neovide/README.md

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title: Neovide
date: 2021-12-23T22:13:46
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# Neovide [![Discord](https://badgen.net/badge/icon/discord?icon=discord&label)](https://discord.gg/SjFpZdQys6) [![Chat on Matrix](https://matrix.to/img/matrix-badge.svg)](https://matrix.to/#/#neovide_community:gitter.im) [![Discussions](https://img.shields.io/badge/GitHub-Discussions-green?logo=github)](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/discussions)
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This is a simple graphical user interface for [Neovim](https://github.com/neovim/neovim) (an aggressively refactored and updated
Vim editor). Where possible there are some graphical improvements, but functionally it should act like the terminal UI.

![Basic Screen Cap](./assets/BasicScreenCap.png)

I've been using this as my daily driver since November 2019. It should be relatively stable, but I'm still working out some kinks
and ironing out some cross platform issues. In general it should be usable at this point, and if it isn't I consider that a bug and
appreciate a report in the issues! Any help and ideas are also greatly appreciated.

I'm also very interested in suggestions code quality/style wise when it comes to Rust. I'm pretty new to the language and appreciate
any critiques that you might have to offer. I won't take all of them, but I promise to consider anything you might have to offer.

## Features

Should be a standard fully featured Neovim GUI. Beyond that there are some visual niceties:

### Ligatures

Supports ligatures and font shaping.

![Ligatures](./assets/Ligatures.png)

### Animated Cursor

Cursor animates into position with a smear effect to improve tracking of cursor position.

![Animated Cursor](./assets/AnimatedCursor.gif)

### Smooth Scrolling

Scroll operations on buffers in neovim will be animated smoothly pixel wise rather than line by line at a time. Note, multigrid must be
enabled for this to work.
https://github.com/neovide/neovide/wiki/Configuration#multigrid

![Smooth Scrolling](./assets/SmoothScrolling.gif)

### Animated Windows

Windows animate into position when they are moved making it easier to see how layout changes happen. Note, multigrid must be enabled for
this to work.
https://github.com/neovide/neovide/wiki/Configuration#multigrid

![Animated Windows](./assets/AnimatedWindows.gif)

### Blurred Floating Windows

The backgrounds of floating windows are blurred improving the visual separation between foreground and background from
built in window transparency. Note, multigrid must be enabled for this to work.
https://github.com/neovide/neovide/wiki/Configuration#multigrid

![Blurred Floating Windows](./assets/BlurredFloatingWindows.png)

### Emoji Support

Font fallback supports rendering of emoji not contained in the configured font.

![Emoji](./assets/Emoji.png)

### WSL Support

Neovide supports displaying a full gui window from inside wsl via the `--wsl` command argument. Communication is passed via standard io into the wsl copy of neovim providing identical experience similar to visual studio code's remote editing https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/remote-overview.

### Remote TCP Support

Neovide supports connecting to a remote instance of Neovim over a TCP socket via the `--remote-tcp` command argument. This would allow you to run Neovim on a remote machine and use the GUI on your local machine, connecting over the network.

Launch Neovim as a TCP server (on port 6666) by running:

```sh
nvim --headless --listen localhost:6666
```

And then connect to it using:

```sh
/path/to/neovide --remote-tcp=localhost:6666
```

By specifying to listen on localhost, you only allow connections from your local computer. If you are actually doing this over a network you will want to use SSH port forwarding for security, and then connect as before.

```sh
ssh -L 6666:localhost:6666 ip.of.other.machine nvim --headless --listen localhost:6666
```

Finally, if you would like to leave the neovim server running, close the neovide application window instead of issuing a `:q` command.

### Some Nonsense ;)

```vim
let g:neovide_cursor_vfx_mode = "railgun"
```

![Railgun](./assets/Railgun.gif)

### More to Come

I've got more ideas for simple unobtrusive improvements. More to come.

## Configuration

Configuration is done almost completely via global neovide variables in your vim config and can be manipulated live at runtime. Details can be found [here](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/wiki/Configuration).

Note: Neovide requires that a font be set in `init.vim` otherwise errors might be encountered.
See [#527](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/issues/527)

## Install

**Note**: Building instructions are somewhat limited at the moment. All the libraries I use are cross platform and should have
support for Windows, Mac, and Linux. On Windows this should be enabled by default if you have a relatively recent system.

**Note**: Neovide requires neovim version 0.6 or greater. See previous releases such as `0.5.0` if your distro is too slow with updating.

### From binary

Building instructions are somewhat limited at the moment. All the libraries I use are cross platform and should have support for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The rendering is based on opengl, so a good gpu driver will be
necessary. On Windows this should be enabled by default if you have a relatively recent system.

Installing should be as simple as downloading the binary, making sure `nvim.exe` with version 0.4 or greater is on your path, and running it. Everything should be self contained.

### Windows

#### Package manager

[Scoop](https://scoop.sh/) has Neovide in the `extras` bucket. Ensure you have the `extras` bucket, and install:

```
$ scoop bucket list
main
extras
$ scoop install neovide
```

#### From source

1. Install the latest version of Rust. I recommend <https://rustup.rs/>
2. Install CMake. I use chocolatey: `choco install cmake --installargs '"ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System"' -y`
3. Install LLVM. I use chocolatey: `choco install llvm -y`
4. Ensure graphics libraries are up to date.
5. Build and install Neovide:

    ```sh
    git clone https://github.com/neovide/neovide
    cd neovide
    cargo build --release
    ```

6. Copy `./target/release/neovide.exe` to a known location and enjoy.

### Mac

####  Package manager

Neovide is available as Cask in [Homebrew](https://brew.sh). It can be installed from the command line:
```sh
brew install --cask neovide
```

#### From source

1. Install the latest version of Rust. Using homebrew: `brew install rustup-init`
2. Configure rust by running `rustup-init`
3. Install CMake. Using homebrew: `brew install cmake`
4. `git clone https://github.com/neovide/neovide`
5. `cd neovide`
6. `cargo build --release`
7. Copy `./target/release/neovide` to a known location and enjoy.
8. `cargo install cargo-bundle`
9. `cargo bundle --release`
10. Copy `./target/release/bundle/osx/neovide.app` to `~/Applications` and enjoy.

### Linux

#### Arch Linux

Stable releases are [packaged in the community repository](https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/neovide).

```sh
pacman -S neovide
```

To run a development version you can build from [the VCS package in the AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/neovide-git).
This can be built and installed using an AUR helper or [by hand in the usual way](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository#Installing_and_upgrading_packages).
To build from a non-default branch you can edit the PKGBUILD and add `#branch-name` to the end of the source URL.

#### With Snap

Neovide is also available in the Snap Store. You can install it
using the command below.

```
snap install neovide
```
[![Get it from the Snap Store](https://snapcraft.io/static/images/badges/en/snap-store-white.svg)](https://snapcraft.io/neovide)


#### From source

1. Install necessary dependencies (adjust for your preferred package manager)

    ```sh
    sudo apt install -y curl \
        gnupg ca-certificates git \
        gcc-multilib g++-multilib cmake libssl-dev pkg-config \
        libfreetype6-dev libasound2-dev libexpat1-dev libxcb-composite0-dev \
        libbz2-dev libsndio-dev freeglut3-dev libxmu-dev libxi-dev libfontconfig1-dev
    ```

2. Install Rust

    ```sh
    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf "https://sh.rustup.rs" | sh
    ```

3. Clone the repository

    ```sh
    git clone "https://github.com/neovide/neovide"
    ```

4. Build

    ```sh
    cd neovide && ~/.cargo/bin/cargo build --release
    ```

5. Copy `./target/release/neovide` to a known location and enjoy.

## Troubleshooting
- Neovide requires that a font be set in `init.vim` otherwise errors might be encountered. This can be fixed by adding `set guifont=Your\ Font\ Name:h15` in init.vim file. Reference issue [#527](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/issues/527).
- If you installed `neovim` via Apple Silicon (M1)-based `brew`, you have to add the `brew prefix` to `$PATH` to run `Neovide.app` in GUI. Please see the [homebrew documentation](https://docs.brew.sh/FAQ#my-mac-apps-dont-find-homebrew-utilities). Reference issue [#1242](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/pull/1242)

### Linux-specific
- If you recieve errors complaining about DRI3 settings, please reference issue [#44](https://github.com/neovide/neovide/issues/44#issuecomment-578618052).