startuptime.vim VS nvim-lua-guide

You could use https://github.com/tweekmonster/startuptime.vim. Then you can run :StartupTime -- big-file.txt

tweekmonster/startuptime.vim is inaccurate. I think it doesn't take Lua into account. Don't use this plugin.

I recently had a look at startup performance. Using the startuptime plugin both moonfly & nightfly were taking around 4.5ms to load on my quad-core Linux desktop (not too bad for traditional Vimscript-based colorschemes). Some profiling did indicate that clearing highlights and resetting syntax are actually quite expensive. We really don't need to do either when loading a colorscheme at Vim start time; it is only really needed when changing colorschemes within an existing edit session. Putting in a simple guard results in moonfly & nightfly now taking only 2.5ms to startup (on my machine).

Lastly, I also had a look at startup performance. Using the startuptime plugin both moonfly & nightfly were taking around 4.5ms to load on my quad-core Linux desktop (not too bad for Vimscript-based colorschemes). Some profiling did indicate that clearing highlights and resetting syntax are actually quite expensive. We really don't need to do either when loading a colorscheme at Neovim start time; it is only really needed when changing colorschemes within an existing edit session. Putting in a simple guard results in moonfly & nightfly now taking only 2.5ms to startup (on my machine). That is quite similar to some of the nice new Lua-based Neovim colorschemes now available. A win, albeit a small one.

Using the :StartupTime provided by https://github.com/tweekmonster/startuptime.vim ...

Nvim Lua guide

My main struggles beyond a simple problem are just the inability to find a way to easily debug things and the general process for setting up a plugin. I mostly work with Python/Jupyter, some C and Lua/Bash scripts, and usually you can either write tests/print debug for smaller scale things or get some stack trace if you have an error. With Neovim development, it just feels like there's nothing more besides update plugin, try on neovim, fail, bash head against wall, and repeat, and that doesn't quite seem efficient or correct - I'm sure there's something out there that should make the process easier. I tried looking online but I haven't found many that really fit my needs (most of the resources here seem more targeted towards creating your own init.lua, and Luadev plugin's commands are all broken (:Luadev-RunLine and any other command keeps telling me I got some trailing space). I'm really just looking to see how to make a snippet library, but there doesn't seem to be much that helps me. If someone could let me know how they debug their plugin or point me to any external resources, please let me know!

I have no guidance for the first point. For the second, checkout the neovim lua guide or : lua-guide

A quick google search turned up this codeacademy class on learning to program in Javascript. I didn't vet the whole thing, but it appears to assume you know nothing, which is what you need. If you go through that, you can then consume one of the resources that /u/luascriptdev post to equate that back to Lua. Again, the concepts translate.