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From VS Code to Helix

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Re: From VS Code to Helix

#61

Post by miroljub »

tmtvl wrote: post #57
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…

As an Emacs user it annoys me to no end when I find myself using a system without a Vi variant. Not having Emacs available is fine, I know where to find it if I really need it, not having Dvorak is fine, hunt-and-peck is usually good enough; but not having Vi means I need to do a ton of sedding, catting, heading, and tailing which gets to be a chore after a while (almost as bad as using nano).

What's so bad about nano that you'd use sed, cat, head, and tail to do minor edits on a text file instead of just using nano?

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#62

Post by lawn »

tiu wrote: post #36
focom wrote: post #27

Helix boast itself as a no config tool, but you have to find a lsp, installl it, edit a toml to activate it. I dont think we can call that "config less". Success would be something like LazyVim but without the nagging of updates each time you open it.

I am whole off the vim (&friends) trend but my 2c- The helix situation is still miles better for up and running asap compared to dancing with files/lua on lazyvim. Just having to refer to docs to install a plugin, writing sane remaps etc eats up time. If you really just speedrun everything under an hour good for you. But for the rest, a lsp is a one package manager install away (even on windows scoop seems to have be…

I don't know about LazyVim but my LSP configuration in Neovim is really simple:.

Use Mason to install the LSP server (just type :LspInstall or use the Mason UI) that will then activate automatically and reuse an existing configuration from lsp-config.

No tinkering or configuration needed.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#63

Post by miroljub »

BowBun wrote: post #33
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. Citation needed. Of my 2 friends that have tried, neither have been able to reach their 'standard' typing speed after 1+ years of dvorak. Maybe they didn't try hard enough?

> Citation needed.

No, not needed.

This is not an HN comment posting a subjective opinion, not a scientific work that requires real, or a Wikipedia article that requires any citation.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#64

Post by dugidugout »

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #42
stronglikedan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> avoiding RSI I tried all manner of keyboards over the years, and in my opinion, none of them solve RSI. I'm now back to a standard qwerty for the same reason as OP - they're just immediately available everywhere. What did help my no-longer-existent RSI was simple - I don't rest my wrists any more like I was taught in high school typing class (by an instructor that would whack our hands with a ruler if we were caugh…

I've tried a lot of keyboards over the years – ergonomic ones, such KA2 and Glove80 (now) absolutely did solve my RSI issues. Pain may have many issues, such joints, posture problems (pinching nerves in shoulders/elbow) but getting a proper chair and ergonomic split keyboard is still my number 1 advice. Also more sport, if it is not too severe. Going to a doctor should also be high on the list, but unfortunately, I h…

I too have had positive experience switching layouts for RSI (cubital tunnel specifically). While I am a bit skeptical on some of the more subtle claims by ergonomic enthusiasts, simply being more intentful around wrist posture seems to do me wonders. It may be more of a case where engaging in the niche is serving some broader truth, but I too directly associate my related journey to funny looking keyboards!

FWIW, all a doctor did for me was affirm my self-diagnosis and life-style adjustments. Surgery in this area looked quite grim on my last purview so I am not sure a doctor would serve much for most in this regard.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#65

Post by pigcat »

wuhhh wrote: post #8

I have a similar story but with neovim (and for the same reason as the author; growing unease with big tech). Tried and failed to make the switch a few times but made a concerted effort to stick with it throughout a specific project and now it’s second nature. I found it useful to research idiomatic (n)vim ways of doing things whenever I’d get frustrated or feel I’d be doing something more quickly in VSCode and commi…

Woah, how did I not know about that tip about omitting the search pattern? Love it and will be using that lots!

As a thank you, I'll leave you with the way I learned to search/replace, just to give you a slightly different flavour: asterisk, cgn ([c]hange [g]o [n]ext), type replaced, then . (period, to repeat) until I'm done.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#66

Post by dugidugout »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #59
milch wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I started getting wrist pain 2 or 3 years ago. I have been using Colemak anyway for more than 15 years - my original reason for switching was because the German QWERTZ layout I grew up with is not very programming friendly, symbols like [] {}/\ are hidden away behind hard to type chords. I found as a nice side benefit that my typing speed increased by 20-30 or so WPM... I did also have typing classes in sc…

> on both US QWERTY and Colemak when you constantly type [];:{}| and so on, your pinky has to reach over to do it. At least for me that meant contorting my hand a bit to reach over. On my split keyboard all the symbols are behind a layer on the home row, and I barely use the pinky for anything, which fixes the issue. On a completely standard rectangular-block keyboard, I don't use pinkies to type. Actually, I do use…

There is a subset of split keyboard layouts which solve for this by moving the modifiers to the thumb area, which is often void when a keyboard is split. Quite a pleasure to use and has much less buy-in than QWERTY alternatives.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#67

Post by airstrike »

dkdcio wrote: post #13
lordleft wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ask and you shall receive

https://github.com/usagi-flow/evil-helix

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#68

Post by dugidugout »

tux1968 wrote: post #45
icen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But Vim has visual-mode, which is select-then-action too.

There's a mode for that!

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#69

Post by cosmic_quanta »

I'm switching from VSCode as well. I love Helix's (and Kakoune's) editing model centered around selections rather than motions. I can see what I'll operate on interactively.

I still use VSCode when navigating complex codebase changes, just because of the visual file tree. I hope to fully switch over soon.

Re: From VS Code to Helix

#70

Post by [deleted] »

xcrjm wrote: post #51
nromiun wrote: post #35

Helix's features look very cool, but I could not switch to it because of this bug [0]. It has been open since May 2022 and it is still not fixed. Basically you can't exit insert mode with a key combination like `jk`. Four years feels like a long time for such a basic bug. I will stick to NeoVim for now. 0. https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/2612

Check out the docs! They show you how to do exactly that: https://docs.helix-editor.com/remapping.html#minor-modes

[deleted]
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