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     * My thoughts on Helix after 6 months

My thoughts on Helix after 6 months

   Published June 19, 2023 — 3 minute read
   Photo of Tim Hårek Andreassen Tim Hårek Andreassen

   Back in [7]January I decided to try out Helix as my primary editor and
   today I have almost been using it for 6 months and these are my
   thoughts.

[8]# What I like

[9]# Keystrokes

   Helix lives in the opposite land when it comes to keystrokes in
   comparison to Vim, and it was only difficult for the first couple of
   days. I’ve become fond of the way to navigate around.

[10]# Minor modes

   I really like that there are more modes, called [11]“Minor modes”, and
   the reason why I like them are that whenever I initate a mode there is
   a subtle pop-up in the lower-right corner with the available actions
   with the activated mode. This is super helpful when you are first
   learning Helix and when you are doing something you don’t do on a
   regular basis. It lowers the chance of having to switch context in
   order to do something. For instance, I know that m activates “Match
   mode”, but sometimes I may forget how to select around specific
   selector like (), but with Helix I will have a little helper that tells
   me that the next key is a and then the next helper will help me select
   just ().

[12]# Moving around

   I’ve become really fond of the idea that every move-action is also a
   selection/highlight, I find that I miss that feature whenever I edit
   server-configs via SSH or somewhere else when I’m not in Helix. It
   feels natural after a while because you get used to moving around
   text/code with w and e.

[13]# Configuration

   No more Vimscript and Lua, just plaintext TOML! The documentation for
   how to configure the editor is great and most of the defaults are also
   great! My editor-config is just 23 lines in contrast to my
   Neovim-config which is 209 lines long.

[14]# Language server protocol (LSP) support

   I had some experience with this from Neovim, but it felt cumbersome
   having to configure everything. With Helix I can simply run hx --health
   markdown and see what LSP is required for Markdown.
$ hx --health markdown
Configured language server: marksman
Binary for language server: /opt/homebrew/bin/marksman
Configured debug adapter: None
Highlight queries: ✓
Textobject queries: ✘
Indent queries: ✘

   I even managed to get it working with Deno thanks to its documentation
   on how to use custom LSPs for specific languages.

[15]# What I don’t like

   There really isn’t anything in particualr that I don’t like about
   Helix. I really miss having it installed on servers by default, but I
   completely understand that that is a big ask 😅 It’s not too difficult
   to swap between Vim-bindings and Helix-bindings for short sessions.

[16]# Conclusion

   Helix is fun and easy! I highly recommend Helix if you:
     * want to try a new editor,
     * tired of configuring {Neo}vim with Vimscript/Lua,
     * or been thinking about trying out Vim, but been hesitant because of
       the modes.

   I will continue to use Helix for the forseeable future, I’m looking
   forward to what future updates will bring!

   Remember to check out Helix’s tutor, hx --tutor for quick introduction
   to its keystrokes and interactions.

   Tagged with [17]100 days to
   offload[18]helix[19]software[20]thoughts[21]tools
   540 words
   [22]Reply via e-mail

Also mentioned in

     * [23]June 2023

   Last deploy: 2023-07-02 11:14 UTC

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References

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   2. https://timharek.no/blog/
   3. https://timharek.no/connect/
   4. https://timharek.no/about/
   5. https://timharek.no/
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   7. https://timharek.no/blog/trying-helix/
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  10. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L71669-427TMP.html#minor-modes
  11. https://docs.helix-editor.com/keymap.html#normal-mode
  12. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L71669-427TMP.html#moving-around
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  16. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L71669-427TMP.html#conclusion
  17. https://timharek.no/tags/100-days-to-offload/
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  20. https://timharek.no/tags/thoughts/
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  22. mailto:tim@harek.no?subject=RE: My thoughts on Helix after 6 months
  23. https://timharek.no/blog/2023-june-recently/
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