#lua-vs-vimscript

a real argument to why you should use Lua instead vimscript

#Requirements

• Any shell (preferably bash or dash for running the script)
• neovim 0.6+
• vim 8.0+

#Running the benchmark

To run the benchmark, simply run ./benchmark.sh, the script is 100% POSIX-compliant, and tested against dash and bash

#About the tests

In short, the way it works is by running 2 neovim instances on headless mode (to avoid clearing output) and 2 vim instances, both with plugins disabled, the results are retrieved with the built-in --startuptime option

The test itself is a very simple loop that iterate 3 million times and it's executed 3 times, for gathering the best and the worst time from all the runs, it's implemented in vimscript, vim9script and Lua, which are executed on both neovim and vim (except by vim9script, which is executed only on vim)

#Results

Last tested: 17/12/2021

The results below represent the worst and best (respectively) of three runs of the vimscript, vim9script, and lua configs:

• vimscript (nvim): 4085.615ms ± 4040.756ms
• vim9script: 117.148ms ± 110.461ms
• lua (vim): 027.592ms ± 027.881ms
• lua (nvim): 012.506ms ± 012.445ms

#Technical information

neovim version:

NVIM v0.6.0
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.0.5

vim version:

VIM - Vi IMproved 8.2 (2019 Dec 12, compiled Dec 02 2021 19:44:33)
Included patches: 1-3582, 3602
Compiled by Arch Linux
Huge version without GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
+acl               +file_in_path      +mouse_urxvt       -tag_any_white
+arabic            +find_in_path      +mouse_xterm       +tcl/dyn
+autocmd           +float             +multi_byte        +termguicolors
+autochdir         +folding           +multi_lang        +terminal
-autoservername    -footer            -mzscheme          +terminfo
-balloon_eval      +fork()            +netbeans_intg     +termresponse
+balloon_eval_term +gettext           +num64             +textobjects
-browse            -hangul_input      +packages          +textprop
++builtin_terms    +iconv             +path_extra        +timers
+byte_offset       +insert_expand     +perl/dyn          +title
+channel           +ipv6              +persistent_undo   -toolbar
+cindent           +job               +popupwin          +user_commands
-clientserver      +jumplist          +postscript        +vartabs
-clipboard         +keymap            +printer           +vertsplit
+cmdline_compl     +lambda            +profile           +virtualedit
+cmdline_hist      +langmap           +python/dyn        +visual
+cmdline_info      +libcall           +python3/dyn       +visualextra
+comments          +linebreak         +quickfix          +viminfo
+conceal           +lispindent        +reltime           +vreplace
+cryptv            +listcmds          +rightleft         +wildgnore
+cscope            +localmap          +ruby/dyn          +wildmenu
+cursorbind        +lua/dyn           +scrollbind        +windows
+cursorshape       +menu              +signs             +writebackup
+dialog_con        +mksession         +smartindent       -X11
+diff              +modify_fname      -sodium            -xfontset
+digraphs          +mouse             -sound             -xim
-dnd               -mouseshape        +spell             -xpm
-ebcdic            +mouse_dec         +startuptime       -xsmp
+emacs_tags        +mouse_gpm         +statusline        -xterm_clipboard
+eval              -mouse_jsbterm     -sun_workshop      -xterm_save
+ex_extra          +mouse_netterm     +syntax
+extra_search      +mouse_sgr         +tag_binary
-farsi             -mouse_sysmouse    -tag_old_static
   system vimrc file: "/etc/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
 2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
       defaults file: "$VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/usr/share/vim"
Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-plt -D_REENTRANT -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1
Linking: gcc -L. -Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now -fstack-protector-strong -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic -Wl,-E -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib/perl5/5.34/core_perl/CORE -Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now -L/usr/local/lib -o vim -lm -ltinfo -lelf -lacl -lattr -lgpm -ldl -Wl,-E -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib/perl5/5.34/core_perl/CORE -Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now -fstack-protector-strong -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/perl5/5.34/core_perl/CORE -lperl -lpthread -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc -L/usr/lib -ltclstub8.6 -ldl -lz -lpthread -lmi