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Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

helix-editor.com

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Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#101

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

adenozine wrote: post #90
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious though how as a user of the editor the programming language even matters (beyond how complex it is to compile). And if you do want to contribute I’m reasonably certain that helix by virtue of how it’s programmed is the easiest to contribute to I have come across.

I see what you mean, I suppose I should have clarified. I want to dig into one of these editors for a stronger understanding of how they work, and using something as obtuse as Rust is a total nonstarter for me. I read through the source of micro over a few weekends during the 2020 lockdowns and really enjoyed the experience, though I was woefully underprepared with spending that much time looking at Go, which I wasn'…

> I want to dig into one of these editors for a stronger understanding of how they work, and using something as obtuse as Rust is a total nonstarter for me.

I would be absolutely amazed if the language is what makes an editor easy/hard to understand unless that thing is written in whitespace/brainfuck. In this particular case the helix codebase is incredible easy to understand and contribute to, definitely easier than vim, neovim and others _despite_ the fact that it's written in Rust.

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#102

Post by archseer »

dathanb82 wrote: post #45

Every time I see a "X: a [new/better/best/modern/postmodern/blazingly fast] Y" post on HN, I just know it's going to be written in Rust

Does it matter? I used Rust to write it but I don't claim it's "blazingly fast". The post-modern tagline is a joke. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33158035

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#105

Post by friend_and_foe »

I see a lot of vim-to-helix comments, but I have been a helix user for a little while and decided to try neovim seriously for the first time. I've used it, but I never got into it.

I like the extensibility and customizability of neovim. I do not like the action-subject (verb-noun as some put it) model flow, but that could be just muscle memory and bias. I'm going to keep at it and see if I like it better, it might turn out to be more powerful. I don't like a lot of the default binds, helix's binds just seem to be more sensible, again could be bias since I used helix first, and I can always change them.

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#106

Post by teabee89 »

archseer wrote: post #104
teabee89 wrote: post #103

"brew install helix" gives me: > Warning: No available formula with the name "helix". Did you mean healpix, helib or helm?

Maybe you need to update your homebrew cache? https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/helix

Yes! I waited out the long `brew update` and now it works :)

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#107

Post by b33j0r »

teabee89 wrote: post #103

"brew install helix" gives me: > Warning: No available formula with the name "helix". Did you mean healpix, helib or helm?

Same thing happened to me when this was posted last month.

Then I spent 15 minutes imagining my new editing bliss while it failed to compile from source. I thought I solved it, but nope.

I like it, but make it work before I get that excited?

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#109

Post by nvader »

archseer wrote: post #102
dathanb82 wrote: post #45

Every time I see a "X: a [new/better/best/modern/postmodern/blazingly fast] Y" post on HN, I just know it's going to be written in Rust

Does it matter? I used Rust to write it but I don't claim it's "blazingly fast". The post-modern tagline is a joke. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33158035

You don't mean to argue that because there are potentially an infinite number of possible editor configurations, that they must all be equally valid, and that there is no objectivity in editor design?

;)

Re: Helix: Post-Modern Text Editor

#110

Post by ShredKazoo »

It's interesting to me, reading comments in this thread, that this editor mostly seems to appeal to current vim/emacs users. It's like the first choice everyone makes when selecting an editor is deciding whether they want something that runs in the terminal, something that calls itself as an "IDE", or something in between.

Am I the only one who cares a lot more about functionality than branding or user interface?

The 80/20 rule means 20% of an editor's features are going to provide 80% of the value. Instead of focusing on an editor's presentation, why not try to identify an editor which has an unusual feature you consider valuable?

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