helix-vim VS boon

I tried to re-learn from Vim to Helix but failed. No sure if this is a muscle memory problem or perhaps article is right about cons Kakoune-like approach for me. Even adapting with something https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim did not work. So if you like Helix it probably a good thing that you did not learn the vim at the time.

Not that they're inherently worse, just different - I'm perfectly happy with vim motions and relearning to type is pretty low on my list of priorities. Luckily there is a compatibility hack, not perfect but it's close enough: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim

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.

https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim somebody on the internet has you covered

There is this configuration: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim

This switches most keybinds to be vi-like.

I've never yet used kakoune itself, but I've just started using the Meow modal editing package for Emacs, which I'm told resembles kakoune to some similar extent as boon resembles vi.

Shouldn't make much difference, because most of Emacs's default keybinds are either mnemonic or arbitrary (not relative, like Vi's hjkl). There are some unique control interfaces for Emacs which support (and even recommend) alt layouts out of the box. Specifically Meow, Fingers and Boon.

There's also Boon which I like quite a lot but I opted against using mostly because of all the places I would need to type where I wouldn't have access to Boon unless I ported it (a plan I assure you but one lumped behind 1,000 other projects TODO).

https://github.com/jyp/boon

To build on what others are saying about Emacs, if you start exploring the package ecosystem, you're going to see quite a lot of really interesting packages that are related to improving/experimenting with the UX of editing text. While I'm not endorsing anyone in particular, I think what this list does show is just how easy it is to do pretty much whatever you want in Emacs;

https://karthinks.com/software/avy-can-do-anything/

https://github.com/jyp/boon

https://github.com/clemera/objed

https://github.com/jmorag/kakoune.el

https://github.com/meow-edit/meow/

https://github.com/xahlee/xah-fly-keys

https://github.com/Kungsgeten/ryo-modal

https://github.com/emacsorphanage/god-mode

Emacs 29 also now has treesitter and LSP mode integration built-in, a compilation mode, a comint mode for REPLs, excellent file browsing packages (I use dired/dirvish), and a few other killer features.

Now, if what you truly dislike are "quirky editors", prepare yourself for a world of hurt because vanilla Emacs departs quite a bit from "modern" text editors. I struggled with this for a while, but eventually by buying into the paradigm, I now feel that when emacs try emulating "modern" IDE features like autocompletion, LSP, and DAP UI, I feel like it's a regression, not a progression. The point here is that you might have an "idea" of what good initial UX and lack of quirks would look like, but Emacs might change the way you think.

Vim never, ever appealed to me. The keys are not exactly ergonomic, like the WordStar diamond, or intuitive, like the Emacs keys. But I can understand how modal editing - like in WordStar - can improve the writing experience tremendously. So, for my custom Emacs configuration for creative writing, I am using Boon, which allows me to use the left hand home row to navigate characters/words/sentences/lines, and the right hand home row to delete/insert/etc. Pressing v switches to Insert Mode, and C-; switches back to Command Mode. Highly addictively efficient!

I've used both vim and evil in the past, but lately I've been playing with boon and I'm quite enjoying it. It plays nicely with emacs and has some good ideas, like pressing the yank key twice in a row will fix spaces:

I am using Boon, and it has transformed my Emacs experience!

I use https://github.com/jyp/boon which has changed my life.

I am not using Evil in 2022 because I am using Boon :)