From VS Code to Helix • Hacker News Board

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#11

Post by evolighting » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:02 PM UTC

thendrill wrote: post #5

jsmailes wrote: post #2

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 wel…

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 ????

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.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#12

Post by Mond_ » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:02 PM UTC

maartin0 wrote: post #10

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…

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.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#13

Post by dkdcio » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

lordleft wrote: post #4

jsmailes wrote: post #2

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 wel…

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.

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

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#14

Post by noir_lord » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:06 PM UTC

jsmailes wrote: post #2

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 wel…

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.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#15

Post by conartist6 » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:09 PM UTC

torben-friis wrote: post #7

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 acum…

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

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#16

Post by lycopodiopsida » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

jsmailes wrote: post #2

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 wel…

> 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.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#17

Post by icen » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:11 PM UTC

evolighting wrote: post #11

thendrill wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ????

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.

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.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#18

Post by hajile » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

jsmailes wrote: post #2

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 wel…

> 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).

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#19

Post by preommr » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

> 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?

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#20

Post by NoboruWataya » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

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.