Resolving Vim Sluggishness Caused by ALE Linters with LaTeX Files

I experienced sluggishness in Vim when editing LaTeX files. Despite disabling plugins like vimtex and other settings, Vim remained very slow. Eventually, I found the issue was caused by ALE implicitly enabling several linters.

ALE Enabled Linters for LaTeX Files by Default

To identify the enabled linters by default, I ran the :ALEInfo command in Vim and found the following:

  Enabled Linters: ['alex', 'chktex', 'cspell', 'lacheck', 'proselint', 'redpen', 'texlab', 'textlint', 'vale', 'writegood']

Solving the Problem

I addressed this problem with a simple solution: by removing everything except chktex – so that I only keep a genuine LaTeX linter – and explicitly defining it:

let g:ale_linters = {
\   'tex': ['chktex'],
\}

Preventing Automatic Linter Activation in the Future

To prevent similar issues in the future, I added the following line to my .vimrc:

let g:ale_linters_explicit = 1

This ensures that ALE will only use the linters explicitly defined in the g:ale_linters dictionary.

Conclusion

ALE enables several linters by default if none is explicitly defined. This can lead to sluggishness in Vim when editing LaTeX files. By explicitly defining the linters and activating the g:ale_linters_explicit option, you can prevent this issue.