Neovim as a Personalised Development Environment
A few months ago, TJ DeVries (a Neovim core team member) coined the phrase "Personalised Development Environment" or PDE.
I've been using Neovim full-time since July 2021 - starting with no configuration to configuring it with Vimscript and later with Lua - setting options like line numbers and relative numbers, tabs and spaces, and indent and fold levels.
I evaluated and installed some initial plugins to add functionality that I needed. Some of them I still use, and some I've replaced with alternative plugins or built-in solutions that have been included in newer versions of Neovim.
I added my own keymaps that made sense to me that either, in my opinion, improved on default keymaps or created new ones that made sense to me or configured a plugin that I'd added.
Recently, I found and added plugins that added a HTTP client and a database connection manager to Neovim - two pieces of functionality that I'd used in other IDEs or separate applications.
I also wrote my own Neovim plugin for toggling checkboxes within Markdown lists.
Like Drupal and other open-source solutions that I use, I love being able to add or edit functionality as needed.
In the last year or so, I've definitely been able to personalise my Neovim setup to meet my needs, and have it work as a fully-fledged solution for PHP and JavaScript development, DevOps work, and technical writing (including this email).
- Oliver
