I'm quite a fan of the nvim-neorocks plugin best practices as well[2]. In fact it seems like part of them got merged recently[3] hahaha.
[1] https://neovim.io/doc/user/lua-plugin.html#lua-plugin-lazy
Lazy loading is much easier with Vim’s model of configuring by setting variables. You just set variables in init.vim, and the plugin can auto-load when one of its functions is executed.
With lua this requires more orchestration; if many autocmd refer to the same plugin, they all need to explicitly remember to call setup().
Edit: The Neovim setup antipattern is the Lua equivalent of writing Vimscript functions in autoload and asking users to call them in their configs instead of doing so automatically.
- it avoids needing to create a global variable in the top level namespace
- if the setup is called lazily, then the user config can also perform other lazy operations at configuration time, including requiring other lua modules
- it allows you to pass a config object or function to your package manager, thus keeping your configuration of a plugin, and the code to require the plugin in the same place.
- it doesn't have the problem that you have to make sure you set the global variable before the plugin is loaded
- it is simpler to handle reconfiguring at runtime. The user just calls setup again. Whereas with a global variable, you don't know if/when the config has changed
- global configuration variables don't have to be tables. They can be a union of `table | fun():table`, which enables laziness. [rustaceanvim does this, for example](https://github.com/mrcjkb/rustaceanvim/blob/12504405821c0587...).
- lazy.nvim's heuristics to auto-detect and invoke `setup` functions and pass "config objects" are a hack that could just as easily have been implemented around global config variables. This is a symptom of the problem, not a solution.
- If you don't need any code to require the plugin, there's also no need to keep the configuration and the code to require it in the same place.
- If a plugin is implemented correctly (by not making lazy loading the responsibility of the user), there's no need to worry about when the user sets the global variable.
- Most plugins' `setup` functions are idempotent. If you want to provide the ability to reconfigure your plugin at runtime, you can provide a `reload(opts)` function that sets the global config variable and then reinitialises the plugin. Or, you could add a metatable to the config variable that triggers a reload if the plugin has already been initialised. There's hardly ever a valid reason to force the coupling of configuration and initialisation on your plugin's users.
He and I are on very opposite ends of the "setup spectrum", but we have found common ground, which is that you shouldn't cargo cult it: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/pull/35600/files