Kakoune VS Vim-Plug

Kakoune

Vim inspiredâââFaster as in less keystrokesâââMultiple selectionsâââOrthogonal design

Vim-Plug

:hibiscus: Minimalist Vim Plugin Manager. Contribute to junegunn/vim-plug development by creating an account on GitHub.

Landing page //
2023-10-13

Landing page //
2023-09-30

Kakoune features and specs

Modal Editing
Kakoune uses a modal editing style similar to Vim, which can be more efficient for experienced users who prefer to keep their hands on the keyboard.
Interactive and Asynchronous
Kakoune is designed to be both interactive and asynchronous, providing immediate feedback for commands which can enhance the editing experience.
Selections
Kakoune treats text editing as a multiple selections-oriented operation, enabling powerful, simultaneous edits across multiple text locations, which can speed up complex text manipulations.
Simplicity in Configuration
Kakoune’s configuration files are written in a simple, declarative syntax, making it easier for users to customize their setup without extensive scripting.
Performance
Kakoune is designed with performance in mind, resulting in a lightweight and fast editor even with large files.
Extensible Plugin System
Kakoune supports various plugins and has a community-driven set of extensions, allowing users to extend functionality as needed.
Language Support
Built-in support for syntax highlighting and other language-specific features for many programming languages.

Possible disadvantages of Kakoune

Learning Curve
Kakoune has a steep learning curve, especially for users not familiar with modal editing or coming from different types of text editors.
Plugin Ecosystem
While Kakoune has an extensible plugin system, its plugin ecosystem is not as mature or extensive as more established editors like Vim or Emacs.
Limited GUI Support
Kakoune primarily operates in the terminal, with limited graphical user interface support, which might be a drawback for users who prefer more visual editing environments.
Smaller User Base
Kakoune has a smaller user base compared to more mainstream editors, potentially resulting in fewer community resources, tutorials, and third-party tool integrations.
Reliance on Command Line
Heavy reliance on command-line operations can be intimidating or cumbersome for users who are not comfortable with the terminal.
Limited IDE Features
Kakoune lacks some of the advanced integrated development environment (IDE) features out-of-the-box, such as integrated debugging or project management tools.

Vim-Plug features and specs

User-Friendly Syntax
Vim-Plug uses a simple, concise syntax for plugin management which makes it easy to add, update, and remove plugins.
Parallel Installation
Vim-Plug supports parallel installation of plugins, which significantly speeds up the process of setting up and updating plugins.
On-Demand Loading
It provides the ability to defer loading of plugins until they are actually required, which can improve startup time and overall performance.
Extensive Documentation
Vim-Plug is well-documented with a detailed guide and plenty of examples, making it easier for new users to get started.
Partial and Lazy Plugin Support
Supports loading of plugins only when specific commands are invoked or files are opened, optimizing resource usage.

Possible disadvantages of Vim-Plug

Vim-Only
Vim-Plug is designed specifically for Vim and Neovim, making it unsuitable for users of different text editors.
Manual Configuration
While flexible, users need to manually configure their `vimrc` to manage plugins, which might be daunting for beginners.
Dependency Management
Vim-Plug does not have built-in support for handling plugin dependencies, which means users must manually manage dependencies.
Conflict Resolution
There are no advanced features for resolving conflicts between plugins, requiring users to manually troubleshoot issues.
Plugin Removal
While Vim-Plug can remove plugins from the listing, residual files and configurations might still remain, requiring additional cleaning steps.

Analysis of Vim-Plug

Overall verdict

Vim-Plug is considered a good plugin manager for Vim due to its speed, ease of use, and active maintenance. It is widely used in the Vim community and is favored for its straightforward setup and efficient plugin management.

Why this product is good

Vim-Plug is a minimalist and highly efficient plugin manager for Vim, known for its speed and simplicity. It allows users to easily install, update, and remove plugins with concise commands. Its asynchronous installation feature makes managing plugins faster and does not block the usage of Vim. The minimal configuration and user-friendly syntax make it accessible for both new and experienced Vim users.

Recommended for

Developers using Vim who want a simple and fast way to manage plugins.
Users looking for asynchronous plugin management in Vim.
Vim enthusiasts who appreciate minimalistic configurations.

Kakoune videos

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Kakoune Is A More Efficient Text Editor

Vim-Plug videos

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Why and How I Use Vim-Plug to Manage My Vim Plugins

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kakoune and Vim-Plug)

Vim-Plug

Text Editors

50 50%

Text Editors

50% 50

IDE

53 53%

IDE

47% 47

Software Development

36 36%

Software Development

64% 64

Productivity

100 100%

Productivity

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Kakoune and Vim-Plug. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Vim-Plug should be more popular than Kakoune. It has been mentiond 95 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Kakoune mentions (10)

Show HN: Ki Editor
Fascinating idea! To summarize for those who know [Kakoune](https://github.com/mawww/kakoune), the idea is that every command has the form ["selection mode" -> "movement" -> "action"](https://ki-editor.github.io/ki-editor/comparisons/modal-editors.html) instead of Kakoune's movement->action. So, instead of having separate commands for "next character", "next word", "next structural element", there is one command... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
Helix: Release 24.03 Highlights
Helix's modal editing is based on Kakoune's modal editing which is like an evolution to Vim's modal editing. You can think of it as being always in selection (visual) mode. https://github.com/mawww/kakoune?tab=readme-ov-file#selectio.... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
I don't need your query language
You might like kakoune (https://github.com/mawww/kakoune), which does exactly that: first you select the range (which can even be disjoint, e.g. All words matching a regex), then you operate on it. By default, the selected range is the character under cursor, and multiple cursors work out of the box. It also generally follows the Unix philosophy, e.g. By using shell... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
I use nano BTW.
It might be worth checking out kakoune if you are experimenting with editors. It’s supposed to be equally powerful to vim but much easier to learn. Source: over 2 years ago
Mle is a small, flexible, terminal-based text editor written in C
For that, try Kakoune[1], which is modal with a mostly-postfix language instead of vi's usually-prefix one and uses this to also be a multiple-selections editor with immediate visual feedback. It falls too much into the uncanny valley of almost-but-not-quite-vi for some people, though. [1] https://kakoune.org/, https://github.com/mawww/kakoune. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

Vim-Plug mentions (95)

How to Setup Vim for Kotlin Development
Some examples are vim-plug, vundle, or, lazy.nvim. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
Lite 🚀 ApolloNvim Distro 2024
👉 If you are missing a plugin, you can easily install or uninstall it using vim.plug. For more information, please visit vim.plug on GitHub or I'd be happy to advise you see about us. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
I a Avid Vim User, Finally Migrated to Neovim! How does it work, what do I gain from it?
I have been talking about plugins since the beginning of the article, but using a simple editor doesn't involve doing everything by hand. So I have been using a plugin manager for a long time and if you don't, I strongly advise you to get started: it's very practical. I used Vim plug which was everything I like: simple and effective. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
How to use vim-plug with init.lua? win11
Is it possible to use vim-plug with init.lua? https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug. Source: over 1 year ago
Vimtex not loading (vim-plug)
Did you really install VimTeX? Did you run :PlugInstall? Ensure you installed and set up vim-plug correctly (https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug). If VimTeX is installed, it should be installed to '~/.vim/plugged', thus you can open a terminal, then cd ~/.vim/plugged/vimtex and you should find the files there. Source: almost 2 years ago