Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
1–10 of 242 posts
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#2I think it is worth pointing out that there are "zero configuration" vim distributions, which come with the same ease/limits.
Not to take away from Helix, which I think is a cool project. But I think it's greatest strength is that it can (and should) be more than a vim rewrite in Rust. It can actually get rid of the legacy parts of vim and redo the things which did not work and integrate modern features from the beginning.
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#3I love Helix. There are some things Julia didn't list that I also miss from nvim, particularly using it as a 3-way diff tool, and missing code folding, but I don't see leaving Helix any time soon.
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#4I think it is worth pointing out that there are "zero configuration" vim distributions, which come with the same ease/limits. Not to take away from Helix, which I think is a cool project. But I think it's greatest strength is that it can (and should) be more than a vim rewrite in Rust. It can actually get rid of the legacy parts of vim and redo the things which did not work and integrate modern features from the begi…
Helix very much is not a Vim rewrite in Rust. It's closer to a Kakoune clone than a Vim one.
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#5Skimmed only. Most titles was like "i use X for that" then scrolled down for the next one.
And thats the thing. Neovim (vim) is about the unix way, use existing tools and use them from vim.
Last time i checked this was not an option in helix, and some very trivil things was impossible, like populating the quickfix (is it a thing n helix?) from a makefile command.
Bottom line is helix is basically a stipped down version on vscode, and wont really succeed without a plugin system (and when/if it lands, its basically just a vscode alternative)
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#6I really enjoy Helix, but I can't install it everywhere, and so I end up going back and forth between Helix and Vim depending on what machine I'm working on. This puts a lot of pressure on my muscle memory -- I often type a vim keybinding while in Helix or a Helix keybinding while in vim.
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#7Helix wants to be Emacs. Ever since they decided to use a built-in Lisp dialect called "Steel" for scripting and become the next Emacs, not the next Neovim, I stopped following it. I love Lisp, I wrote so much code in Lisp in the '80s and early '90s, but that was another millennium! It's 2025 now, and just because it's easy to write Lisp interpreters doesn't mean we should use them. In fact, maybe Forth is even easier than Lisp... well, not really.
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#8I love Helix. There are some things Julia didn't list that I also miss from nvim, particularly using it as a 3-way diff tool, and missing code folding, but I don't see leaving Helix any time soon.
yeah, I started using Meld for diffing
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#9A year ago I would've loved to see the other way around. Helix is cool but definitely not fit-for-all
Re: Notes on switching to Helix from Vim
#10Skimmed only. Most titles was like "i use X for that" then scrolled down for the next one. And thats the thing. Neovim (vim) is about the unix way, use existing tools and use them from vim. Last time i checked this was not an option in helix, and some very trivil things was impossible, like populating the quickfix (is it a thing n helix?) from a makefile command. Bottom line is helix is basically a stipped down versi…
I use kakoune, and don't understand why helix seems to be taking off while kakoune (which predated and inspired helix) remains niche.
Kakoune fully embraces the unix philosophy, even going so far as relying on OS (or terminal-multiplexer, e.g. kitty or tmux) for window management (via client/sever, so each kakoune instance can still share state like open buffers).
A comparison going into the differences (and embracing of the unix philosophy by kakoune) by someone who uses both kakoune and helix: https://phaazon.net/blog/more-hindsight-vim-helix-kakoune
Sensible defaults and easy setup are a big deal. No one wants to fiddle with setting up their lsp and tree-sitter. There's probably more to their differences in popularity than just this, though.