Bear VS LunarVim

Have you tried Bear? I used it for several projects and overall it works very well.

An update: I am now able to make everything work by generating `compile_commands.json` using compiledb. I'm aware that there is another tool Bear but for some reason it generates an empty `compile_commands.json` file for me.

Try https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear

Regarding the libraries, you might need to add it to clangd’s configuration. A convenient way is to have a compile_commands.json in your project (this is generated by some build tools like CMake, but if you don’t use them, have a look at bear).

Note that you need to have a compile_commands.json file. That file can easily be generated by CMake, Meson, etc. For other build systems checkout Bear https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear

make a 'gcc' command/executable that do nothing and make it first in your PATH and then run bear with make: https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear/issues/219 It is unfortunate that bear doesn't catch the output of the make command with '--dry-run' as it still prints the compile commands, it seems not that hard to support this and I think many ppl would benefit..

You could try to start with Bear: https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear In worst cases, I had to use strace to catch every gcc/g++ invocation and restructure the compile_commands.json out of the strace logs.

But it sounds like maybe you’re assuming for the purposes of using something like clangd (highly recommended for coding in cpp projects in general, you want to be using this in vscode or whatever else anyway, codelion notwithstanding I suppose) with neovim on a c++ project that you have to use cmake to produce a compilation database to use with neovim plugins (e.g. clangd via nvim-lsp et. al.). In this case, be aware that the https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear tool is a handy way to just tack it on to whatever command you’re using to run a c++ code build step, and it will give you a compile_commands.json, corresponding to the compiler commands it invoked, on a silver platter.

I guess your questionmarks are about installing "bear", he refers to this project: https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear

You just simply go to the root of your project, use bear and just open your C files. That's all.

LunarVim

I would suggest to start getting into vim by first trying out popular vim keybinding plugins available on your favorite code editor and get used to those first. Then, if you want to dive deeper into the power of Neovim, try out popular configs like LazyVim, LunarVim, NvChad... Taking Neovim from a mere text editor to a full-featured IDE with features like intellisense, debugging, testing, etc... on your own takes quite a lot of work and configuration.

I used Helix for a while due to its support for LSP out-of-the-box, which my Vim config at the time couldn't live up to. I switched back to NeoVim after finding LunarVim[1] which had everything I was trying to get setup in my own config.

[1] https://www.lunarvim.org/

I'll admit I didn't look into it, but Helix sounds like something like LunarVim (https://www.lunarvim.org/)

Personally I much prefer that the editor NOT ship with something like that by default, especially when it's so easy to set up. I have several different vim config I use, including a pretty bare-bones one for headless systems, and I much prefer the ability to customize something very specifically.

Build tools that can compose together, rather than a single do-it-all tool. That is the power of the low level editors vs IDE's.

I can't comment on any implementation details, but at least with LunarVim (which I use for daily coding), a slowdown when interacting with LSP is very noticeable. Some others have attested to this on a GitHub issue.

I'm not doubting your experiences with the lack of a slowdown, but there is truth that others do experience it. That might be more of a problem with LunarVim itself rather than Vim, but how likely am I (as someone who would like to avoid what he calls "config hell") or other newcomers to avoid whatever pitfalls there are, if a distribution designed for ease of use by people who know better fall into them?

https://github.com/LunarVim/LunarVim/discussions/3359

Anyways, although i have not used them, LazyVim and LunarVim comes highly recommended. You can try these and see what suits you .