“hyperextensible Vim-based text editor”
Okay, so I can’t leave without commenting how wrong that line is, yet it is the tag-line for all of NeoVim. If you analyse just the word and grammar choices you get a very accurate idea of the absolutely clueless NeoVim project.
The authors clearly did not pay attention in remedial English class. But hey, who cares.
Medical Definition of hyperextensible. : having the capacity to be hyperextended or stretched to a greater than normal degree hyperextensible joints hyperextensible skin. (Merriam-Webster)
This term usually also is used with “hypermobility” which I know a lot about because it was a central part of my Yoga instructor training. It is characterized by individuals who are very “flexible” but put themselves are far greater risk than the muscle-bound people because they can permanently damage their joints, you know, like NeoVim neophytes.
In Yoga and in Vim you want to build stability through strength. People who are very flexible think they are amazing because they can hit every Yoga pose, but they really are some of the worst Yogis because they have no idea about the importance of body alignment and building of strength.
Using Vim properly builds solid, sustainable, properly-aligned strength. Instead of extending your Vim to be a monster that is completely and totally incompatible everywhere else, you should build quality mental and motor strength and speed through scripting and shell integration that will serve you well anytime you use the command line in addition to your editing sessions. Then instead of some monstrous plugin you’ve added to the “extensible” (not nearly the right definition) NeoVim you now have a shell script that you can combine — in the true UNIX way — with others in any number of unanticipated pipelines that don’t even involve your editing sessions.
UNIX is already extensible. You don’t need to build hypermobility into your editor. Learn UNIX/Linux first. Beginners who learn to over-extend with NeoVim are damaging their joints in very real ways making them completely useless on most professional teams that understand this. People who knowingly pick NeoVim without being able to articulate clearly and convincingly why they are using alpha software instead of the default text editor on millions of systems for more than two decades should never be hired.
In fact, I know of people who will now ask what editor a person prefers
and why during the hiring interview. I used to ask that same question.
There’s a lot to be said about a candidate who has actually researched
their decision and can articulate it rather than just following the
often completely asinine, sometimes dangerous, trends. Using NeoVim as
your default — especially if you actually have a .vimrc full of Lua
— is an automatic disqualification for most ops and security jobs.
Others might still allow it, some clueless startups even prefer it, and
for those, well, that’s the filter you need as a quality tech
professional to politely excuse yourself from the interview and find a
company who doesn’t have completely dumb-ass technical decisions at its
core.
I still haven’t moved them over, but I still have my original point-by-point examination of NeoVim and conclusions about why NeoVim is just best to not exist any longer.