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Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

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Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#131
post #118

I gave it a try out of curiosity with Rust, which you might reasonably expect to be well supported. But it didn't start a language server. So I followed the docs to find out how and was none the wiser. A tad undercooked, I'd say.

Make sure you have rust-analyzer installed, and check `hx --health` to see that Helix finds it. Not sure if this is still necessary, but I needed this workaround in ~/.config/helix/languages.toml: language-server = { command = "rustup", args = ["run", "nightly", "rust-analyzer"]} This should not be necessary when rust-analyzer is stabilized (may be already), but last time I tried it still needed nightly.

Thanks. Hadn't realised I needed to have the lsp server binary on the path. I think nvim-lspconfig takes care of that for me in nvim.

From a brief experiment basic lsp usage seems to work in helix without any config changes, so perhaps that's changed since you set it up.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#132
post #122
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I fully expect Helix to replace Vim, Neovim, and Kakoune for most users in the long run. I feel like I am definitely not in the "most users" group here. > syntax highlighting ... IDE-like functionality > Those are by far the most important features for a text editor to have. The most important features for me are the ability to navigate around and manipulate whatever's in the buffer(s) efficiently. I'm a 30 year vi…

In addition to the helix resource, you may or may not want to look at: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim/blob/master/config.toml I think most of the "muscle memory" bindings there are a bad idea (helix is different from vim - if you don't want that, I recommend neovim). As for "dd" - that would be (as indicated in your quote) select line, delete (yd) in neovim. Similar for delete to end-of-line - the second form is…

> https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim/blob/master/config.toml

Thanks, I may give Helix another spin with that config. I saw the note about it being necessary to recompile, which I can't be bothered to do so I guess I won't get everything but it may get me through most of the day with less frustration (especially now I've turned mouse support off too; the cursor moving when I click to raise my terminal window was incredibly frustrating).

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#133
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He is saying that these tools aren't improving his dev process and therefore are not better for him. That would just be a personal preference thing, and it would be fine if they just stated that and left it at that. But they also mention how they are "put off" (wtf) from people who claim that the LSP/tree-sitter support makes this a viable candidate to replace vim/neovim. Saying you're being "put off" by what other…

The commenter stated clearly that they are not put off by what others use but their claims that their shiny new toy is going to replace everything in a couple of years. Those people are just trolling; trolls are off-putting.

>Those people are just trolling; trolls are off-putting.

Trolling means saying something you don't believe in to start a ruckus/annoy people/make a flame war.

People saying that an editor done in the spirit of vim can replace vim/neovim, since it has LSP/tree-sitter support (which translates to: since it, on top of what it inherently has, automatically gets auto-complete/lint/etc support for all kinds of languages) is perhaps a little over-optimistic but in absolutely no way does it constitute trolling.

Now, the commenter would be fine to state that they're put-off by claims that "this is going to replace everything in a couple of years".

But, for starters, nobody stated that "it is going to replace everything in a couple of years". Just that it could, over due time (not "a couple of years") gain traction over vim/neovim and perhaps others for users wanting a vim-like editor.

Besides, he explicitly wrote that what puts him off is not that claim alone, but "how some people are claiming its going to replace vim/nevoim and others by the virtue of its great LSP and tree sitter support".

-- that is, he is put off people touting "LSP/tree-sitter" as features relevant to this editor gaining popularity. He even uses "I never needed to use auto complete" as some kind of supporting argument that others shouldn't consider those features important either...

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#134
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a nordic-layout user as well and whenever I look at the actual differences side-by-side I get reminded about how much easier it would be to code if I had all those symbols that close. https://www.farah.cl/Keyboardery/A-Visual-Comparison-of-Diff... And for me I'm pretty sure that this "remap everything and translate every tutorial" barrier is why I never have been able to get into vim.

I grew up with the Icelandic layout. When I started programming professionally I taught myself the en-us layout and stared using that instead. It is much easier on my hands and fingers; it really does show that the people who came up with the syntax for most of the programming languages in use picked things that were easy to type on a US layout and didn't give any thought to the rest of us.

I do not think there's a particularly feasible way to facilitate every keyboard layout out there, so it makes sense that they are at least built with one keyboard layout in mind, much like I think it makes sense that programming in general is overwhelmingly done in English. It increases interoperability significantly.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#135
post #124
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just can't see if ever taking off, if I'm honest. The people that use neo/vim are going to continue using it, even if Helix is better. The people who aren't yet using it will use vs-code and the few that do switch, well they might go to Helix but there's a lot of vim resources out there, so I'm not sure all of them will go to Helix. Honestly, language servers are a bit of a faff to set up, but that's tooling and it…

I've tried to make the switch to Neovim from Vscodium before but there was so much configuration for all the language stuff (and I'm not the biggest fan of Lua). But after seeing this post and installing Helix it's been pretty painless so far and I think this can actually help me make the switch. I am about to try some configuration for Rust debugging but that shouldn't be needed once they've got full DAP support. I…

For the longest time I was using YouCompleteMe with vim and then tried all sorts of LSP servers. And while I'm still using them, I feel like that YouCompleteMe solution back in the day had a lot less fiddling involved. Sure they have more features and more selection and variety nowadays, but I have spent so much more time configuring things that I kinda regret it now.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#136
post #10

I fully expect Helix to replace Vim, Neovim, and Kakoune for most users in the long run. Helix is built from the ground up around Tree-Sitter and LSP. This means you get the best syntax highlighting available, and IDE-like functionality, with zero configuration required other than installing the appropriate language server. Those are by far the most important features for a text editor to have, and crucially, they ar…

You’re only saying this because it’s written in Rust, aren’t you?

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#137
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to the helix resource, you may or may not want to look at: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim/blob/master/config.toml I think most of the "muscle memory" bindings there are a bad idea (helix is different from vim - if you don't want that, I recommend neovim). As for "dd" - that would be (as indicated in your quote) select line, delete (yd) in neovim. Similar for delete to end-of-line - the second form is…

> https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim/blob/master/config.toml Thanks, I may give Helix another spin with that config. I saw the note about it being necessary to recompile, which I can't be bothered to do so I guess I won't get everything but it may get me through most of the day with less frustration (especially now I've turned mouse support off too; the cursor moving when I click to raise my terminal window was incr…

Fwiw I use some of that config with helix from macports - no patches.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#138
post #120

I have been trying out Helix for the last few months as part of my now 24 year quest to incorporate some form of vi into my daily routine. This time, it's looking good. What sets it apart are the (zero-conf) built-in LSP and tree-sitter highlighting, and the select-verb modal keybindings instead of vi's verb-object syntax, where you see what you're about to do before you do it. Some of the key combinations also show…

Man, I don't know what has happened but the spur for new editors has.been delightful. I have been using Zed for a bit since I made it into the closed beta, but it has been very nice to use. VSCode does the job pretty well, but it just feels more clunky to me, and I have hitches quite often. It is not bad, but I want something more performant while giving me the style of vim and emacs. Zed definitely has some rough edges and some sorely missing features (that are being worked on), but it just feels better to use.

I know so many people probably discount these projects because of the RIIR meme, but it really has spurred more inovations that we should all be grateful for.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#140
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a nordic-layout user as well and whenever I look at the actual differences side-by-side I get reminded about how much easier it would be to code if I had all those symbols that close. https://www.farah.cl/Keyboardery/A-Visual-Comparison-of-Diff... And for me I'm pretty sure that this "remap everything and translate every tutorial" barrier is why I never have been able to get into vim.

I grew up with the Icelandic layout. When I started programming professionally I taught myself the en-us layout and stared using that instead. It is much easier on my hands and fingers; it really does show that the people who came up with the syntax for most of the programming languages in use picked things that were easy to type on a US layout and didn't give any thought to the rest of us.

I tried that once, but already back then my muscle memory wasn't having it. Now I'm too old to put down the required hours to relearn and get back up to speed.
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