[kemiller]

I really would love to move to helix but they can be… stubborn about what gets into the core. And if you start having to go to a plugin (which isn’t even possible last I looked) to get table stakes features in, it kind of defeats the purpose of a modern batteries included modal editor. But it’s still a cool thing I’m glad exists.

[alphazard]

> but they can be… stubborn about what gets into the core.

Yes, as an onlooker who is similarly cautious about moving to helix, I consider this to be a major risk factor. I've watched the maintainers waste dozens of hours of contributors' time, and leave the project with no improvement afterwards. I would actively warn against anyone trying to contribute to the project. The maintainers simply don't know how to run an open source project, and it's unlikely you will be able to accomplish anything. It's fine for a project to not accept contributions, and if you don't have the skillset to leverage contributor labor, then it's better to be upfront about it.

That being said, I hope they figure out the plugin system, or someone forks the project to add the missing table stakes features.

[poncho_romero]

> The maintainers simply don't know how to run an open source project

Can you explain why you feel this way? From an outsider’s perspective, Helix seems like an impressive piece of software with a growing community. I don’t see what the maintainers are doing so wrong

[no_wizard]

This is what killed all the momentum that Elm had at one point. While that's a language and not an entire editor, it does serve as an illustrative example of being far too strict about accepting changes to core.

[tempaccount420]

> That being said, I hope they figure out the plugin system, or someone forks the project to add the missing table stakes features.

They decided on an obscure Lisp flavor as the language (instead of WASM), so I don't hold my breath for a powerful plugin system, more like slightly more convenient configuration language.

[Crowberry]

I actually moved from VS Code to helix and happily used it exclusively for about 4-5 months, at that point I had list list of things I really wanted in my editor. I took that list to neovim and haven’t looked back!

I really hope to be able to use helix again in the future though, there was a speed advantage in helix and less janky window management.

But for me to do that they might have to allow full vim motions as well

[jgalt212]

The latest neovim is a bear to install unless you have something newer than Ubuntu 22.

[cat-whisperer]

I think so too, a lot of my friends have told me they had a great experience with helix, but vim keybinds are rooted too deep, and it's also the sunk cost of having built the config over an entire year. But, I think I would give it a try sparingly.

[barnabee]

There are a number of reasons I use Helix but one of them is the maintainers’ approach to managing development of the editor and accepting (or not) contributions.

For me, slow and opinionated is a feature, not a bug.