I want to like Helix, I really, really want to. It's lean, fast, polished, purely console based so it fits my workflows perfectly... but the almost-like-vim-but-not-really key bindings are a deal breaker. I just can't make the switch.
If Helix were completely different in this regard, like Emacs is, I could handle--and I know because I use both vim and Emacs regularly pretty fluently. But Helix is way too close to the vim keybindings to discern it from a memory muscle perspective. I use vim keybindings everywhere else (zsh, all readline-based apps via a setting in ~/.inputrc, VSCode), so getting used to slight differences in just one editor is extremely hard because I can't just drop all other apps.
I recently tried this: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim which attempts to provide vim mappings to Helix. It's funny how the description in the page describes my progression almost 100%. And while it makes things slightly better, it's still not accurate enough to make this a non-issue.
> but the almost-like-vim-but-not-really key bindings are a deal breaker. I just can't make the switch.
> If Helix were completely different in this regard, like Emacs is, I could handle--and I know because I use both vim and Emacs regularly pretty fluently. But Helix is way too close to the vim keybindings to discern it from a memory muscle perspective.
You might want to reconsider trying a bit to see if you think it's worth it. I ended up learning vim deeply, emacs deeply, and meow (most similar to Helix being almost somewhat vim-like but different) somewhat deeply. I thought before each one that I couln't possibly learn the other, especially the similar one.
The thing that worked for me: Don't try to be focused on coding efficiency when learning Helix. I've used Vim for well over a decade and I'm very fluent in it. But when I decided to learn to use Helix, I shifted my mindset to a Notepad.exe-like experience. A lot more scrolling, a lot less jumping. And then I started prioritizing the most needed shortcuts one by one. Helix also has a nice command search that is available via "space ?" that helped me find the commands and key combos that I wanted to learn.
I also went through the :tutor several times. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover typical coding activities, but it does a good job at explaining the editing model.
The features of Helix are also a lot more discoverable than in Vim, because you get these nice menus when you press one of <space> g m v
I don't think this is such a big deal. Yeah, you'd spent a couple of days cursing at your fingers. The bindings are an improvement and they require an investment, like all things worthwhile in life.
I've been using helix a while, and compared to vim, the bindings are not as time-efficient as vim bindings are, but I just can never get LSP to work quite right at neovim, so I use helix for code
Same here. Not that having a different editing modal is a bad thing, but vim model is proven so well that I'm not sure why any new editor would choose to die on this hill and not offer vim keybindings for many more audiences.
Users of kakoune, like myself. What I don't understand is why this is seem as such a big deal. You spend most of your workday in your editor of choice. It's not that big a deal to spend a day or two getting used to the (IMO better) keybindings. I still up using vim for some things, like vimdiff, and I don't find it difficult to move between the two.
Then again, I also use Dvorak, so maybe I'm just used to changing between layouts.
Oh thank you for the pointer. I'm exactly at your point where I tried it a few times, but >30 years of VIM keybindings in my fingers make it too painful to switch and stick to it. I'll try those.
BTW: nearly 500 stars for this simple config, that should send a clear message to Helix devs.
If Helix were completely different in this regard, like Emacs is, I could handle--and I know because I use both vim and Emacs regularly pretty fluently. But Helix is way too close to the vim keybindings to discern it from a memory muscle perspective. I use vim keybindings everywhere else (zsh, all readline-based apps via a setting in ~/.inputrc, VSCode), so getting used to slight differences in just one editor is extremely hard because I can't just drop all other apps.
I recently tried this: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim which attempts to provide vim mappings to Helix. It's funny how the description in the page describes my progression almost 100%. And while it makes things slightly better, it's still not accurate enough to make this a non-issue.