Notes from vimconf2024

For Japanese, see here.

Notes on my impressions of VimConf2024

Notes from when I attended VimConf2024.
I was so satisfied that I made a note in the hope that more people would want to attend VimConf2025.

Entering the venue

I arrived at Akihabara, where the venue was located, early.
I moved to a cafe to adjust the time and tweak ale.vim to the point where Biome would work, in order to reaffirm my gratitude for the settings. Recently, I've been getting a lot of errors with the Formatter in coc.nvim, so I wanted to separate the Linter and Formatter parts. For now, I was satisfied that it worked with deno, so I went to the venue.

I had prepared my name tag in advance, but I was given a name tag with my own icon at the venue.

So.
I had a big problem when I set my name tag in the plastic holder (;´。`; ) It was a bad start.

Opening by mopp

I'm grateful that the interpreter has returned. I can understand the meaning of Japanese people's spoken English on a word-by-word basis, but I often don't understand the nuances, so having an interpreter is a relief.

Keynote: The new Vim project - What has changed after Bram by Christian Brabandt

I was reminded of just how much great work Bram had done, and of the difficulties faced by the Vim maintainer team that took over.

I was surprised by the number of roles that Bram was carrying out single-handedly, such as version control and site management for Vim, and the Uganda donation drive. Things like vim.org and the FTP server are things that we take for granted, but if you think about it for a moment, there must be someone doing them. And when you think about the difficulty of Christian and the maintainer team taking over from Bram, you can't help but sigh.

The way vim.org's FTP server is run, the discussions on Google Groups, and other aspects of the way the community has been managed in the past are being replaced by more modern methods, and I wonder if this is a sign of the changing times.
I get the impression that the Vim community is moving from what we might call a benevolent lifetime dictatorship to a republic, so that it can continue to exist even after Bram leaves.

The keyword health of the community that Christian mentioned several times left a strong impression on me. I hope it continues like this, and I would like to contribute if I can.

The response to the question ‘How can beginners contribute to the Vim community?’ that came up during the Q&A session was wonderful: ‘You are already contributing by coming to Vimconf.’

Keynote: Vim Made Me a Better Software Developer by TJ DeVries

I only had a vague idea of who TJ was, that he was the amazing person who developed telescope.nvim, but I was surprised at how good his presentation was. Apparently he also does Youtube activities.

Whenever the keyword ‘problem solving’ came up several times, I, who loves Yak Shaving, was left with a headache...
The keyword ‘problem solving’ was mentioned by several speakers, although the wording was different, so I nodded in agreement, thinking that this was the value system of the developers who make good products. I want to hear this kind of talk again and again, and reaffirm it from time to time. I want to make sure that I don't get caught up in the busyness of the moment and end up shaving my head whenever I get the chance.

It makes sense that by creating Vim plugins to solve your own problems, you become your own biggest customer.
Being sincere with your own customer became a powerful guideline when creating Vim plugins.

Lunch

The extravagant lunch box that is unique to Vimconf. I thought about taking one because there were some left over, but I restrained myself because I thought I would fall asleep if I ate a second one.

Mastering Quickfix by daisuzu

The convenience of Quickfix and how to use it

A presentation on Quickfix (N=1), a feature that is not top class in Vim, from the basics to practical examples.

I learned that I can use the cdo command to process Quickfix lists and that I can save the state of Quickfix, and I progressed from ‘I don't understand anything...’ to ‘I think it's okay to try it out’.

I understood that the idea of quickfix allows you to fix the range with cnext, so you can process everything at once while preventing accidental firing of macros is useful and can be applied in many ways. This was the biggest thing I learned.

Hacking Vimscript by Kota Kato

The importance of actually touching Vim code

I was shocked to hear that ctags is still in use.

The fact that there are some things in Vim code that you can't jump to using LSP was a very real-world story that left a strong impression.

Switch between projects like a Ninja by Yuki Ito

I had a stomachache and had to leave the presentation halfway through... I'll read the materials later...

Vim meets Local LLM: Edit Text beyond the Speed of Thought by yuys13

The potential for collaboration between Local LLM and Vim

In the presentation on using LLM such as ollama, the new concept of FIM (Fill in the Middle) was interesting.
When using ChatGPT, I find myself thinking that in some cases, if you give it instructions like ‘do FIM ~’, you can get good results.

I also learned a lot about how to use extmark to handle virtual_text. I was convinced that this is how the completion candidates in Copilot.vim were being generated.

Creating the Vim Version of VSCode DevContainer Extension: Why and How by mikoto2000

I listened to this presentation on the development of DevContainer.vim, thinking that it must have been a lot of work to develop it.

I had assumed that DevContainer was a feature exclusive to VSCode, but that wasn't the case.

I thought that the benefit of being able to work in isolation within a container would be that unit tests that were run via docker exec could be run directly, but I couldn't think of any other useful cases. I'd like to know about some more specific examples of how it could be useful.

Neovim for Frontend Developers: Boosting Productivity and Creativity by ryoppippi

I was reminded (this is an exaggeration) that VSCode's weak point is not Vim.

The talk was about front-end development that makes use of the advantages of Neovim, and it was interesting and well-spoken. It was like a TJ-san from Japan giving a presentation.

The ideas of using uga-term instead of switching tmux sessions and nvim-insx and oil + sonictemplate were very helpful.

Seeing the plugin that links vim and the browser, I got some hints for the plugin I want to make, and I felt like ‘I'm going to do it!

Building Neovim Plugins: A Journey from Novice to Pro by 2KAbhishek

A presentation about the process of becoming proficient as a plugin developer.

The idea that it doesn't have to be advanced, even if it's just a small thing, as long as it helps solve a problem made me feel a little more relaxed.

As for the part where I was going to write the final unit test... well... let's see... I'll do my best...

Can't Help Falling in Vim ~ Wisemen say only fools reinvent the wheel, but I can't help building yet another fuzzy finder: Fall by Λ lisue

A new announcement about Fuzzy Finder.

Having used fzf-preview before, I was very interested in ‘Fall’, which could be said to be a development of that.

I almost burst out laughing at the interpreter's efforts to emulate the presentation, but I also thought, ‘Is this a professional?’

During the presentation, the keywords latency and throughput were mentioned, and I was taught about them, but I didn't really understand them, so I'll look them up later.

The latest dark deno powered plugins by Shougo Matsushita

The setting is the place to go to, but who should you go to if you leave the setting aside?
The well-prepared Vim is the truly valuable place to go to.

Lightning Talks (5min x 6)

I was almost laughing at the way he was holding the dora, and before I knew it, all the Lightning Talks were over.
I have a vague idea of wanting to make an Apple Watch app, so I'll watch the video of Neovim+Swift later.

Closing by mopp

At the closing, there was a lot of applause. I nodded in agreement, thinking that this event was made possible by the efforts of the event staff.

The group photo of the participants was impressive, with so many high-energy Vimmers who hurt their back muscles by maintaining a posture with their shoulders hunched.

Afterparty

We were able to achieve things that we weren't able to do at the previous Tiny, such as hearing about people's self-made keyboards and expressing our gratitude for the plugins that people use on a regular basis.

The biggest surprise at the afterparty was that the person I was talking to was the person who had committed to translating the nvimdoc-ja help file, which I had been neglecting.
The surprise that the world is a small place and the regret that I hadn't JustDoIt blew away the effects of the alcohol. I said I would restart, so I have to restart. It's not something I can't do.

After After Party

Next: VimConf2025

VimConf2024 was an event that stimulated me in many ways, and I was satisfied.

TODO list for VimConf2024

• Revive nvimdoc-ja. Aim to resume translating one file
• Introduce neotest
• Create a plugin that reloads the browser from vim

I'll do my best.