Coders or lemmy, what editors do you use? Is it worth learning a new one?
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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?
vscodium and neovim extension
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I started with neovim because I hate my laptop's mousepad, and that's often pushed as a benefit of modal editors, not needing the mouse. After I used it for a while I found that not only could you do stuff that you could do stuff easily that would be difficult in, say vs code, but it was also pretty fun. It's honestly a bit of a power trip sometimes, makes me feel like a 90s tv hacker. Also plugins. So many neat plugins.
i really wonder why mousepads sucks
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I left a comment before but I thought I'd address the concerns around modal editing. It's not as hard as it seems, once you wrap your head around hjkl you'll be fine.
Use Lazyvim to get started and install the vim plugin in vscode. Try it qutebrowser too you won't look back honestly.
Consider helix too, it works out of the box but the keys are slightly different to Vim which makes it challenging for me.
I've tried helix and used it for work today. At first, it was super slow, relearning how to jump between buffers, but at the end of the day, i got decent at it.
But I cannot hjkl. It's just unnatural. The moment I stop thinking about it, my hand is back at arrow keys.
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Have you ever tried Rider? I found it such a pleasure to use in place of Visual Studio and I've never looked back.
Any times I've loaded VS since it just feels so slow in comparison.
I've tried it briefly, but didn't like it/did not find an intuitive or preferred way into it.
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I've tried helix and used it for work today. At first, it was super slow, relearning how to jump between buffers, but at the end of the day, i got decent at it.
But I cannot hjkl. It's just unnatural. The moment I stop thinking about it, my hand is back at arrow keys.
I'm using helix with arrows. On a standard layout its not so great, but on my main keyboard I have a layer with arrow keys near hjkl. So I can use that on all software even on my BÉPO (DVORAC like) layout.
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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?
I've been using Vim for over 10 years. The first few years I used it badly. Later I took time to really learn it. Now I can use it fairly decently, but I still learn new things every now and then.
It feels like a really good investment. It's been around forever, it's gonna be around forever, it's installed on almost all computers, and you're going to be forced to use it at some point or another.
I really enjoy being able to go to any computer and starting up a familiar editor, without installing or configuring stuff. I also use a very vanilla Vim. If a coworker's laptop or some server has a different Vim config than mine, I can usually do
vim -u NONEto get back to a familiar place. -
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?
I switched to helix last year after over twenty years of vim. I really like helix, but it did take some getting used to. Using multiple cursors instead of repeated commands etc
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I keep hearing about how modal editing is faster and I would like to switch to a more performant editor.
Honestly I've yet to hear a good argument for this. It feels like such a major investment to switch to vi-like editors, I need a pretty good argument before considering it
Also a good argument for "why does it matter"? Speed of editing is rarely a bottleneck when editing code. If it is, you might want to consider why your code is so verbose and repetitive to make it so
Speed of editing is rarely a bottleneck when editing code
It's not just that though, its moving around your code. Being able to jump between matching brackets, follow references etc. it's just quicker and easier with a modal editor.
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Ghidra seems intense when gdb is right there. Lol. What advantages do you see in using Ghidra on your own code? It seems interesting.
Gdb doesn't support arm macs. I've switched to lldb.
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Gdb doesn't support arm macs. I've switched to lldb.
Nice. Does it work well for you? How does it compare?
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Nice. Does it work well for you? How does it compare?
If you know gdb, you know lldb.. it's pretty much a drop-in replacement.
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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?
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
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vim with appropriate syntax highlighting, or kate
IMO Kate is just VS Code or Sublime Text but worse. The LSP never works, I can't have multi-caret editing, it's harder to extend it's functionality, etc. etc.
Just use open source VS Code (or better yet VS Codium), at that point.
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