCats can integrate with the rest of the nix ecosystem just fine (if not better). Anyway, good luck

[@NestorManriqueCruz]

What do you use to move the cursor like that 😮

[@vimjoyer]

A new feature in kitty terminal

[@Julien-rc1bi]

It's interesting, thanks for the video. I'm using Nixvim but I think nvf shares the same drawback as Nixvim: it's a pain to iterate over your config, like tweaking the options of a plugin or other part, you have to wait for it to rebuild the whole thing, even with cache, it takes a minute or two. Compared to the vanilla nvim, where all it takes is to restart nvim. It would be nice if you could make a video about nixcats or edenVim as they are yet another alternative to use nvim with nix but focus more on configuration via lua.

[@vimjoyer]

True

[@jaimekurzweg-ne4gc]

If you run nixvim as a standalone flake, all you have to do is run "nix build" and "nix run" to iterate. Then you can update your configuration once everything works.

[@Julien-rc1bi]

@ I know that's what I'm doing already. But even as a standalone version, running "nix run ." takes a minute or two to rebuild. That's quite frustrating when you want to try out plugins options.

[@kokomema]

Omg new ribbon text animation 🎉

[@vimjoyer]

yeah

[@qwfp]

I just finished moving from normal neovim config to nixvim. Now it's time to move again? 😔

[@vimjoyer]

Only one way to find out

[@hadockzin]

I'm my opinion, no, if you wanna configure neovim with nix, nixvim is still the best way to do it. Specially because of what nixvim in the backend moving to a RFC-042 approach with freeform settings, most plugins are future-proof, if it happens that options aren't updated

[@prashanthshetty8337]

how hard it is to clone ur repo to a new setup?

[@Omaaar-e7o]

@@prashanthshetty8337 the point is to configure neovim with nix language

[@2Kaleb]

So what's the difference to nixvim?

[@vimjoyer]

The way options are structured and configuration is extended is very different, but in the end the result is very similar

[@drishalballaney]

I think nixvim would have more packages and options for now right ?

[@vimjoyer]

yes, nvf is pretty new

[@Omaaar-e7o]

​@@drishalballaneynothing stops you from loading custom plugins :3

[@mars_0008]

Isn't the big advantage that nvf supports lazy loading but nixvim doesn't?

[@psychoedge5509]

Un saludo a la chaviza

[@moutyum]

0 days since new framework for defining nvim config under NixOS has been promoted

[@ag1015]

hell yeah

[@winder2412]

not gonna lie, raf is a god in nix

[@HirschyKiss]

Would love to see a guide for deploy-rs. please!

[@vimjoyer]

Yeah, it's coming

[@Nathan_Nino]

But I just followed your tutorial on nixvim yesterday

[@blank6393]

Rip my nixvim setup

[@MD.TaufikKhan-g3c]

I can feel you brother 😂

[@Jheickson_Felipe]

I was just watching your previous Neovim videos and then got the discord notification This couldn't be more perfecly timed

[@vimjoyer]

nice

[@Qohist]

Or use God damn Helix and never ever worry about configuring using nvf or nixvim

[@pantium98]

It looks cool, but since Nix doesn't support Windows I can't use it. I'll stick with rocks and Lazy

[@vimjoyer]

Yeah, only in WSL, sadly

[@stoicfloor]

I'm just happy with Nixvim for 2 days. why you do dis tho brother

[@karthickb1973]

got fed up with nix just because i cant have lazy nvim running with my favourite plugins

[@vimjoyer]

Pretty sure that lazy nvim works on NixOS just like on any other distro

[@RedbeardyMcGee]

@@vimjoyer mason does not, however, which is like 90% of the magic in lazy.nvim

[@karthickb1973]

@@RedbeardyMcGee btw does mason work with this

[@RedbeardyMcGee]

@@karthickb1973 there have been some recent advancements to support mason better, but plain lazy.nvim and plain mason will not work as advertised unless you have a wrapper. nixCats, kickstart-nix and nvf all offer that wrapper, I think.

[@iblamefps]

rip my nixvim

[@Pierre-zh3ed]

But I use Helix.

[@linkarzu]

I'm scared of nix 😢

[@vimjoyer]

Don't be scared, if you have any questions you can ask on our discord server

[@linkarzu]

@@vimjoyer appreciate that! When I try nix. I know where to look

[@kexec.]

While I'm using Nix, I've noticed that the toxicity in both the Hyprland Nix channel and the unofficial NixOS Discord server is quite overwhelming. I'm not very familiar with the Vimjoyer server, but if the same users are active there, I have my doubts about the environment. I think it's best to stick to the official Matrix server, as they seem to implement some moderation.

[@Soliprem]

nixvim getting dethroned

[@danko95bgd]

These nix configs are worse than using an ORM. There are million programs, who thought it would be a good idea for every pkg maintainer to add another cfg abstraction. It makes no sense.

[@SomeEmptyBox]

shelfware spotted

[@vimjoyer]

real

[@maxarendorff6521]

Just switch to Helix lol.

[@vimjoyer]

Helix is awesome too

[@bastiana3611]

Damn bro, you're built!

[@RedbeardyMcGee]

I prefer nixCats.

[@dustee2680]

Same, i feel like abstracting lua away is not worth it in case of Neovim. You trade away too much for convenience. Nixcats uses nix for fetching plugins, lets me configure multiple neovim packages in lua then bring them up anywhere by using `nix run gitrepo` i think it is the golden middleground of nix usage in the case of neovim.

[@snickersanyone]

Was gonna say, imo nixCats is the best approach. Nix to manage packages, lua for the config, packer as a fallback on systems without Nix.

[@leonlee9518]

I''m just conplete my lazy.nvim , then i see you this video .