helix the editor

I currently use neovim as my editor of choice. It has served me well until the latest release removed cscope support. Apparently I was the only one using cscope to navigate unfamiliar code.

cscope let me do two things: it let me jump to the source of a function with a single keystroke (opening the file and moving my cursor) and it lets me take a function and ask 'where is this function called elsewhere in the code?' Other people dismayed by the loss of cscope asked about plugins to re-enable this feature and the general advice was to use 'universal-ctags' and 'vim-gutentags'. With this I can do the jump to the source of a function but it doesn't let me ask where this function is called. So my editor lost a little utility and I started eyeing helix again.

helix is written in rust. It's a vim variant with a multi-selection process based on an editor called kakoune

I've been keeping a sharp eye on it for a while now. It's written in rust, it's very fast, and it comes with LSP support built in. For a while I've been keeping a list of features I needed to see before I attempted to jump ship and start the tedious process of rebuilding my muscle memory. The list of features I needed looked like this:

• soft word wrap has been merged but it's not convenient. There's no way to toggle soft word wrap.
• spell check seems to be blocked by multiple language server support
• A built in file explorer is about to be merged
• Session support is being discussed
• VCS integration while not super important is being discussed
• Plugin support is being discussed

They've been releasing every 3-4 months and the last release was in March which brought soft word wrap.

The last thing I need is session support. Being able to close the editor with three hundred open buffers and have them all open again when I start it again is critical.

I'm excited see how quickly I will be able to pick up the editor once it matures. Losing cscope was like the first pebble of an avalanche.

posted by na on July 6, 2023 17:59