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Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

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Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#291

Post by aussiesnack »

davidatbu wrote: post #289
aussiesnack wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Hadn't realised I needed to have the lsp server binary on the path. I think nvim-lspconfig takes care of that for me in nvim. From a brief experiment basic lsp usage seems to work in helix without any config changes, so perhaps that's changed since you set it up.

I'm sure that nvim-lspconfig doesn't take care of installing binaries for LSP servers like this. You either set the path to the binary in your config, or you are using another neovom plugin to make sure LSP server binaries are installed

No you're right it was mason, which installs lsp servers to a location it manages. I had set it up once and then forgotten. The complexity of all the interacting packages needed with neovim does add to helix's appeal.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#292

Post by opan »

p-e-w wrote: post #10

I fully expect Helix to replace Vim, Neovim, and Kakoune for most users in the long run. Helix is built from the ground up around Tree-Sitter and LSP. This means you get the best syntax highlighting available, and IDE-like functionality, with zero configuration required other than installing the appropriate language server. Those are by far the most important features for a text editor to have, and crucially, they ar…

99% of my neovim usage is not programming, and either way I have never found syntax highlighting and similar to be all that important. Text editors need to view and edit text, and do it well. That's about it.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#293

Post by Corrado »

kamaal wrote: post #283
alwillis wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully expect Helix to replace Vim, Neovim, and Kakoune for most users in the long run. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. It’s cool to have choices, but you wouldn’t be the first person to think a new editor is going to replace Vim/Neovim. Vim is literally on every Unix/Linux server; every sysadmin can count on it being there. I’ve been super impressed with the progress of Neovim and the team behind it. It’s only at…

>>And there are several Neovim distributions (LunarVim, Nvchad, etc.) that have all of the bells and whistles included. Problem with distributions is as the contributions decrease they start becoming abandonware with time. Leaving you with with vim and having to work through the configuration hell on the long term for yourself. >>Again, Neovim gives you choices: you can configure and tweak it to your heart’s content…

I agree with this. I spend most of my days on newly created systems (AWS EC2 instances) that are bone stock. I don't use any vim plugins at all because they wouldn't be the same everywhere and it's not worth configuring a system I'll only use for 2 hours. If I could get a full featured IDE installed by default on my systems I would ditch vim in a heartbeat.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#294

Post by jzm2k »

halikular wrote: post #251
jzm2k wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding this. I had used Vim for nearly 8 years and felt very comfortable with all the crazy tricks you could do with modal editing but I genuinely felt Kakoune's way of doing modal editing was an improvement so I committed to learning it and it took maybe a month to get comfortable with the new way of editing. I'm really glad I took the plunge because I'm a really happy Kakoune user and I can't think of anything t…

How does it improve on neovim? Seems to me like slightly different keybindings to do the exact same thing, you're not saving any keystrokes or fatigue as far as I can tell.

It switches from "action selection" to "selection action" which allows you to first select the thing you want to operate on and only then specify what you want do with it. So for example in Vim you may accidentally select too many characters to delete and then you need to redo the command whereas in Kakoune you can adjust the selection before executing the action.

I think one of the best things Kakoune has to offer is that selection mode (visual mode in Vim) is always accessible through so if I want to select some random number of characters going left, I'll just hold L, or if I want to select all characters until the end of line I'll just press GL whereas gl takes me to the end of line. It makes it so easy to select text.

Finally multicursor, it's so good. I've used Kakoune for over a year now and I haven't had need for macros except for maybe 2 times. I didn't know I needed a multicursor before I had tried Kakoune and I would highly suggest anyone to try Kakoune just for the multicursor experience. It allows you to select a pattern using regex and then operate on the matches simultaneous. Kind of like Vim's "visual block" but on steroids.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#296

Post by lenkite »

jzm2k wrote: post #294
halikular wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it improve on neovim? Seems to me like slightly different keybindings to do the exact same thing, you're not saving any keystrokes or fatigue as far as I can tell.

It switches from "action selection" to "selection action" which allows you to first select the thing you want to operate on and only then specify what you want do with it. So for example in Vim you may accidentally select too many characters to delete and then you need to redo the command whereas in Kakoune you can adjust the selection before executing the action. I think one of the best things Kakoune has to offer i…

selection action is already possible in vim using 'v' or 'V'. But many times, I do want immediate action-operator when I know exactly what I need to operate on. So Kakoune is un-convincing.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#297

Post by lenkite »

p-e-w wrote: post #10

I fully expect Helix to replace Vim, Neovim, and Kakoune for most users in the long run. Helix is built from the ground up around Tree-Sitter and LSP. This means you get the best syntax highlighting available, and IDE-like functionality, with zero configuration required other than installing the appropriate language server. Those are by far the most important features for a text editor to have, and crucially, they ar…

"Helix is built from the ground up around Tree-Sitter and LSP..Those are by far the most important features for a text editor to have,"

Well..you just made the argument to stick to Neovim which already does this.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#298

Post by Version467 »

b3morales wrote: post #228
Version467 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that has been true in the past (and is still mostly true today), but I think this will change in the future. I have been using lsp+treesitter for markdown editing and it's been an excellent experience. It's still early days, but with treesitter and lsp being as universal as they are I've been seeing a lot of people just experimenting with what's possible. So yes, they are essential only for source code editin…

I am curious, what features does an LSP server provide for such a simple format as markdown?

I'd say the most important thing is jumping to definitions. That's not terribly useful for standalone documents, but I use markdown for general note taking and it allows me to easily link other relevant notes. With that come a bunch of benefits, like autocomplete, finding all references, renaming/refactoring, hover preview, etc.

Other editors implement this specifically for markdown (i.e. Obsidian), but not needing to switch programs, as well as just having one set of motions/keyboard shortcuts has made a big difference in workflow for me. There are also a lot of other surprising benefits of treating raw text the same as code. I started using auto-completion with user defined snippets when writing Documentation (makes it much faster to integrate code blocks, tables, etc).

Many (if not all) of these things can be done in other ways, but I think it all just fits very well together and I enjoy that workflow tremendously.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#299

Post by Casperin »

contingencies wrote: post #284
Casperin wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got you. Put this in your ~/.config/helix/config.toml. theme = "bogster" Or type `:theme` and use tab to cycle through the themes (it'll apply the theme to the current file while you cycle, no need to hit enter).

Thanks. One theme ( autumn_night ) has a black background. Next up: keys suck. I often use dw or d/something and these fail. Any quick way to resolve?

No. And I hope there never will be. It's a different editor with its own ideas about how modal editing should be done.

It does not sound like that has your interest. That's fine. Stick with vim.

Re: Helix: A Neovim inspired editor, written in Rust

#300

Post by jzm2k »

lenkite wrote: post #296
jzm2k wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It switches from "action selection" to "selection action" which allows you to first select the thing you want to operate on and only then specify what you want do with it. So for example in Vim you may accidentally select too many characters to delete and then you need to redo the command whereas in Kakoune you can adjust the selection before executing the action. I think one of the best things Kakoune has to offer i…

selection action is already possible in vim using 'v' or 'V'. But many times, I do want immediate action-operator when I know exactly what I need to operate on. So Kakoune is un-convincing.

>But many times, I do want immediate action-operator when I know exactly what I need to operate on.

This argument doesn't make sense, it's just as fast to type in Kakoune. The order is just different but it makes it possible for you to adjust it when you've either made a mistake or don't exactly know what kind of selection you want.

I know the visual mode in Vim exists under 'v' but the point I was making was that in Kakoune it's more handy and I use it constantly because it's so available, just hold Shift key as oppose typing another letter to enter it. I know it sounds insignificant but I find myself using the visual mode all the time in Kakoune whereas I barely used it in Vim because of that tiny extra effort to enter the mode.

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