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- Hacker News
- I keep trying Helix but just got hit by wq freeze issue, opened since 2022, so I wonder sometimes if its ready.by lexoj
- Can any Helix users share how the muscle memory from vim is working out? I’d really like to give it a go but I’m worried I’ll pollute my memory of basic vim commands. I’m bad enough remembering cut/copy/paste keyboard shortcuts in different OS/applications.by frenzcan
- It's mostly worked out cleanly, there's a ton of re-use of vim-isms. Now I just can't use vim anymore.by klooney
- > I’m bad enough remembering cut/copy/paste keyboard shortcuts in different OS/applications.
Change them to be the same! It's indeed a waste to have a difference for such fundamental keybinds
Same with Helix - there is a vim layout out there, no need to use a different set (unless, of course, you can use something better, but then you should also use it in vim)
by eviks - I guess Helix is made to have appeal for Vim users. At the same time, times change and usually people expect less step learning curve (including myself!).
I would really appreciate visible-by-default hints, alike in Linear.app. Then, learning shortcuts becomes organic, rather one need to keep tutorial open, or have a cheatsheet of some sorts.
by stared - For what it's worth, this is actually one of the strong-points of helix. Many of the key-bindings display an unobtrusive list of follow-up actions that close without any lag if you already know what you're looking for. It's worth trying specifically because of how much effort has gone into being easier to pick up and get started with than something like vanilla vim.by CarpeQueso
- I keep meaning to get back into Helix, I'm super close to setting up an "vi=hx" alias. I had Claude make me a cheat sheet, but I haven't gone over it, here it is if it helps anyone: https://box.linsomniac.com/HelixCheatSheet.pdfby linsomniac
- Heh, "vi=hx" was exactly how I forced myself to spend a week in helix. Just go for itby abuani
- Your cheatsheet has some hallucinations in there. For example there is no :git command
you can do "! git status" etc
There is some other integration for git like SPACE + g to see file changes for example
by hit8run - Can someone explain to me the concept being Helix? I never got it.
From a casual reading, it looks like vim with no text objects and no support for ed commands so basically vim stripped of two of the main things that makes it good.
I understand it wants to be a more rational successor but while I got how sam tried to achieve that by breaking the limit on line editing, making clever use of mouse selections and switching ed for a new non line limited syntax (how I wish ssam had replaced sed), I don’t get the Helix value proposition.
- I used vim for about twenty years, and I'm mostly happy having moved from neovim to helix.
The main thing I miss in helix is solid debugging support and slime style repl support - but I never had that working in vim.
The other thing I'm missing in ruby is "go-to definition" automatically working with dependencies, allowing to go to the source code by "opening" gems - tpope has/had some amazing stuff for ruby development with vim.
That said - I like how helix is more discoverable (pop up context menu), has sane/great defaults and out of the box experience - and I like the select-apply or subject-verb and multi cursor workflow better than vim verb-subject flow.
I recommend trying to go through the tutorial and see if fits.
I'm hoping plugin support will open the door to some improved go-to-definiton support - I'd love to be able to go "up" to edit/view dependencies be that libc source code, java, rust crates etc.
by e12e - I really would love to move to helix but they can be… stubborn about what gets into the core. And if you start having to go to a plugin (which isn’t even possible last I looked) to get table stakes features in, it kind of defeats the purpose of a modern batteries included modal editor. But it’s still a cool thing I’m glad exists.by kemiller
- There are a number of reasons I use Helix but one of them is the maintainers’ approach to managing development of the editor and accepting (or not) contributions.
For me, slow and opinionated is a feature, not a bug.
by barnabee - I think so too, a lot of my friends have told me they had a great experience with helix, but vim keybinds are rooted too deep, and it's also the sunk cost of having built the config over an entire year. But, I think I would give it a try sparingly.
- I actually moved from VS Code to helix and happily used it exclusively for about 4-5 months, at that point I had list list of things I really wanted in my editor. I took that list to neovim and haven’t looked back!
I really hope to be able to use helix again in the future though, there was a speed advantage in helix and less janky window management.
But for me to do that they might have to allow full vim motions as well
by Crowberry - > but they can be… stubborn about what gets into the core.
Yes, as an onlooker who is similarly cautious about moving to helix, I consider this to be a major risk factor. I've watched the maintainers waste dozens of hours of contributors' time, and leave the project with no improvement afterwards. I would actively warn against anyone trying to contribute to the project. The maintainers simply don't know how to run an open source project, and it's unlikely you will be able to accomplish anything. It's fine for a project to not accept contributions, and if you don't have the skillset to leverage contributor labor, then it's better to be upfront about it.
That being said, I hope they figure out the plugin system, or someone forks the project to add the missing table stakes features.
by alphazard - Does Helix have no way to go back to the last editing position when re-opening a file? Similar to: '" in vim? That is going to be a deal-breaker for me. One reason I use vim over many other options is that I jump in and out of files a lot, having to find my last position in many cases is a chore.by linsomniac
- Not yet in release branch, afaikby e12e
- I gave helix a serious shot for a week, converting shortcuts and adapting to helix's way. In the end I couldn't find any advantage to it over my vim setup. It was not plug and play it was not configuration free, it was not noticeably faster. It was just full of negatives. Little gripes like the one you mention. Vim just seems to do everything better with fewer popups and selection flashes.by tejohnso
- If you don't have one already, here's an autocmd I use for that https://gist.github.com/shorsher/93b747bf5c4209f45ef0304aa50...by shorsher
- Isn’t the built in tutor build to interactively teach exactly what this site contains?by zuhsetaqi
- Currently, I'm using VS Code with Vim keybindings (through the Neovim plugin). My workflow (C/C++/Rust) involves multiple panes open, using the lldb debugger, goto/peek definitions, CMake integration w/ active target compilation on Ctrl+Shift+B, clang format on save, LLM-powered tab-autocomplete, and IntelliSense powered by `compile_commands.json`.
Is switching to Helix worth it? Can I get more-or-less equivalent functionality with Helix?
by dlivingston - The debugger in helix was extremely barebones last I tried, LLM integration can only be made available through custom language servers since they do not support plugins yet.
If you are interested in making a move to a terminal editor I would instead look to neovim until helix matures a bit more
by Crowberry - You'll need to spend a lot of time figuring it out and yet miss many of the features.
I experimented with Helix a bit, and my experience (which uses a slightly different workflow):
* I need workspace folders. Even combined with fzf or similar tools, file navigation is nowhere as easy as in VSCode
* Debugging is important and missing
* Missing custom extensions that likely will never be ported to Helix even if there is an extension system
by rs186 - I don't think Helix can currently match the C++ experience you get with VS Code.
* Debugging is rough. There's experimental DAP support, but it isn't ready to be used. I was able to set breakpoints and step through the code, but the UI for exploring variables / state while paused felt missing or was unintuitive enough that I couldn't figure it out. I use CLion for debugging.
* Goto definition works with clangd as long as your CMake setup outputs compile_commands.json, which you already do.
* Renaming symbols (variables / functions) via clangd works fine.
* Intellisense is decent, but I had to tweak clangd settings. By default, it would stop returning results after scanning a certain number of symbols, so some valid functions just didn't show up. I was using Helix for a few days before realizing this problem, it isn't obvious that you are getting an artificially constrained filtered view of your symbols via default clangd. Maybe this is a distro packaging issue though?
* The order of intellisense completions is not great. CLion is smart about surfacing relevant suggestions first. In Helix + clangd, I often get obscure symbols that obviously have nothing to do with my project or context. It's not the worst thing, but it is mildly annoying and noticeable.
* "go to error" doesn't surface errors in files that aren't open. In Helix, space D brings up workspace diagnostics, but it only shows errors for compilation units already open. This appears to be a clangd issue, as space D in other languages will show all project errors. CLion does not suffer from this problem.
* I think you can get LLM suggestions via an LSP, but I've not tried personally. Assuming it's true that you can get LLM suggestions, it's not clear to me that you can run two LSP's on the same file, so it might be a choice between clangd and an LLM LSP? Not sure.
* No integrated build support. You'll probably end up building from a terminal. I use Wezterm with a custom lua script that is invoked on a hotkey. I put a lot of thought into the build UX, and what I've done is both extremely hacky and still not good enough.
Helix is not flexible, it's uncompromising. I like it, but I think it's hard to beat CLion or vscode for C++ development.
I'd say right now, if you have a good setup already, stick with what you have.
by suby - I'd prefer a more honest tutorial. Who is this editor for? and show the kinds of problems it was designed to solve, nobody makes generalist text editors anymore and nobody needs a generalist editor. Like are you really trying to convince poets to use this? Of course not, this tutorial relies on some domain expert seeing it and mapping the functionality show in the examples to their problem.
Also the utility of these kinds of editors goes way down when you aren't doing many quick edits of arbitrary files ( which points to a larger workflow problem though perhaps unavoidable for some )
by casey2 - Am poet who uses helix!
- A while ago I made a dense cheat sheet for Helix. It's a touch out of date, but still possibly useful. https://github.com/stevenhoy/helix-cheat-sheetby shoy
- Hey nice to have you here. I found your cheatsheet and printed it out a while ago :Dby hit8run
- It’s great! How did you do it? I printed it out months ago and wondered how to do one myselfby stefanka