Recently, I moved from writing my Go in VSCode to writing it in Neovim. I did this for two main reasons:

  1. Ubiquity

    I use Neovim for writing pretty much all my other code (except Java), so it was weird to use VSCode for this one purpose.

  2. Terminal Integration

    I hate the VS Code terminal. It doesn’t have the character support I want, and it overrides a bunch of keys (for example, Ctrl+f for fish autocomplete). I’m also in the terminal already when I’m doing Go development, so being able to just type vim and instantly be in my editor is a blessing.

Before I start, it’s important to note that I’m currently doing all this on Ubuntu 18.04 with Go 1.12, provided via the longsleep/golang-backports ppa. For more info on how to install Go, visit the wiki

Basics

The first bit of configuration is my Go tab settings. These are standard for Go, and even if you don’t set them, gofmt will enforce them anyway.

au FileType go set noexpandtab
au FileType go set shiftwidth=4
au FileType go set softtabstop=4
au FileType go set tabstop=4

I’m using Vundle for my package management. Frankly, I should be using vim-plug, but I haven’t taken the 5 minutes to move over. Vundle does the job just fine.

The first important package to have is vim-go. This plugin is absolutely fantastic, providing pretty much all the base go features you need. In my configuration for this plugin, I turn on syntax highlighting for basically everything. I also like goimports over gofmt because it sorts my imports, so I use that as the default formatter. Finally, I turn on highlighting of the variable my cursor is on, and I enable type hints in airline.

" use goimports not gofmt to format
let g:go_fmt_command = "goimports"
" syntax highlight all the things
let g:go_highlight_build_constraints = 1
let g:go_highlight_extra_types = 1
let g:go_highlight_fields = 1
let g:go_highlight_functions = 1
let g:go_highlight_methods = 1
let g:go_highlight_operators = 1
let g:go_highlight_structs = 1
let g:go_highlight_types = 1
" highlight variables across file
let g:go_auto_sameids = 1
" vim-go get type info in airline
let g:go_auto_type_info = 1

Once this is all set, and the plugin is installed, run :GoInstallBinaries to get the latest version of all required Go binaries.

File Explorer

One of the main reasons I switched from Neovim to VS Code for Go development in the first place was the presence of a persistent file browser. I had used NERDTree before, but the fact that it didn’t persist through tabs made pretty useless for me. However, recently, I found out about :NERDTreeMirror, and it took NERDTree from a nice idea to a killer plugin for me.

:NERDTreeMirror does exactly what it sounds like. It starts the NERDTree file browser in the current tab, mirroring the state of the other already-open trees. This allows NERDTree to effectively act like a persistent file browser. The only problem is that this command isn’t automatically invoked when a new tab is opened, breaking the illusion of a persistent file browser. To fix this, I wrote my own new tab function that checks if NERDTree is already open, and if it is, :NERDTreeMirror is called after the new tab is created. I map this to <leader>t, which in my case, is \t.

function! IsNerdTreeEnabled()
  return exists('t:NERDTreeBufName') && bufwinnr(t:NERDTreeBufName) != -1
endfunction
function! TreeTab()
  if IsNerdTreeEnabled()
    execute 'tabe'
    execute 'NERDTreeMirror'
  else
    execute 'tabe'
  endif
endfu
nnoremap <leader>t :call TreeTab()<CR>

My other config settings, in order

  1. Automatically open NERDTree if no arguments are passed into vim
  2. Open NERDTree to the current file when \v is typed
  3. Close NERDTree if it is the only window left
" auto-open if no args are set
autocmd VimEnter * if !argc() | NERDTree | endif
" open on \v
nnoremap <silent> <Leader>v :NERDTreeFind<CR>
" close if only window left
autocmd bufenter * if (winnr("$") == 1 && exists("b:NERDTree") && b:NERDTree.isTabTree()) | q | endif

Linting

I use Ale for linting. It’s very fast, and most importantly, it’s dumb easy to set up. I’ve struggled for hours with Neomake only to get it half-working, but Ale worked out of the box. Just make sure you have golint installed, and you’re good to go.

I also manually configure the error and warning characters and disable the location list for errors. It’s more annoying for me than it is helpful.

" Error and warning signs.
let g:ale_sign_error = '⤫'
let g:ale_sign_warning = '⚠'
let g:ale_set_loclist = 0

Autocomplete

Autocomplete is notoriously hard to set up in Vim/Neovim, and unfortunately, I don’t have silver bullet to fix that. I’m using deoplete and deoplete-go for better Go support. To use the latter, make sure you have gocode installed. I’m still having some problems with errors on startup, but the solution is very good once gocode has a chance to start up.

My config options, in order

  1. start deoplete at startup
  2. allow me to cycle through autocomplete options with the tab key
  3. set a order of preference for go autocomplete suggestions
" deoplete settings
let g:deoplete#enable_at_startup = 1
inoremap <expr><TAB>  pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" : "\<TAB>"
let g:deoplete#sources#go#sort_class = ['package', 'func', 'type', 'var', 'const']

A few tips for setup:

  • Make sure the python and python3 Neovim providers are installed. They can be installed with the following commands:

    $ pip install neovim
$ pip3 install neovim

  • Make sure all necessary Go binaries are installed. Ensure this with the :GoInstallBinaries command in Neovim.

  • Add a make instruction in Vundle for deoplete-go so that it gets made properly.

    Plugin 'zchee/deoplete-go', { 'do': 'make'}

Misc

Some other plugins I use are:

Conclusion

With these plugins, I can now use Neovim without losing any of the functionality I got in VS Code! If you’re interested, here’s my vimrc. Happy coding!