[HN Gopher] From VS Code to Helix
___________________________________________________________________
From VS Code to Helix
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 223 points
Date : 2025-10-29 13:19 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ergaster.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (ergaster.org)
| jsmailes wrote:
| Helix and other new editors (kakoune comes to mind) always
| appealed to me because they seemed to have slightly more
| intuitive approaches to editing than vim, but I just don't think
| I can ever switch, purely because vim just exists everywhere I
| need it. It (or vi) is installed on practically every system I
| ever touch by default, and almost every IDE/editor under the sun
| supports vim keybinds either natively or via well-maintained
| plugins.
|
| It's the same problem with keyboard layouts: I'm sure I could
| learn to be slightly faster on dvorak/colemak, but nothing beats
| the convenience of always having guaranteed access to qwerty,
| everywhere I go.
| scop wrote:
| That keyboard layout is a great analogy. Maybe I would have
| tried Helix in my early twenties, but I'm too old for that now
| (30s lol).
| warmwaffles wrote:
| I was on sublime text for the last 12 years. I made the
| switch to helix and although I missed some features, it's
| been a great change. I never could get into the vim bindings,
| but helix's defaults are great and I don't need to go plugin
| hunting in order to make the editor functional.
|
| There's missing features I really want, but they'll be added
| eventually. Git blame in line, some scripting support, better
| find-replace across a project and not just the opened
| buffers.
|
| Just give it a try for a week or two straight. No using your
| other editors. Cold turkey. You'll be surprised at how
| quickly you'll relearn. It took me about three weeks using it
| full time to get decent. The first day or so were brutal.
| lordleft wrote:
| This is what is keeping me from trying Helix in a serious way.
| I don't want to learn slightly distinct vi-like keybindings and
| mess up my muscle memory.
| dkdcio wrote:
| same -- I wish Helix would just have a full vi-compatible
| mode, it would probably be enough to get me to switch
|
| the other thing for me is lack of the GitHub Copilot
| extension. I am far too used to having tab-complete. there's
| some effort for Helix extensions to handle this but it's not
| close to on-par last time I checked
| airstrike wrote:
| Ask and you shall receive
|
| https://github.com/usagi-flow/evil-helix
| cycomanic wrote:
| I've tried evil helix and it is reasonable close to Vim,
| but still not quite the same (I don't remember but was
| running into several slight differences, which were
| causing enough adjustment that I gave up)
| CorrectHorseBat wrote:
| But why then switch?
| dkdcio wrote:
| from neovim to helix? I would prefer the configuration
| simplicity (while my neovim config is fairly stable and
| straightforward, it can be annoying to update) and better
| out-of-the-box defaults. I'd also be a lot more
| personally interested in contributing to the Rust
| codebase of Helix if I ever did run into bugs or features
| thendrill wrote:
| I have to agree. It is too similar to vim, yet it is not
| vim.... I dont get what is the value proposition here. I mean I
| feel helix is just stripped off SpaceVim ????
| kelvinjps10 wrote:
| It's more intuitive, and some key binding are using home
| letters instead of symbols making it easier to reach
| evolighting wrote:
| My favorite one: "ggdG" didn't work no Helix;
|
| But more importantly,it reflects the reality that although
| they bear some resemblance, the design logic of vi and Helix
| are actually fundamentally different.
| icen wrote:
| In helix that's %d (select-buffer, then delete). The
| selection-then-action design for helix is showing it's
| difference to vi, which is action-on-movement.
| tux1968 wrote:
| But Vim has visual-mode, which is select-then-action too.
| dugidugout wrote:
| There's a mode for that!
| eviks wrote:
| not really, vim's visual mode always extends selection,
| while in Helix the base mode selects with your base
| commands so you can act on the selection, but it doesn't
| extend to the next one. For example, moving by 2 words
| only selects the 2nd one, not both like in Visual mode.
| (although in this specific case of selecting everything
| this difference isn't visible)
| shpongled wrote:
| The value proposition is multi-cursor editing, which is very
| nice
| lawn wrote:
| Eh. I've used a couple of different keyboard layouts and
| different keyboards and I can still use regular keyboards and
| layouts just fine.
|
| It's just a matter of practice, which admittedly might be too
| much effort for little gain. I still use Neovim and I don't see
| myself ever using Helix or Kakoune.
| noir_lord wrote:
| It's a classic switching cost problem, to make it worth
| switching the effort either needs be below a threshold or the
| outcome has to be _much_ better otherwise people won 't switch
| - i.e. a killer feature/features.
| lycopodiopsida wrote:
| > I'm sure I could learn to be slightly faster on
| dvorak/colemak, but nothing beats the convenience of always
| having guaranteed access to qwerty, everywhere I go.
|
| Colemak/Dvorak is not about speed, but about comfort and
| avoiding RSI (though I would place the actual layout somewhere
| far down on the list, a proper ergonomic KB is top priority).
| Also, in my ~8 years on Colemak lack of access to it was a
| problem exactly 0 times. I don't type books on other people's
| computers, and if I would, typing blind on a keyboard I am not
| used to is anyway a hopeless endeavor.
| boterock wrote:
| And regarding availability, Colemak is now included in
| Windows 11, which makes it available out of the box in all 3
| major OS's. Also, Colemak is an easy way to upgrade comfort
| in cases where you can't change the keyboard, like a laptop
| or shared computer.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > avoiding RSI
|
| I tried all manner of keyboards over the years, and in my
| opinion, none of them solve RSI. I'm now back to a standard
| qwerty for the same reason as OP - they're just immediately
| available everywhere.
|
| What did help my no-longer-existent RSI was simple - I don't
| rest my wrists any more like I was taught in high school
| typing class (by an instructor that would whack our hands
| with a ruler if we were caught resting our wrists).
|
| I do have a bit of De Quervain's Tenosynovitis from the
| mouse, but I'm solving that with one of those hand stretchers
| that hook to your fingers and provide resistance when opening
| the hand. 100 reps a day (25x4) and I haven't really felt it
| in weeks. Turns out that working out the muscles _opposite_
| to the ones you think is the key (therapy putty did nothing).
| lycopodiopsida wrote:
| I've tried a lot of keyboards over the years - ergonomic
| ones, such KA2 and Glove80 (now) absolutely did solve my
| RSI issues. Pain may have many issues, such joints, posture
| problems (pinching nerves in shoulders/elbow) but getting a
| proper chair and ergonomic split keyboard is still my
| number 1 advice. Also more sport, if it is not too severe.
|
| Going to a doctor should also be high on the list, but
| unfortunately, I have yet to see one willing to do a proper
| diagnosis. My experience there is more than mixed, so you
| have to experiment yourself.
| dugidugout wrote:
| I too have had positive experience switching layouts for
| RSI (cubital tunnel specifically). While I am a bit
| skeptical on some of the more subtle claims by ergonomic
| enthusiasts, simply being more intentful around wrist
| posture seems to do me wonders. It may be more of a case
| where engaging in the niche is serving some broader
| truth, but I too directly associate my related journey to
| funny looking keyboards!
|
| FWIW, all a doctor did for me was affirm my self-
| diagnosis and life-style adjustments. Surgery in this
| area looked quite grim on my last purview so I am not
| sure a doctor would serve much for most in this regard.
| milch wrote:
| Personally I started getting wrist pain 2 or 3 years ago. I
| have been using Colemak anyway for more than 15 years - my
| original reason for switching was because the German QWERTZ
| layout I grew up with is not very programming friendly,
| symbols like []<>{}/\ are hidden away behind hard to type
| chords. I found as a nice side benefit that my typing speed
| increased by 20-30 or so WPM... I did also have typing
| classes in school, so it is not simply because I started
| paying more attention to learning how to type with the new
| system.
|
| After switching to a split keyboard my pain went away, and
| I think I learned that at least for me it was caused by
| exactly these symbols - on both US QWERTY and Colemak when
| you constantly type [];:{}| and so on, your pinky has to
| reach over to do it. At least for me that meant contorting
| my hand a bit to reach over. On my split keyboard all the
| symbols are behind a layer on the home row, and I barely
| use the pinky for anything, which fixes the issue. I also
| learned to hover while switching to the split keyboard, but
| that did nothing for my wrist pain when going back to my
| laptop's built in keyboard - after a full day of
| programming there the pain is back.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > on both US QWERTY and Colemak when you constantly type
| [];:{}| and so on, your pinky has to reach over to do it.
| At least for me that meant contorting my hand a bit to
| reach over. On my split keyboard all the symbols are
| behind a layer on the home row, and I barely use the
| pinky for anything, which fixes the issue.
|
| On a completely standard rectangular-block keyboard, I
| don't use pinkies to type. Actually, I do use my left
| pinky to hit left shift. But that's it.
| dugidugout wrote:
| There is a subset of split keyboard layouts which solve
| for this by moving the modifiers to the thumb area, which
| is often void when a keyboard is split. Quite a pleasure
| to use and has much less buy-in than QWERTY alternatives.
| milch wrote:
| Maybe my hands are small, but to type []|\\+= and not use
| my pinky I would either have to move my entire hand over
| or contort it even more to use my ring finger
| tracker1 wrote:
| I find that just going from a membrane keyboard to a
| physical key switch keyboard with bump that it helps a
| lot... I type relatively lightly. I really like the
| original buckling spring keyboards from Unicomp, but others
| around me prefer me using my Cherry MX Brown switch
| keyboards which are relatively close.
|
| The physical bump helps you type without bottoming out with
| practice it helps a lot with RSI, at least from my N:1
| experience.
| trostaft wrote:
| Do you have any opinions on ergoKB? I've begun to notice some
| pain, not in my wrists, but in my upper forearms and am
| thinking about something to fix that.
| buzzerbetrayed wrote:
| > typing blind on a keyboard I am not used to is anyway a
| hopeless endeavor.
|
| Sounds like you're a special case then. Most people can type
| fine on any qwerty keyboard. And your willingness to turn a
| blind eye to pretty major annoyances makes it seem like
| you're trying to justify the effort you've put into Colemak.
| Even if you aren't doing that, you'll get more mileage out of
| just admitting that it's annoying to have to use another
| keyboard.
| lycopodiopsida wrote:
| > And your willingness to turn a blind eye to pretty major
| annoyances makes it seem like you're trying to justify the
| effort you've put into Colemak
|
| Nah, I know vim, meow, emacs keybindings but mostly use
| boon. I am also able to use my zoo of keyboards in the
| drawer without any problem, including Model100, KA2 and
| Glove80. Not everyone is limited by difficulty of learning
| a skill. There was absolutely no reason to keep qwery and
| staggered keyboard skills sharp, so I did let it go. Q.E.D.
| hajile wrote:
| > I'm sure I could learn to be slightly faster on
| dvorak/colemak
|
| The speed is about the same. The big colmak win for me was that
| my hands/arms didn't ache after long typing sessions.
| Ergonomics and not getting repetitive motion injuries matter to
| me more than compatibility (though I can still type in qwerty
| even if it's slower these days).
| meesles wrote:
| > I'm sure I could learn to be slightly faster on
| dvorak/colemak, but nothing beats the convenience of always
| having guaranteed access to qwerty, everywhere I go.
|
| Citation needed. Of my 2 friends that have tried, neither have
| been able to reach their 'standard' typing speed after 1+ years
| of dvorak. Maybe they didn't try hard enough?
| miroljub wrote:
| > Citation needed.
|
| No, not needed.
|
| This is not an HN comment posting a subjective opinion, not a
| scientific work that requires real, or a Wikipedia article
| that requires any citation.
| allknowingfrog wrote:
| I switched from Qwerty to Dvorak in my 20s, and now from Vim to
| Helix in my 30s. Both transitions were rough for a couple of
| weeks, but honestly less difficult than expected. Neither
| choice turned me into a 10x developer, but neither one has ever
| caused a problem that I cared about either.
|
| Do you spend a lot of time on systems that you don't control?
| Dvorak discourages other people from helping themselves to my
| keyboard, which is honestly worth more to me than being able to
| go the opposite direction.
| tmtvl wrote:
| As an Emacs user it annoys me to no end when I find myself
| using a system without a Vi variant. Not having Emacs available
| is fine, I know where to find it if I really need it, not
| having Dvorak is fine, hunt-and-peck is usually good enough;
| but not having Vi means I need to do a ton of sedding, catting,
| heading, and tailing which gets to be a chore after a while
| (almost as bad as using nano).
| miroljub wrote:
| What's so bad about nano that you'd use sed, cat, head, and
| tail to do minor edits on a text file instead of just using
| nano?
| eviks wrote:
| > nothing beats the convenience of always having guaranteed
| access to qwerty, everywhere I go.
|
| (less so for keyboard layout since it's harder to fix in other
| machines) but the ergonomics of your 99% use cases - using your
| own keyboard/your own editor config with 1% awkwardness when
| you can't copy a config beats the health-hazardous use 100% of
| the time.
|
| > via well-maintained plugins
|
| so those can read your vim config and maintain your better
| keybinds, right?
| lenkite wrote:
| I don't understand. VIM has a visual mode too if you want it.
| Just press `v`, do your selection and then operate on the
| selection. But frankly, the operator-motion is better, esp if
| you have repetitive editing to do. It is easier to repeat the
| same or combine the into a macro.
|
| Feel less efficient with Helix motions:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/HelixEditor/comments/1h5qqg7/i_feel...
| grayrest wrote:
| > I'm sure I could learn to be slightly faster on
| dvorak/colemak
|
| As near as I can tell, people generally type at similar speeds
| regardless of layout. If you're aiming for speed typing [1], I
| can see it making a difference, but chances are you're not
| going to see much of a difference. I type on an alpha-thumb
| layout (Hands Down Vibranium, the R key is under my left thumb)
| on an ergo keyboard. It's like using a fountain pen versus a
| cheap ballpoint or a nice mechanical keyboard vs a membrane
| keyboard. The experience is nicer but it's not a fundamentally
| different process. Being on a weird setup, I was concerned
| about "what if my keyboard breaks", "what if I'm on a public
| computer", etc and the solution is just to not forget qwerty. I
| use the laptop keyboard every other day or so for something
| short like a comment and it's fine.
|
| What my personal setup does let me do is have my wrists in a
| neutral position with my arms resting on chair armrests and no
| active muscle effort. Between the efficient layout and small
| keyboard I never need to move my hands at all. This means that
| my wrists are just as well positioned after 12 hours as they
| are at the start and that's what has been letting my stress
| injuries recover.
|
| [1]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/KeyboardLayouts/comments/1lfu1xt/fi...
| Archelaos wrote:
| > of always having guaranteed access to qwerty everywhere I go.
|
| You haven't travelled far, obviously.
| timeon wrote:
| Maybe it is not for people that need to switch. For me it is
| first editor of this kind and I do not need to fight anything.
| kace91 wrote:
| A few days ago I was randomly reading about ed (after stumbling
| with the 'ed is the standard editor' joke) and reflecting over
| how much historical baggage we accumulate in computing.
|
| Commands like a for appending text are unchanged from the
| teletype era, which are so old that most people don't know
| computers used printers as an output before screens!
|
| It's pushed me to learn about projects that try to move beyond
| acumulated baggage and rethink principles.
|
| I've been taking a look at Nushell for example, and even though I
| was initially skeptical of Helix because of how universal vim
| commands are, perhaps it's time to take a deeper look.
| conartist6 wrote:
| Come check out BABLR! https://github.com/bablr-lang
| https://discord.gg/NfMNyYN6cX
|
| We'll have a major release announcement any day now, but we're
| looking hard at the accumulated baggage and we think we can
| lose a lot of that weight while giving people a level of power
| they never had before
| anticodon wrote:
| > Commands like a for appending text are unchanged from the
| teletype era
|
| I don't find these commands a historical baggage. They're quite
| useful even today. Also commands like A, I, P, O in vim are
| super-useful when recording macros (macros are easier to record
| and more robust because they less depend on the context where
| they would be run).
| wuhhh wrote:
| I have a similar story but with neovim (and for the same reason
| as the author; growing unease with big tech). Tried and failed to
| make the switch a few times but made a concerted effort to stick
| with it throughout a specific project and now it's second nature.
| I found it useful to research idiomatic (n)vim ways of doing
| things whenever I'd get frustrated or feel I'd be doing something
| more quickly in VSCode and commit them to memory by using new
| commands a few times over. Right now I'd say search/replace is
| the only thing that's still not as ergonomic for me in vim as it
| is in Code. What I do is visually highlight my search phrase, hit
| asterisk then :%s//replaced - I learned that you can omit the
| search pattern using this technique.
|
| Anyway nvim and helix are both amazing and terminal editors are
| both cool and sexy, so why wouldn't you? ;)
| pigcat wrote:
| Woah, how did I not know about that tip about omitting the
| search pattern? Love it and will be using that lots!
|
| As a thank you, I'll leave you with the way I learned to
| search/replace, just to give you a slightly different flavour:
| asterisk, cgn ([c]hange [g]o [n]ext), type replaced, then .
| (period, to repeat) until I'm done.
| wuhhh wrote:
| Right back at you, that's super neat!
| maartin0 wrote:
| I've tried Neovim, but still use VSCode because everything either
| works out of the box or takes 2 clicks to install an extension
| for and things like drag and drop into the file explorer or the
| remote extension make it really quick to use.
|
| The only other real GUI contender I've seen is Jetbrains's IDEs
| (the free educational plan is great) but having seperate IDEs for
| different languages gets a bit annoying if you have multi
| language projects (e.g. a Rust backend hosting a Typescript
| frontend)
| Mond_ wrote:
| See https://herecomesthemoon.net/2025/06/i-like-helix/, Helix
| is a very different experience from neovim, and basically
| everything works out of the box with no configs or setup
| required.
|
| It's quite impressive how everything just works and how easy
| onboarding is.
| moritzruth wrote:
| You don't really need the different IDEs. For example, you can
| install the Rust plugin and the TypeScript plugin in IntelliJ
| Ultimate, without needing RustRover and WebStorm.
| scns wrote:
| Does CLion not contain the JS tools? The other have them.
| preommr wrote:
| > Microsoft is also based in the USA, and the political climate
| over there makes me want to depend as little as possible on
| American tools. I know that's a long, uphill battle, but we have
| to start somewhere.
|
| I miss the days when we had militant, but more entertaining
| zealots like Stallman. Whatever else you can say about his
| antics, Stallman was comitted. And that craziness wrapped back
| around to being entertaining.
|
| Now we just get whatever this is - basically the equivalent of
| someone declaring they're going to try being vegetarian by not
| eating the tips of chicken wings anymore. Like dude, fork Vscode
| and start hosting it on your own custom vc system that was hacked
| together as a side project.
|
| Where's the fire and passion behind the resistance?
| monooso wrote:
| I'm not sure if this counts as an act of "resistance", but
| either way its value isn't dependent upon the amount of faffing
| involved.
| dkdcio wrote:
| I recently learned about the whole "GNU/Linux" naming thing and
| got a good kick out of it
|
| https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.en.html
| janice1999 wrote:
| > Where's the fire and passion behind the resistance?
|
| The working class are exhausted and a paycheck away from losing
| their homes. People don't have the time or energy to fight back
| for privacy/sovereignty/whatever inconveniences those in power.
| Stallman grew up privileged, went to the best universities at
| the best possible time and worked in academia. He had plenty of
| time to devote to political causes.
| bitbasher wrote:
| A majority of people in tech jobs have more than enough
| privilege to fight back, but instead they get cozy with their
| Microsoft editor, using the Microsoft backed LLM, pushing
| code to their Microsoft code forge, updating info on their
| Microsoft professional networking profile and publishing
| packages on Microsoft's package manager.
|
| Let's face it-- the passion and resistance is nearly dead.
| There's a few of us left. Say what you want about Stallman,
| at least the man stood for something.
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| I do almost all my development on JetBrains IDEs (Rust, Python,
| Kotlin). IME they are unmatched for giving you code insights and
| suggested fixes (combined with "click here to do that") out of
| the box. But they are absolute resource hogs and I don't trust
| that they (or their best features) will always remain free.
|
| I've tried to get into neovim a few times. It's fine for basic
| editing and I use it a bit when I am ssh'd into a box without a
| graphical environment, or I'm just not bothered booting up a full
| IDE. But the UI still feels less intuitive to me than JetBrains,
| and by the time I've installed and configured the various plugins
| that should give me anything approaching JetBrains' functionality
| the whole setup feels very fragile, like it could break at any
| moment and I wouldn't easily be able to fix it. In the regard,
| Helix having more stuff OOTB feels like it could be a definite
| improvement.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I'm also on the jetbrains train, but I stopped using it for a
| while because they're _sluggish_. An editor 's interface should
| never lock up, an editor should never have popups that demand
| focus, etc but both intellij and vs code do this.
|
| At the moment I'm on VS Code again because Sublime Text isn't
| keeping up to date anymore (its ecosystem has mostly been
| dormant since 2014 or 2016) and Zed is still fully in
| development and doesn't have some of the extensions and tools
| that I sometimes use in VS Code.
|
| If I were to go back to e.g. Java I'd probably use IntelliJ
| again, but then, the enterprise I work for would be shelling
| out for it.
| roywiggins wrote:
| I ended up switching to Zed after VS Code lost connection to
| my dev VM and locked up one too many times. I am not sure
| what the issue is- maybe the VM is just running out of memory
| and nuking the VSCode daemon? But either way, Zed has not had
| this problem at all.
|
| I never had much problem with feeling VSCode was slow
| (outside of those lockups) but Zed surprised me by feeling
| actively _fast_. I do miss several extensions a lot though!
| sorcercode wrote:
| > I never had much problem with feeling VSCode was slow
| (outside of those lockups) but Zed surprised me by feeling
| actively fast.
|
| well said. this is exactly how I felt too. when other folks
| ask why zed, and i tell them it's fast - i couldn't quite
| capture that feeling but this comment nails it.
|
| Zed actively feels faster than VSCode or equivalent
| editors; but once you get comfortable with Zed's speed,
| it's hard to go back.
| lgunsch wrote:
| I've been using JetBrains IDEs for the last 11 years. Before
| that I used Emacs and Sublime Text. I've tried VSCode, Zed, and
| others. There's just no comparison on the code insights and
| code manipulation tools. LSP is far behind what JetBrains can
| do, although it's slowly catching up these days. I still use
| VSCode from time to time for other languages like Zig.
|
| I've never experienced sluggishness, but, I also keep track of
| how much memory it's using and ensure I don't run low. It's
| clearly a huge resource hog, but I'm also glad for that. It's
| using all of my computers resources to analyze the code in
| amazing ways which help me develop fast. Emacs, Sublime Text,
| and others were all about typing speed. Fast development goes
| far beyond just typing speed.
| KronisLV wrote:
| > But they are absolute resource hogs and I don't trust that
| they (or their best features) will always remain free.
|
| I use quite a few of their IDEs for various use cases (Java,
| .NET, Python, Go, JS projects and some DB interaction) and
| ended up just buying their ultimate pack. For individual use,
| it was like 360 EUR with VAT per year that went down to 216 EUR
| by year 3 of staying subscribed. Just so I wouldn't have to
| deal with any artificial limitations and could use all of their
| tools instead of some Frankenstein setup where I have to
| install all sorts of plugins into IntelliJ.
|
| Their AI tools are also pretty decent (Junie was lovely to use,
| despite the rate limits), the idea behind the free Fleet editor
| was also cool but it kinda sucked in comparison to VSC. That
| said, if the JetBrains IDEs ever get enshittified, I'm throwing
| them into the trash and moving over to just VSC with a
| frickload of plugins and AI slop coding to make up for the lack
| of comparably good refactoring tools and such. Until then, I'm
| okay with paying for their software, same as I pay for
| MobaXTerm and support FreeFileSync etc., I guess my point is
| that I largely view them as a commercial product and wouldn't
| count on that much being or remaining free.
| dkarl wrote:
| 25 years ago, naive me thought we'd eventually figure out how
| to use text editors as components within other applications
| like IDEs. A protocol would evolve to let IDEs and editors work
| together. The same protocol would allow every text box in a
| browser to be your favorite editor.
|
| LSP is much more practical, but much less than I hoped for.
| f311a wrote:
| I was using it for 10 years, and now I'm using Helix and
| occasionally open JetBrains tools to do some refactoring.
|
| I just hate the idea of opening two IDEs because my work repo
| is in Go and Python. Also, the IDEs are not getting faster,
| only slower.
| aiiizzz wrote:
| Does the author really not use any other vscode feature than lsp?
| What about e.g. gitlens or jupyter
| rscrawfo wrote:
| There are pretty good terminal alternatives to gitlens -
| lazygit being the one I go to. I like it far more that gitlens.
|
| Jupyter is harder, I haven't found anything that gets me there
| yet.
| focom wrote:
| Helix boast itself as a no config tool, but you have to find a
| lsp, installl it, edit a toml to activate it. I dont think we can
| call that "config less". Success would be something like LazyVim
| but without the nagging of updates each time you open it.
| tiu wrote:
| I am whole off the vim (&friends) trend but my 2c-
|
| The helix situation is still miles better _for up and running
| asap_ compared to dancing with files /lua on lazyvim. Just
| having to refer to docs to install a plugin, writing sane
| remaps etc eats up time. If you really just speedrun everything
| under an hour good for you. But for the rest, a lsp is a one
| package manager install away (even on windows scoop seems to
| have become the de facto), editing a toml is much easier than
| fiddling with the lua api/vimscript "just" to set some
| variables.
|
| (Not a helix user though I have tried both vim/nvim/helix)
|
| The only problem for me was the keybindings work good unless my
| vim instincts kick in where I become slow. The other one was
| lack of plugins.
| lawn wrote:
| I don't know about LazyVim but my LSP configuration in Neovim
| is really simple:.
|
| Use Mason to install the LSP server (just type :LspInstall or
| use the Mason UI) that will then activate automatically and
| reuse an existing configuration from lsp-config.
|
| No tinkering or configuration needed.
| focom wrote:
| I agree with all you said. Its an improvment over nvim
| situation. I still think for common languages like python and
| markdown lsp should be setup by default. I am not sure if i
| am willing to forget all the muscle memory I have just yet.
| Also I miss being able to ZZ to exit my file
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| I think most people in the target audience for either editor
| wouldn't mind a bit of tinkering. The difference is in
| basically building your own setup from the ground up with
| plugins and config files vs starting with a reasonably
| featureful setup OOTB that you can then tweak to your liking.
|
| I use LazyVim and it works pretty well. But whenever I want to
| change some small aspect of its behaviour it takes a while to
| get familiar with the right part of the configuration. And if
| an update were to break it tomorrow I'm not sure how easily I
| could put it back together.
| _fat_santa wrote:
| For me personally I use VSCode + Vim Extension and I find the
| combo quite perfect. I've been using VSCode pretty much my entire
| career and with the vim extension I can make things like editing
| very "vim like" but still be able to break out and do other
| things the "vscode way"
| fer wrote:
| I really, really want to use Helix but I want to share bindings
| with VSCode/IntelliJ, and all the plugins that promise them have
| lots quirks, exceptions and various gaps. I know it's never gonna
| be 100%, but sometimes simple stuff is broken (x to select line
| in Helix, selected line+newline in the latest plugin I tried).
| ruguo wrote:
| First time hearing about the Helix editor, and I gotta say -- it
| really caught my eye. I'm not super familiar with Vim, but I'm
| definitely gonna install Helix and give it a try.
| donpdonp wrote:
| The best part of this article for me is the link to these well
| made 3rd party docs for helix.
|
| https://helix-nikita-revencos-projects.vercel.app/start-here...
| nromiun wrote:
| Helix's features look very cool, but I could not switch to it
| because of this bug [0]. It has been open since May 2022 and it
| is still not fixed. Basically you can't exit insert mode with a
| key combination like `jk`. Four years feels like a long time for
| such a basic bug. I will stick to NeoVim for now.
|
| 0. https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/2612
| xcrjm wrote:
| Check out the docs! They show you how to do exactly that:
| https://docs.helix-editor.com/remapping.html#minor-modes
| nromiun wrote:
| Yeah, the docs show different keys combination, like `jk` or
| `jh` etc (even with the bug described in the issue). You
| can't use the same key like I am used to (just `jj`), because
| there is no timeout between characters.
| fogzen wrote:
| Helix has its limitations -- but I use it for speed. No other
| editor I've tried is as nimble.
| phplovesong wrote:
| Last i checked helix did not have a way to run commands and pipe
| results to something like quickfix. Is this a thing these days?
| dcre wrote:
| In Helix this is mostly meant to be mediated by language
| servers. That said, you can use `:pipe` and other commands to
| pass the current selection to arbitrary shell commands and do
| stuff with the output.
| gaoshan wrote:
| I used Helix for a couple of days and really liked it for the
| most part. However, I would sometimes encounter a small, simple
| thing that I do without thinking in VS Code but just did not know
| the command for in Helix. I would look it up, think, "Sweet,
| that's efficient" and move on. This kept happening and finally I
| was in a situation where I just needed to move fast and did not
| have time to investigate how to do it in Helix so I switched back
| and... never returned.
|
| It was a learning curve issue for me, not a functionality issue.
| I'll probably return at some point (like when the EOY season
| becomes slower and I have more time to explore) but for now I'm
| back to cruising in VS Code.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Just yesterday I think I reached the breaking point with vim.
| Been using vi and derivatives for 40 years, but the amount of
| tweaking to get a usable setup is really annoying me. I've gotten
| to the point where LSP is a must have.
|
| Yesterday I was trying to switch my Astro VIM setup from using
| black to using "ruff format", which lead me down the path of
| installing astro from scratch, re-configuring it for my "must
| haves", and then trying again to get my formatter switched to
| ruff. I reinstalled because the docs looked like there may be a
| new way to do it since my last install 6 months ago.
|
| The documentation for Astro VIM is really incomplete. Claude was
| fairly helpful, maybe Claude Code would be better, since it'll
| have the context of my exact configs rather than Claude giving me
| 3-5 options for making the change.
|
| I've got a helix cheatsheet on my desk that I had Claude make me
| ~3 months ago. I started my work journal in helix this morning,
| but the install on that system must be broken because I couldn't
| even exit insert mode, pressing ESC did nothing.
|
| I'm at the point where I think vim is a great library for
| building a text editor, but nobody has built a great text editor
| in it yet. I really liked LunarVim but that got abandoned for
| reasons I don't fully understand.
| submeta wrote:
| Helix is a beautifully made editor. Looking forward for it to
| have scriptability and extensibility.
|
| I went from VS Code to NeoVim and can't be happier. Not saying
| that VS Code isn't a good product. It's actually everything you
| need in an editor/ ide. But it's way too heavy for my taste. I
| made the transition to the terminal for my dev workflow. WezTerm,
| mux and tmux, neovim as editor, lazygit as git client, yazi for
| file navigation: I absolutely love how streamlined my process is.
|
| Wonderful times with lots of options.
| gigatexal wrote:
| I'd do the same if they didn't switch the vim bindings around.
| All that muscle memory to unlearn. Nope.
|
| I went to Zed for this reason.
| alimbada wrote:
| It's a shame Zed founders unapologetically take money from
| bigots: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/36604
| gigatexal wrote:
| I had thoughts on this but deleted it many times so I dunno
| really but I guess of all the VCs to take money from... (or
| maybe this was the only one that would fund a text editor??)
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| Helix is fine but Zed is perhaps the most similar Rust-based VS
| Code alternative.
| ethmarks wrote:
| Even better, Zed with Helix keybindings:
| https://zed.dev/docs/helix
| e12e wrote:
| I'm a mostly happy helix user - but I'm still struggling to get
| debugging to work - both with ruby/rails and typescript/node
| (Adonis).
|
| Apparently DAP protocol support has been merged - but I find the
| documentation lacking, and afaik for typescript/javascript it
| won't work out of the box, as helix needs a pointers to the dap
| server (and that can't simply be in PATH)?
|
| How are everyone debugging with Helix?
|
| https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/discussions/9269
| cosmic_quanta wrote:
| I'm switching from VSCode as well. I love Helix's (and Kakoune's)
| editing model centered around selections rather than motions. I
| can see what I'll operate on interactively.
|
| I still use VSCode when navigating complex codebase changes, just
| because of the visual file tree. I hope to fully switch over
| soon.
| eviks wrote:
| > Being a lazy person, I never bothered looking up VS Code
| shortcuts. Because the learning curve for Helix is slightly
| steeper, you have to learn those shortcuts that make moving
| around feel so easy.
|
| This doesn't make sense: if you were truly lazy, you wouldn't
| spend any effort learning a more complicated app, you'd simply
| not switch!
|
| > with a few knobs for minor preferences. I am subject to choice
| paralysis, so making me configure an editor before I've even
| started editing is the best way to tank my productivity.
|
| There are a couple of hundreds of options https://docs.helix-
| editor.com/editor.html and even more hundreds of keybinds
| https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html to reconfigure, so you
| can knob yourself to death with Helix just like with any other
| configurable app. And the way out is the same as with vim - just
| pick someone else who has done it and has published the results
| before dying and use those!
| bccdee wrote:
| > And the way out is the same as with vim - just pick someone
| else who has done it
|
| I think the crucial thing here is that most people _don 't_ do
| it, because it works out of the box. You _can_ change any of
| the keybindings and any of a few hundred settings if you want,
| but the defaults are good, so you don 't have to. My helix
| config sets the theme and soft-wrap and that's about it.
| eviks wrote:
| In what way do vim default keybinds not work vs Helix's since
| they seem to be very similar (outside of the whole selection-
| first behavior inversion)?
|
| In general, I agree that good defaults is the way to go, and
| vim is worse here (except for the theme, helix's default is
| bad), though again, the alternative isn't a many knobs
| paralysis, but a better starting set.
| el_memorioso wrote:
| As a long time user of both Emacs (since 18.52) and Neovim and
| now Helix, I find your last assertion to be false. While it is
| true that there are many options (though not as many as either
| Emacs or Neovim), in Helix you cannot write code or install
| someone else's code to modify your editor. In the past I've
| spent a good amount of time trying out, integrating, and
| debugging various packages for Neovim and Emacs. In Helix I
| might try a new option setting, but the time involved is
| minuscule compared to what you might spend customizing other
| editors.
| eviks wrote:
| Just because your current customization needs are primitive
| in Helix doesn't mean that the potential isn't there!
|
| > might try a new option setting
|
| What about trying to change all the keybinds to suit your
| emacs/vim needs? What about tweaking hundreds of colors in
| editor theme?
|
| > in Helix you cannot write code or install someone else's
| code to modify your editor.
|
| But this is planned, so if only code tickles your fancy, then
| yeah, you'd have to wait for the full rabbit hole
| customization potential to appear.
| weinzierl wrote:
| The article misses one important point. Helix is 100% immune
| against plugin supply chain attacks like GlassWorm.
|
| I am joking of course. Helix is fantastic and I think it
| eventually will get a state-of-the-art safe plugin system. After
| a couple of attempts I made the permanent switch from neovim two
| moths ago. I don't think I'll ever go back.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| I'm not sure I follow the argument being made here.
|
| "I don't like vim as you need to install plugins to make it work"
|
| "helix is a dumb editor, so it needs a language server."
|
| Then they go and list the number of plugins they install. This
| seems to argue against what their main point
|
| I now use VScode most of the time, however to me its a fancy VIM
| variant, because I'm so used to vim bindings.
|
| I can and do use raw vim, although not for any serious
| programming recently. If I were then I'd have syntastic installed
| and possibly some more advanced linter.
|
| However! If it makes them happy, then this is a good thing(tm).
| tiltowait wrote:
| The argument _doesn 't_ make sense, but I followed the exact
| same path. For me, Helix is genuinely just more enjoyable to
| use out of the box, so I felt more motivated to tune it to my
| liking.
| allknowingfrog wrote:
| Helix is great if you just want something fast that gets out of
| your way. If you want plugins and integrations and other magic,
| it's probably not for you. I used Vim for the past decade,
| because it fits the way my brain works. Helix captures that same
| spirit, but with some polish and friendliness that can only come
| from starting fresh, and abandoning years of entrenched design
| decisions.
|
| Helix is a fantastic terminal-based editor. I would rather type
| in mittens than use a GUI editor. If that resonates with you,
| maybe give it a try. If you love your GUI, I don't think Helix
| will be the thing that changes your mind.
| rw_panic0_0 wrote:
| HELIX EVANGELISM STRIKE FORCE HERE LET'S GO
| tasuki wrote:
| > Helix is a "stupid" text editor. It doesn't know much about
| what you're typing. But it supports Language Servers that
| implement the Language Server Protocol.
|
| By that measure, isn't eg VS code also a "stupid" editor?
| semiinfinitely wrote:
| helix is the reason I now believe all rust projects are doomed to
| fail
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