When I was in high school I found Sublime Text and learned “multiple cursors”. Since then, I’ve transitioned to vscode, mainly because I need LSP (without too much configuration work) for my work.

I keep hearing about how modal editing is faster and I would like to switch to a more performant editor. I’ve been looking at helix, as the 4th generation of the vi line of editors. Is anyone using it? Is it any good for the main code editor?

The problem that I have is that learning new editing keybindings would probably take me a month of time, before I get to the same amount of productivity (if I ever get here at all). So I’m looking for advice of people who have already done that before.

My code editing does involve a lot of “ctrl-arrow” to move around words, “ctrl-shift-arrow” to select words, “home/end” to move to beginning/end of the line, “ctrl-d” for “new cursor at next occurrence”, “shift-alt-down” for “new cursor in the line below”, “ctrl-shift-f” for “format file” and a few more to move around using LSP-provided “declaration”/“usages”.

I would have to unlearn all of that.

Also, I do use “ctrl-arrow” to edit this post. Have you changed keybindings in firefox too?

  • adr1an@programming.dev
    1·
    3 days ago

    Perhaps you want a touchscreen.

    I learned basics of vim, I can recommend. But also, it takes time to master. And I’d put other stuff first like fundamentals of git (stashes, staging area, branches and rebase.)

    Also, don’t underestimate using an IDE that’s popular, I had switched over recently and found it convenient when a colleague asks for help. I can’t tell them ‘oh yeah I know how to do that on my setup’ (though is valid…)

    Like 3 years ago, I was into emacs, which I used with vi keybindings. Many extensions provided quality of life (tramp, magit, which-key) that others (vscode) only emulated and required hardware I lacked. Anyway…

    If this is really about keys, go for gnu readline flavor instead of vi. I didn’t, and those are way more ubiquitous. Anyway, research that and make your own decision.

    Ps, here’s a rabbit hole https://codeberg.org/ashton314/emacs-bedrock#emacs-bedrock