---
title: Vim & Neovim
description: Vim is a modal text editor and Neovim its modern fork. You will learn modal editing, motions and text objects, configuration with Lua, plugins and LSP, and how to become fast at editing code.
category: programming-tech
subcategory: developer-tools
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/vim-and-neovim
---

# Vim & Neovim

Vim is a modal text editor and Neovim its modern fork. You will learn modal editing, motions and text objects, configuration with Lua, plugins and LSP, and how to become fast at editing code.

## Available Resources

1 Books • 1 Courses • 3 Websites

## Websites

### 1. Neovim Lua Guide

Explains the API kickstart.nvim uses, so learners can write their own config instead of copying snippets. Official Neovim guide to configuring the editor in Lua: init.lua and module layout, calling Vim commands and functions from Lua, setting options and variables, and creating keymaps, autocommands and user commands. Also available as :help lua-guide.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://neovim.io/doc/user/lua-guide/

**Tags:** neovim, lua, editor-configuration, keymaps, autocommands

### 2. kickstart.nvim

**Author:** TJ DeVries and contributors

Single-file, fully commented Neovim init.lua that sets up lazy.nvim, LSP via nvim-lspconfig and Mason, Treesitter, Telescope, completion and formatting. Meant to be read line by line and modified; README links TJ DeVries' walkthrough video.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim

**Tags:** neovim, lua, lsp, editor-configuration, treesitter

### 3. Vim User Manual (with vimtutor)

**Author:** Bram Moolenaar and the Vim project

Official Vim user manual, the same text as :help user-manual, in browsable form. Progresses from vimtutor and first steps through effective editing, search, text objects, mappings, filetypes and Vim script. Also bundled inside every Vim install. Pairs with vimtutor (run `vimtutor` in a terminal, or `:Tutor` in Neovim) as the hands-on first 30 minutes; the manual is the long-term reference.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://vimhelp.org/usr_toc.txt.html

**Tags:** vim, vimtutor, official-documentation, text-editing, vim-script

## Books

### 1. Practical Vim: Edit Text at the Speed of Thought (2nd Edition)

**Author:** Drew Neil

The canonical text for becoming fast at editing rather than merely configuring. 121 self-contained tips covering the dot command, operators and text objects, registers, macros, search and substitution, the quickfix list and buffers. Each tip is a worked editing problem showing the most economical keystroke sequence. Applies equally to Neovim.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680501275?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** vim, text-editing, macros, text-objects, productivity

## Courses

### 1. MIT Missing Semester: Editors (Vim)

**Author:** Anish Athalye, Jon Gjengset, Jose Javier Gonzalez Ortiz

Best single-sitting conceptual entry point: teaches Vim as a composable language rather than a key list. One-hour MIT lecture with notes and exercises on modal editing, Vim's command language of operators, motions and text objects, counts, macros, search-and-replace, and basic vimrc customization. Explains why Vim's design makes code editing fast.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://missing.csail.mit.edu/2020/editors/

**Tags:** vim, modal-editing, text-objects, developer-tools, command-line

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