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by massysett 1047 days ago
My Vim needs are very modest. I just don’t need anything Neovim has. It’s complication I don’t need.

If Vim got no new features, I wouldn’t care. If Vim became unmaintained but still available from distributions, I’d still use it. If Vim became unavailable (e.g. due to lack of maintenance) I’d be more likely to switch to nvi than Neovim.

I could probably switch to nvi now, but I have no reason to.
1 comments
throwaway290 1047 days ago
FWIW you can use Neovim like Vim with your existing config, without any of the other stuff. That made the switch easy for me. Of course this means you'd rely on Neovim maintainers honoring that compatibility in future...
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massysett 1047 days ago
One of the things I really like about Vim is how it maintains compatibility with Vi. The manual obsessively points out features Not in vi. It retains some ill-advised things like :Print because Vi had them. Ancient platforms still work, supposedly.

I care about this not because I used Vi (I never have) but because it’s less likely that some new Vim with a newer distribution release will do something I don’t expect. Vim does want I need it to do. I don’t want it to change.

Neovim on the other hand exists entirely to change things. That’s all well and good. I just don’t want it. My editor is complete.

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throwaway290 1047 days ago
Uhm if you read my comment it is specifically about how nvim doesn't change the preexisting behavior of vim. And if I were to believe you then compatibility with vim means compatibility with vi
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massysett 1047 days ago
I did read your comment word for word: “Of course this means you'd rely on Neovim maintainers honoring that compatibility in future.”

I knew that maintaining compatibility was extremely important to Bram Moolenaar. I also knew that Neovim made a big deal out of removing “cruft” and old stuff they decided no one needed. I preferred Bram’s values.

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throwaway290 1047 days ago
and I responded to your "exists to change things". Vim also exists to change things, otherwise it wouldn't exist if Vi was enough. but it is compatible and from my experience nvim is compatible with vim.

Having to rely on them for that is a downside, but I guess you are free to fork nvim if they abandon that promise...

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