Announcement

Lightspeed has been deprecated in favor of Leap, a streamlined but in many respects enhanced version of its ancestor. Compared to Lightspeed, Leap:

• gets rid of some gimmicks with a low benefit/cost ratio (like "shortcut" labels), but works the same way in the common case; all the really important features are there
• has a smaller and simpler visual footprint; it feels like using Sneak
• is much more flexible and extensible; it can be used as an engine for selecting arbitrary targets, and performing arbitrary actions on them

🌌 lightspeed.nvim

Lightspeed is a motion plugin for Neovim, with a relatively small interface and lots of innovative ideas, that allow for making on-screen movements with yet unprecedented ease and efficiency. The aim is to maximize speed while minimizing mental effort and breaks in the flow, providing a distractionless experience, that should feel as "native" as possible.

The gist in 30 secs

With Lightspeed you can jump to any positions in the visible window area by entering a 2-character search pattern, and then optionally a "label" character for choosing among multiple matches. The plugin aims to substitute all native commands for in-window navigation (/, ?, gg, f, etc.) with a uniform, minimal set of atomic (repeatable), multi-axis motions.

So far we have more or less described what vim-sneak does. The game-changing idea in Lightspeed is its "clairvoyant" ability: it maps possible futures, and shows you which keys you will need to press before you actually need to do that, so despite the use of target labels, you can keep typing in a continuous manner. You can almost always reach the destination by at most - and very often less than - four keystrokes in total, that can be typed in one go.

Video tutorial

If this sounds cool enough, read on, or watch the 6-minute introductory video by DevOnDuty - a very good entry point, showing the basic usage with straightforward, easy to understand explanations.

Sky chart

• Evolution and design
• An in-depth introduction of the key features
• Getting started
• Usage
• Configuration
• Why is there no feature X or Y?
• Contributing
• Inspired by

Quick links (FAQ)

• EasyMotion/Hop-style config
• Suggestions for colorscheme integrations
• Enforce the default highlighting if a colorscheme messes things up
• Multi-line f/t motions VS macros and :normal
• Using the plugin together with vim-surround

🧬 Evolution and design

Composite motions do not compose

Everyone has been taught that the "Vim way" of reaching distant points in the window is using combinations of primitive motions: 8jfx;;. The pipelining instinct is so deeply ingrained in our Vim-infected mindsets, that many of us tend to forget that this approach has evolved merely as a consequence of the limitations of the interface, and is not some divinely decreed, superior way of doing things; while the "controls as language" paradigm is an ingenious aspect of Vim in general, "compound sentences" make no sense for doing arbitrary jumps between A and B, that should ideally be atomic.

Railways versus jetpacks

EasyMotion attempted to improve the situation by introducing many new "atoms" - direct routes to a lot of specific targets. That plugin and its derivatives (Hop, or Avy for Emacs) are a bit like convoluted railway networks, with pre-built stations: each time you have to think about which train to take, which exit point is the closest to your goal, etc. In short, they buy speed for cognitive load - a questionable bargain.

Sneak's approach, however, with its sole focus on using 2-character search patterns for targeting, and later combining that with the labeling method inspired by EasyMotion, felt close to perfect at its time. A user of Sneak embraces a philosophy that is just the opposite of above: you barely need to think about motions anymore - "sneaking" gets you everywhere you need to be, with maximal precision. It is like having a jetpack on you all the time.

Always a step ahead of you

Lightspeed takes the next logical step, and eliminates yet more cognitive overhead, unnecessary keystrokes or interruptions, by blurring the boundary between one- and two-character search. The idea is to process the input incrementally - analyzing the available information after each keystroke, to assist the user and offer shortcuts:

• jump based on partial input: if the character is unique in the search direction, you will automatically jump after the first input (these characters are highlighted beforehand, so this is never too surprising)
• shortcut-labels: for some matches, it is possible to use the target label right after the first input, as if doing 1-character search
• ahead-of-time displayed target labels: in any case, you will see the label right after the first input, so once you need to type it, your brain will already have processed it

The last one is probably the biggest game-changer, beating the major problem of all other general-purpose motion plugins - the frustrating momentary pause between entering your search pattern and selecting the target. Once you try it, you will never look back.

To see these features in action, check the screen recordings in the in-depth introduction below.

Universal motions

To make the suite complete, Lightspeed implements enhanced f/t-like motions working over multiple lines, with same-key repeat available, and a so-called x-mode, providing exclusive/inclusive variations for 2-character search. Together the four bi-directional motions (s/x/f/t) make it possible to reach and operate on the whole window area with high efficiency in all situations when there is no obvious atomic alternative - like w, {, or % - available.

Other improvements and quality-of-life features

• smart shifting between Sneak/EasyMotion mode - the plugin automatically jumps to the first match if the remaining matches can be covered by a limited set of "safe" target labels, but stays in place, and switches to an extended, more comfortable label set otherwise
• linewise operations are possible via the same interface, by targeting (potentially off-screen) EOL characters
• uniform repeat interface, and flawless dot-repeat support for operators (with repeat.vim installed)
• bidirectional search (opt-in)
• cross-window motions

High-level guiding principles

"Some people . . . like tons of features, but experienced users really care about cohesion, conceptual integrity, and reliability. I think of [the latter] as the @tpope school." (justinmk)

• 80/20: focus on features that are applicable in all contexts - micro-improvements to the most frequent tasks accumulate more savings than vanity features that turn out to be rarely needed in practice

• Design is making decisions: mitigate choice paralysis for the user, regarding both usage (the kinds of targeting methods provided) and configuration options

• Sharpen the saw: the plugin should feel a natural extension to the core, with an interplay as seamless and intuitive as possible

📚 An in-depth introduction of the key features

Jump on partial input

If you enter a character that is the only match in the search direction, Lightspeed jumps to it directly, without waiting for a second input. These unique characters are highlighted beforehand; quick-scope is based on a similar idea, but the intent here is not a "choose me!"-kind of preliminary orientation (the assumption is that you know where you want to go), more like giving feedback for your brain while you type.

To further mitigate accidents, a short timeout is set by default, until the second character in the pair (and only that) is "swallowed". In operator-pending mode, the operated area gets a temporary highlight until the next character is entered.

Ahead-of-time labeling

Target labels are shown ahead of time, right after typing the first input character. This means you can often type without any serious break in the flow, almost as if using 3-character search. It is a micro-optimisation, but can mean the world - Lightspeed simply feels different because of this.

Shortcuts

Made possible by the above, Lightspeed has the concept of "shortcutable" positions, where the assigned label itself is enough to determine the target: those you can reach via typing the label character right after the first input, bypassing the second one. This case is surprisingly frequent in practice, and in case of harder-to-type sequences, when you're not rushing with 200+ CPM, can work really well.

You can see that "shortcuts" are highlight