Spent the last couple days learning #HelixEditor as a contrast to my #emacs maximalist tendencies.
I managed to crash it once so far, with an out of bound Rope slice, but otherwise I am impressed with how much I can do with it even without plug-ins or a scripting language.
I especially like the match mode and the tree-sitter based movement.
When you spend so much time in #HelixEditor that you try and :q out of everything.
#NeoVIM users, you prob know this too
Remarkably #HelixEditor built on all four platforms that I use: macOS, Kubuntu 24.04 both as base OS on a laptop I use at home and under WSL on my work laptop, and most surprisingly of all, it built on Git Bash for Windows!
No errors. No problems running.
I’ve built a lot of Open Source projects and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before.
I am now building #HelixEditor for myself, on master, as recommended by @clementd.
First, in my environment I set`export HELIX_RUNTIME="~/.config/helix/runtime"`. I then followed the build directions at https://docs.helix-editor.com/building-from-source.html. I fetched and built the grammars as described there.
Something **not** mentioned in those directions was that I had to copy from the source directory themes and queries into the runtime path I mentioned above. Maybe there are other things I need to copy that I haven’t noticed yet.
The binary ended up in ~/.cargo/bin/hx.
I don’t know if what I built is optimized.
TIL Helix has global search now with `SPACE + /`. Now I don't need to use ripgrep outside the editor!
Swoon!
I’m really starting to love #HelixEditor so much. It’s now my daily driver. It’s frustrating to me when it falls down. I’m going to make myself a list of those things I want that don’t work, what issues or discussions have been filed about them, and what work is being done on them.
I’m also going to start running nightlies (if that’s a thing) or my own builds.
It’s lovely how easy #RustLang projects are to build. Thank you, #Cargo.
How annoying: The released #HelixEditor does not understand `trim-trailing-whitespace` or `trim-final-newlines` and their regular expression engine makes it difficult to do by hand. Yes, I’ve been reading the wrong docs; but also, I need these.
Might have start building it myself.
#HelixEditor I have uninstalled my #Vim and #NeoVim dotfiles. I’m way happier seeing all the errors and other things Helix gives me.
I have roughly 30 plugins in #Vim #NeoVim. #HelixEditor covers the functionality of almost all of them. It doesn’t have the power of vim-abolish; and it’s maybe got a little ways to go on working with #Git. Abolish seems too complicated and special case to fit into the core of Helix. I don’t use it often, but when that’s the tool you need, Abolish is the only thing that will do the job.
So it does look like the TypeScript language server has a limit of 4MB source size where it disables type checking (and actually shows an erroneous error stating that exports that exist in the file do not exist) for files that are imported but not open in the current workspace/session.
Still not sure if this is documented anywhere or not (haven’t been able to find it, if it is).
99.99999% of the time, unless you’re doing niche stuff like I am, you won’t run into this.
Workaround: should you have such a large file, e.g., with a large generated object, try and refactor to split it up into multiple files and rejoin it a separate file. The actual object size/memory usage isn’t the issue, it’s the file size.
Been using #HelixEditor full-time several days in a row now. Editing is getting easier. I’m remembering how to do things better and faster. I have three language servers installed now: #Python, #RustLang, and #Markdown. I love seeing errors and warnings right in the editor. I love being able to run the formatter at will. I love being able to use tree-sitter nodes as textobjects. I still have some things that catch me every time. Like when your cursor is sitting on the end-of-line position in normal mode: the difference between 'a' and 'A'. And I’m still not used to going into insert mode while there is a selection growing the selection as you type.
I’m very far from a Helix expert, and I disagree about some things; but I really feel good about this editor.
Right, well, I can reproduce it with a simple example so I just filed a bug. Let’s see if it’s a known issue/limitation or what.
https://github.com/typescript-language-server/typescript-language-server/issues/951
Screen recording showing the issue:
#HelixEditor crashes by typing multi-byte chars into search box. This seems to fix it....
diff --git a/helix-term/src/ui/prompt.rs b/helix-term/src/ui/prompt.rs
index 3c97a93c..94f9f775 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/ui/prompt.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/ui/prompt.rs
@@ -551,6 +551,9 @@ pub fn render_prompt(&mut self, area: Rect, surface: &mut Surface, cx: &mut Cont
if self.truncate_end && self.cursor - self.anchor >= self.line_area.width as usize {
self.anchor += 1;
}
+ while !self.line.is_char_boundary(self.anchor) {
+ self.anchor += 1;
+ }
surface.set_string_anchored(
self.line_area.x,
@@ -734,7 +737,10 @@ fn cursor(&self, area: Rect, editor: &Editor) -> (Option<Position>, CursorKind)
.clip_left(self.prompt.len() as u16)
.clip_right(if self.prompt.is_empty() { 2 } else { 0 });
- let anchor = self.anchor.min(self.line.len().saturating_sub(1));
+ let mut anchor = self.anchor.min(self.line.len().saturating_sub(1));
+ while !self.line.is_char_boundary(anchor) {
+ anchor += 1;
+ }
let mut col = area.left() as usize
@ainmosni @bernh In case you're thinking about giving Helix a try, make sure to start off with the tutorial (run it from the command line with the --tutor argument).
As for getting on top of the key bindings in Helix, I created a crib sheet to help me remember/find the most vital and most interesting controls:
https://www.bobulous.org.uk/coding/Helix-crib-sheet.html
(Definitely best viewed on a big screen.)
@galdor I see your point, and idiom in #RustLang agrees with you. Import such that at the call-site you say `module.identifier()`.
On the one side (the side that disagrees with you), my IDE typically tells me where naked `identifier` is defined (either #PyCharm or #HelixEditor in my case); and it’s the most common case in #Python code I have read (and I’ve been programming in Python for decades).
On the other side you’re not always hovering as you read over big blocks of code. Naming the origin module is informative.
In the middle, it’s not needed for a lot of things, especially stdlib and common packages. It seems like a fine line and I’m not quite certain what the best behavior is.
This week hell froze over:
After being part of the 'Ctrl+b,Ctrl+n,Ctrl+p,Ctrl+f' club for about 18 years I joined the 'hjkl' club by switching over to Helix as my daily driver editor.
I’m liking #HelixEditor more and more each day. I think it has a ways to go; and I’m not nearly as fast in Helix as I am in Vim (mostly because I keep stopping to look stuff up) but I see no reason, with _my_ workflow, not to use Helix as my daily driver. (This after more than 20 years as a #Vim and then #NeoVim user). The LSP and tree-sitter stuff are absolutely compelling.
If you are constantly SSHing into machines you don’t control; and that’s your whole job — you probably have a different answer.
OMG, #HelixEditor def has some amazing new updates..
Global search is just perfect now.. thank you! So glad I support this project
@art I’m a long time #Vim and #NeoVim user. In fact, I’ve given talks on them. I use Vim key-bindings everywhere I can; especially #IdeaVim in #PyCharm. I’ve been using #HelixEditor lately. The key-bindings come from Vim, but aren’t about playing code golf. They’re about being easy to use and remember. When you start a multi-key sequence, there is typically a menu that pops up showing you what the next key can be. The big difference, though, is that in Helix first you make a selection, and then you act on it.
Helix is easier to use than Vim/NeoVim. I’m just a Helix beginner especially compared to my skills in Vim. Helix is absolutely worth a try. If it’s Vim for you, then it’s Vim. But Helix might offer you something familiar but simpler.
