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> Kakoune gives you:
> Small and understandable core.
> Proficiency with POSIX tools, and maybe even some programming languages other than sh.
> Structural regular expressions as a central way of text manipulation.
> With multiple selections created via regular expressions, acting upon regular expressions.
> Fresh take on the modal editing paradigm.
I wonder if the author has ever heard of vis[0] which imho fulfills far better each one of those premises
[0] https://github.com/martanne/vis
> I wonder if the author has ever heard of vis[0]
Yes.
https://github.com/martanne/vis/wiki/Differences-from-Kakoun...
https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/wiki#onboarding
> which imho fulfills far better each one of those premises
Not very motivated for such a harsh critic..
Take a look at https://helix-editor.com/. It is basically a continuation of the ideas behind Kakoune but with a primary focus on modern day programming with a language-server. I use it for most of my programming today, because the language server support out of the box is just so much better than anything I could do with Neovim.
I've used all except Kakoune. For me, Neovim is the one that stuck. Helix is cool, but having no plugins is a deal breaker (for now!) The onboarding experience is much nicer for sure, and Helix's LSP is way easier to set up than Neovim's.
That being said, Neovim, once you get it set up, is great. The biggest hurdle for me was the config, but if you just start from scratch and make a light config (mines about 200-300 lines, with LSP, hints, etc) you can get through it. And you never have to touch it again, since most likely you configured it in a way you like. Well unless you wanna add the occasional plugin. There are also distros of Neovim that contain a fully baked IDE-lite experience, but honestly those have extremely complicated config, and often IME don't feel nice and light.
It's definitely not for everyone. There is that time investment to get started, but it's definitely been worth it for me.
My config: https://github.com/wrapperup/nvim-config
I use NeoVim. I used Vim previously and just know the built in basics very well.
NeoVim incorporating Lua as a first class language has allowed plugin authors to build plugins that are faster and better than plugins for Vim written in VimScript (or other languages like python/typescript which are much slower).
There is a strong community for neovim on reddit, youtube, etc and plugin authors do a nice job of building tools that work with each other.
Setting it up I agree is a pain, but once done its very little maintenance/work. Even when I've had to 'redo' my setup (eg swithing package managers like vim plug to packer to lazy) its been easy and under 15 or so minutes.
I edit minor things in my config every few months. Everything flows quite nicely now and breaking changes are far less common than they used to be (at least among the plugins I use).
My vim config if you're curious (along with the rest of my dotfiles): https://github.com/sbernheim4/dotfiles/tree/master/vim
I thought nobody used Kakoune anymore... maybe I'll go ahead and fix the bugs in the Kakoune WakaTime plugin https://github.com/WhatNodyn/kakoune-wakatime.
I'd probably use Helix if it had 1:1 Kakoune keybindings. Or even Vim bindings.
Vim bindings are not the most consistent, but they are ubiquitous. Every program that offers Vim mode has very similar keymap. If modal text editor deviates from them, it better be for good reason.
Kakoune bindings are very different from Vim, but they are provably and objectively [1] better, so that's fine. They are also more consistent and there is a clear idea behind the whole design. It's written down in documentation. You might prefer Vim or Emacs, but at least you can see that changes from well known Vim scheme are not made at whim.
Helix keymap feels like it was improvised without any thought behind it. „Let's take Kakoune binds and add back visual mode cuz I feel like it.” Currently, they are designed by committee in this GitHub issue[2]. I don't see any design notes and explanations why should I spend time learning Helix keymap.
[1]: https://github.com/mawww/golf
There is a working prototype (that's gone as far as implementing a vim-dirvish picker): https://github.com/mattwparas/helix/tree/mwp-steel-integrati...
The maintainers are collaborating with the dev and hope to get a draft PR open sometime this upcoming year.