helix-vim VS emfy

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.

Vanilla. A good starting point for you is probably Emfy - https://github.com/susam/emfy

I recommend Susam Pal's attempt to make Emacs more approachable for beginners: https://github.com/susam/emfy. He provides a line-by-line explanation of a simple config file.

That is true. But it’s pretty overwhelming for a lot of folks. I was a spacemacs user. I tried to rebuild what I liked about it. It was a lot, and I didn’t quite get it there.

I finally found a good compromise though. I started over with this confing: https://github.com/susam/emfy

From there, I only needed a handful of packages and a few dozen lines of config to get to an editor that was comfy.

I struggled to make the change. I think I tried half a dozen times to go from (neo)vim to Emacs and it never stuck. My problem was that I kept reaching for spacemacs and Doom Emacs, etc., right out of the gate, and I would be mystified by Emacs itself and Emacs Lisp as a result.

Two things helped get me into Emacs full-time (and this is after > 15 years of using vim):

1. I went step-by-step through Susam's Emfy Emacs config [0]. That helped me understand some of the basics at a foundational level. I extended that base configuration a little bit and became comfortable with the environment.

2. I then went step-by-step through the entire "Emacs from Scratch" playlist that System Crafters put out [1]. I pushed my personal configuration pretty far with that over the course of 2-3 months.

I eventually moved to Doom Emacs and married in pieces of my own configuration. That's been my daily driver for months now.

[0]: https://github.com/susam/emfy

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEoMzSkcN8oPH1au7H6B7...

Just have a weekend learning Emacs + Lisp and make your own opinion. This configuration (https://github.com/susam/emfy) is a great start. If you like it - use it, if you don't - throw it away.

Rather than one of the fat and opinionated "distros" (doom, spacemacs) I like emacs for you. It will set you up with a minimal config that you can learn from and add to as you go.