Trying out Helix code editor as my main editor

post, Jun 30, 2022 on Mitja Felicijan's blog

I have been searching for a lightweight code editor for quite some time. One of -the main reasons was that I wanted something that doesn't burn through CPU and -RAM usage is not through the roof. I have been mostly using Visual Studio Code. -It's been an outstanding editor. I have no quarrel with it at all. It's just -time to spice life up with something new.

I have been on this search for a couple of years. I have tried Vim, Neovim, -Emacs, Doom Emacs, Micro and couple more. Among most of them, I liked Micro and -Doom Emacs the most. Micro editor was a little too basic for me. And Doom Emacs -was a bit too hardcore. This does not reflect on any of the editors. It's just -my personal preference.

I tried Helix Editor about a year ago. But I didn't pay attention to it. -Tried it and saw it's similar to Vi and just said no. I was premature to -dismiss it.

One of the things I actually miss is line wrapping for certain files. When -writing Markdown, line wrapping would be very helpful. Editing such a document -is frustrating to say the least. Some of the Markdown to HTML converters don't -take kindly of new lines between sentences. Not paragraphs, sentences. And I use -Markdown to write this blog you are reading.

But other than this, I have been extremely satisfied by it. It's been a pleasant -surprise. There have been zero issues with the editor.

One thing to do before you are able to use autocompletion and make use Language -Server support is to install the language server with NPM.

npm install -g typescript typescript-language-server
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I am still getting used to the keyboard shortcuts and getting better. What Helix -does really well is packing in sane defaults and even though because currently -there is no plugin support I haven't found any need for them. It has all that -you would need. It goes to extreme measures to show a user what is going on with -popups that show you what the keyboard shortcuts are.

And it comes us packed with many -really good themes.

Editor

It's still young but has this mature feeling to it. It has sane defaults and -mimics Vim (works a bit differently, but the overall idea is similar).