Blogs » Use Lua to Reimplement Core Plugins

After comparing the speed of vim script and lua, I want to rewrite SpaceVim with Lua.

NOTE: All vim scripts will be retained to ensure support for older versions of Vim and NeoVim

• How to compare speed
• Which version of neovim should I use?
• What has been done?
• The next step

How to compare speed

with following vim script, and run:

• :TestFunc Fibo 1000
• :TestFunc Fibo 10000000
• :TestFunc LuaFibo 1000
• :TestFunc LuaFibo 10000000

function! Fibo(N) abort
    let t = a:N
    let b = 0
    while t > 0
        let t = t - 1
        let a = 1
        let b = 1
        let c = 73
        while c > 0
            let c = c - 1
            let tmp = a + b
            let a = b
            let b = tmp
        endwhile
    endwhile
    echo b
endfunction

function! LuaFibo(N) abort
lua << EOF
local a, b, r, c, t
t = vim.api.nvim_eval("str2nr(a:N)")
while t > 0 do
        t = t - 1
        a = 1
        b = 1
        c = 73
        while c > 0 do
                c = c - 1
                r = a + b
                a = b
                b = r
        end
end

print(string.format("%d", b))
EOF
endfunction
function! s:test(...) abort
        " for func in a:000
                let start = reltime()
                call call(a:1,[a:2])
                let sec = reltimefloat(reltime(start))
                echom printf('%s(%d): %.6g sec', a:1, a:2, sec)
        " endfor
endfunction

command! -nargs=+ TestFunc call s:test(<f-args>)

results:

Fibo(1000): 0.410364 sec
Fibo(10000000): 1470.280914 sec
LuaFibo(1000): 9.052000e-4 sec
LuaFibo(10000000): 1.235385 sec

Which version of neovim should I use?

It is recommended to use neovim 0.9.0 or 0.9.1

What has been done?

Basic:

• The spacevim runtime logger

The default runtime logger can be used in in both vim script and lua script. For example:

-- in lua script test.lua

local log = require('spacevim.logger').derive('test')

local function test_foo()
  log.debug('this is debug message')
end

test_foo()

Then the runtime log via SPC h L, and you should be able to see:

[     test ] [17:14:56:907] [ Debug ] this is debug message

APIs:

• file
• system
• logger
• job
• data#toml
• notify

Built-in Plugins:

These plugins are very commonly used in SpaceVim, so they are rewritten using lua for a better experience.

• alternate file manager

  Use :A {type} to jump to alternate file quickly.

• projectmanager

  The project manager provides the function of quickly switching to the project root directory.

• key binding guide
• code runner
• flygrep
• The REPL plugin

The next step

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