FEAT: Final additions to the post!!!!
I can't wait to ship this to Wolf :)
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@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Desc: After using Neovim for years, I tried the JetBrains products for a month.
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###### Author: Hayden Hargreaves
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###### Published: 02/25/2025
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###### Published: 03/27/2025
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## Background
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@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ JetBrains products.
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With my student email, I qualify for free access to the JetBrains suite, which is a huge factor in this
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choice. A subscription for a JetBrains editor is nearly $100 a year, **per editor**. In this experiment,
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I will be using **PyCharm**, **WebStorm**, **GoLand**, **CLion**, and **DataGrep**. I do not want to spend
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I will be using **PyCharm**, **WebStorm**, **GoLand**, **CLion**, and **DataGrip**. I do not want to spend
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hundreds of dollars on an editor when so many free options exist, but their education benefits, I cannot
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use that as an excuse. Furthermore, I may as well take advantage of the benefits while I have them!
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@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ vim motions natively into the editor. In the past, I have used the **VSCode Neov
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slow, buggy and simply just bad. However, even in just the short time writing this article, I have not noticed
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any large issues with the vim motions in the JetBrains plugin.
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Another thing I will miss during these 30 days is the plugins I use in my Neovim configuration. Bellow, you
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Another thing I will miss during these 30 days is the plugins I use in my Neovim configuration. Below, you
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can see a collection of each plugin I use in my setup. Quite a few! Some of my favorites being **Harpoon**
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and **Telescope** which allow me to move between buffers (similar but different from files) with ease. During
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this experiment, I will not install any of these plugins into my JetBrains editors. I could very easily convert
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@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ JetBrains IDEs. They are listed below:
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## Artificial Intelligence
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With AI on the rise, I am posed with the question of using an AI tool in my editor or not. As you've seen above,
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With AI on the rise, I am faced with the question of using an AI tool in my editor or not. As you've seen above,
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I use **GitHub Copilot** in my Neovim config, which has served me well. In my experience, it is bad at generating
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complex code, but it does an exceptional job with helping me write comments and boilerplate code. However, I have
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found that I think less and rely on Copilot far too much. During these 30 days, I hope to break this habit, which
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@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ out-of-the-box experience.
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" vnoremap J :m '>+1<CR>gv=gv<CR>
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" vnoremap K :m '<-2<CR>gv=gv<CR>
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" These do work! Indent lines with tab and shift-tab
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" Indent lines with tab and shift-tab
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nnoremap <TAB> V>
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nnoremap <S-TAB> V<
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vnoremap <TAB> >gv
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@ -190,6 +190,9 @@ set visualbell
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set noerrorbells
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```
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This is a sample `.ideavimrc` file which I used for the month. A lot of the settings I found myself wanting to tweak
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could be done through the menus in the editor itself. Which at times, proved to be rather difficult.
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## Disclaimer
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The following sections will review my findings and the results of this experiment. Keep in mind, anything I say is
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100% my own opinion, and every user will likely have a different experience. Nothing here is **fact** just simply
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@ -201,15 +204,18 @@ experience slightly more cumbersome. For example, I did not find a very good way
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**class search** or **symbol search** are powerful, but sometimes I want to search for a file or navigate quickly between
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files. I was not able to find this functionality using the default tooling in the Idea products.
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Another thing I was not a huge fan of is the `.idea` folder that is created in the root of each project. This is a small
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Another thing I was not a huge fan of is the `.idea` directory that is created in the root of each project. This is a small
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complaint, but in large projects, it can create more bloat in the source. Many times I experienced issues with files
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loading properly due to a corrupted `.idea` folder.
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loading properly due to a corrupted `.idea` directory. Or even times when the files would get hidden in my source tree due
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to an issue in the editor config. I don't love that the editor requires setup for each project, similar to the `.vs`
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directory from [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com).
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Finally, the biggest issue I noticed was the LSP and syntax highlighting was very slow and at times would crash. At
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times, I would have to stop working and wait for my editor to "catch up" and highlight my code or generate LSP completions.
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Furthermore, in multi-language projects, the tools struggle pretty badly too, due to the single language nature of the
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tools. Of course, there are solutions to this problem through plugins, but throughout this experience I did not install
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them as mentioned previously.
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I often found myself having to close a file and open it again to get the syntax highlighting to function again. Which
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I have never had to deal with in Neovim. Furthermore, in multi-language projects, the tools struggle pretty badly too,
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due to the single language nature of the tools. Of course, there are solutions to this problem through plugins, but
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throughout this experience I did not install them as mentioned previously.
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## What JetBrains Does Better
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Of course, the JetBrains suite is industry grade software, which comes along with lots of powerful built-in tools. Such
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@ -230,3 +236,60 @@ click of a button is amazing. However, I did not find myself using it very often
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it was when I first opened the editor and had to select or create a project.
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## The Verdict
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So what was the point of this whole thing? Firstly, I need to be able to tell other people **why I use Neovim vs. other
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editors.** Jokes aside, there is a real reason. It was pointed out to me that maybe I am handicapping myself or missing
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out on tools that might help my development workflow. I try not to disregard things that I haven't used, and since I
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haven't used an editor that isn't Neovim in **years**, I thought it was only fair I give them a chance.
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During this month of JetBrains, I learned a lot about what I like and what I don't like. For example, I still work best
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with keyboard driven workflows and prefer TUI ([Terminal User Interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface))
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over a GUI (Graphical User Interface). Having to reach between the mouse and keyboard was a driving reason that I switched
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to Neovim in the first place, and I still believe it is a strong argument for the tool. However, sometimes preference is
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not enough when the tooling is **objectively better.**
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In my experience, I have narrowed the editors down into two categories: **Worth the pain** and **just not strong enough.**
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#### Worth the Pain
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- **[Rider](https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/)** for C# development
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- **[Clion](https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/)** for large C/C++ projects with CMake
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- **[IntelliJ](https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/)** for Java development
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#### Just Not Strong Enough
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- **[GoLand](https://www.jetbrains.com/go/)** for Go development
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- **[WebStorm](https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/)** for web development
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- **[PyCharm](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/)** for python development
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You may notice that *every* JetBrains product was not listed above. That is simply because I did not use every single one.
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I have never once found a need to write PHP code and therefore, did not use the PhpStorm editor. It would be unfair to
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try and rate products I have never used. So why did I rate each of these editors the way I did? I have a simple
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guideline: **language complexity.** Languages Python or JavaScript are simple enough (syntax wise) that I do not feel the
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need to have such powerful tools. The editors placed in the "Just Not Strong Enough" categories do not provide enough help
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to me to outweigh the lack of preference. Go is also a fairly simple language with very little
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"[syntactic sugar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_sugar)." In addition, lots of programming experience is in Go,
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so I have no problem writing an application start to finish without the need for complicated tooling.
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How about the three in the "Worth the Pain" category? Languages like C# and Java are (in my opinion) a complex language
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with features that really benefit from powerful tools. In my experience, [object-oriented](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming)
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programming languages are the hardest to develop with poor tooling. The power that Rider specifically provides in a huge
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C# codebase is unrivaled. This [survey](https://www.jrebel.com/blog/best-java-ide) from 2024-2025 says that IntelliJ IDEA
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is the most popular editor among developers for the Java programming language. So I guess it's safe to say I am not the
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only one who feels this way!
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>
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> IntelliJ IDEA has firmly held the top spot over that timespan, with the Java IDE's popularity only increasing from 71% to 84%.
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>
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The last editor on the list is Clion. The reason I added Clion to the "Worth the Pain" list is simply because I am bad
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at writing C. I know, hard to believe, but I actually don't know how to use CMake and really don't want to learn. So for
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projects that require dependencies, I really struggle to compile and run the program. Clion abstracts a lot of the hardship
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involved with packaging and compiling C programs which is why I will likely continue to use it for projects with many
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dependencies.
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## JetBrain > Neovim?
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So after all of that, will I continue using Neovim for everything I do, or will I strictly use JetBrains products? I hope
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that after reading the previous section, you will know the answer. I am looking forward to jumping back into Neovim and
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getting work done with "blazing speed," but I now understand that sometimes a full-fledged IDE is just the better option.
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I hope that reading this will shed some light on some of the bias many programmers develop over time. Maybe even inspire
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you to try something new, even if its only for a month, or even a week! You might love it! Or at the very worst, you might
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learn something.
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