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The extensible vi layer for Emacs

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Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#31
post #27
post #10

I used Evil for 5-6 years. Meow is another great modal system for Emacs.

Meow is really interesting for me as I never used Vim much. Meow seems to provide the benefits of modal editing with most seamless integration in Emacs. https://github.com/meow-edit/meow

Now I finally understand the comment in another Emacs thread. I thought people was talking about the Mew - a mail reader for Emacs.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#32
post #6

I want a vi layer for helix. I don't want to have any vimrc configuration, just open my editor and have LSP and everything working immediately. I just can't figure out how to switch to helix keybindings.

Vi commands are verb-noun (cw - change word). Helix are noun-verb (wc - select the word then change it).

Learn to use multiple cursors in Helix - many of the things I have found lacking from Vi - eg pressing . doesn't work the same way in Helix - can be made up with more or less by using multiple cursors.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#33

I used that settings for a few years, then tried to move entirely to vim, and now I'm very happy with vscode + vim. I like vim as a touch typer, I think it's a setting that minimize end motions. It's also very convenient in the terminal. On the other hand, I think it's not convenient as an IDE: too many shortcuts, clumsy integration with LSPs, especially when you need to work with different languages. For me it works…

Spacemacs is also a good option. I use VSCode + vim for remote development which is super nice now, I think VSCode has by far the best remote development experience, I even use it as my main terminal.

For local development I use Webstorm, Rubymine, intellij etc. with IdeaVim, this is mainly because I prefer not fiddling around with plugins and configs I want my IDE to “just work” no matter what language I am using.

For writing project plans, design docs, etc. I used to use spacemacs for org mode with vim integration but now I have found myself switching to Obsidian (which has vim keybindings) and I have been dabbling in Quarto with VSCode but I haven’t settled on a good workflow.

Spacemacs is also nice because you can use magit if you want. But I don’t recommend using eMacs or vim as your main IDE because, like you said, the auto complete tools like intellisense and GitHub copilot integrations in other IDEs just work a lot better.

I generally now just feel like I want my development environment (laptop, ide, shell) to “just work” I want to spend as little time as possible configuring that stuff and I just want to focus on actually building stuff.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#34

I used that settings for a few years, then tried to move entirely to vim, and now I'm very happy with vscode + vim. I like vim as a touch typer, I think it's a setting that minimize end motions. It's also very convenient in the terminal. On the other hand, I think it's not convenient as an IDE: too many shortcuts, clumsy integration with LSPs, especially when you need to work with different languages. For me it works…

NeoVim has got native LSP support, and works pretty well for me out-of-the-box for most languages. LSP servers need to be installed externally, but I hope they manage to bundle them somehow in the future. LunarVim already provides automatic LSP server installation.

There's also a Mason[0] plugin that handles the installation of LSP (also DAP/linters/formatters) installation in a very visual way.

[0] https://github.com/williamboman/mason.nvim

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#35
post #13
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kinda embarrassing, JB wants to push their new editor, but even months after public beta, the vim emulator is still barely usable, and afaict it's maybe like 1-2 people working on this. I don't get it, if you are targeting developers, why is it that having Vim keybindings not a top priority? Or am I living in my own circle? https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/FL-10664

You may very well be living in your own circle. My anecdata is that most engineers use VSCode these days. In my current organisation I am the only person that uses Emacs that I am aware of (and I use evil-mode). I know a handful of people use (n)vim. But by far the most common editor I see being used is VSCode.

I work on a frontend team, most of my coworkers use VSCode and very few use the vim plugin for it. On our backend teams I believe IntelliJ is still the most popular editor, it’s really uncommon to find anyone using vim or eMacs for work.

Personally I just use Jetbrains IDEs w/ IdeaVIM for most things because I can’t be bothered with all the plugins and configurations I would rather my IDE just work out the box in any language.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#36
I've always had view-mode come on by default, and I have a bunch of custom keybindings for view mode which are nicer on the hands when you're just reading text.

So (add-hook 'find-file-hook 'start-view-mode) to turn it on automatically.

(defun view-mode-background () (if (bound-and-true-p view-mode) (face-remap-add-relative 'mode-line '((:background "#9400D3"))) (face-remap-add-relative 'mode-line '((:background "red"))))) ^ this helps a lot to know whether or not you're in view mode

And then: (defun view-mode-keybindings () (define-key view-mode-map (kbd "j") 'View-scroll-line-forward) .. etc

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#37

Emacs also has a vi layer built in: viper mode.

Viper mode is terrible though. Half the things I am used to in proper Vim do not work correctly in Viper mode. I don't remember those annoyances anymore but someone who has recently tried viper mode may be able to share the details.

(Edit: Turns out I do remember some of the annoyances. See the grandchild comment below where I have noted some examples.)

I found Evil mode is so much better at emulating Vim than viper mode.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#38

I used that settings for a few years, then tried to move entirely to vim, and now I'm very happy with vscode + vim. I like vim as a touch typer, I think it's a setting that minimize end motions. It's also very convenient in the terminal. On the other hand, I think it's not convenient as an IDE: too many shortcuts, clumsy integration with LSPs, especially when you need to work with different languages. For me it works…

NeoVim has got native LSP support, and works pretty well for me out-of-the-box for most languages. LSP servers need to be installed externally, but I hope they manage to bundle them somehow in the future. LunarVim already provides automatic LSP server installation.

I've always preferred having LSPs installed in my user bin folder (or system wide). I like to hop nto other editors and some of them, like Helix, do not have auto installer for LSPs and tries to use the locally installed package.

In other words, I like to have 1 LSP installed in my system for all of them.

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#39

I used that settings for a few years, then tried to move entirely to vim, and now I'm very happy with vscode + vim. I like vim as a touch typer, I think it's a setting that minimize end motions. It's also very convenient in the terminal. On the other hand, I think it's not convenient as an IDE: too many shortcuts, clumsy integration with LSPs, especially when you need to work with different languages. For me it works…

Spacemacs is also a good option. I use VSCode + vim for remote development which is super nice now, I think VSCode has by far the best remote development experience, I even use it as my main terminal. For local development I use Webstorm, Rubymine, intellij etc. with IdeaVim, this is mainly because I prefer not fiddling around with plugins and configs I want my IDE to “just work” no matter what language I am using. F…

Is Spacemacs still in active development?

Re: The extensible vi layer for Emacs

#40
There's also meow-mode[1], which isn't a vim emulator as such, but it is a different modal editing layer for Emacs which is a lot faster and has a lot of neat ideas. It doesn't interfere w/the stock keybinds at all though, which is much nicer imo (I use a 'hybrid' editing style generally)

1: https://github.com/meow-edit/meow

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