Comment by ramon156

I do a ton of work on low-power devices over SSH. Helix launches almost instantly; neovim with a similar level of functionality (via plugins) has considerably more startup lag and considerably more maintenance cost (config / plugin updates). I also know enough rust to try to help fix bugs but don't know any C family languages; I have a strong preference to use open-source projects written in languages I know.

EDIT: for context I'm a hobbyist who use n/vim for 12 years or so before switching to helix for the last couple of years. There are several things about nvim behavior that I still miss quite a bit and still feel more natural, but the instant startup of helix vs a second or two for nvim configured to a similar level of functional makes it totally worthwhile for me.

As someone who spent some time over the last few years working through trying to daily drive neovim, helix, emacs, and nano, the out of the box experience with helix is far and away the best experience of them. The defaults are very well chosen. Additionally the contextual help and hints are very good for helping you use and remember commands you don't use often. I also personally found that helix's order of operations for commands to make a lot more sense to my brain compared to vim's.

Part of it for me is that I really don't like the massive plugin / config wall that is the modern neovim/spacemacs experience. I truly appreciate the extensibility and the fact that those plugins allow for things helix just can't do right now (e.g. emacs is effectively the IDE for any lisp language and you can't load up a repl in helix). But the problem with that becomes not only do I need to learn the application itself, but now I need to learn a whole bunch of plugins, and often learn about the differences between them because everyone has their own preferences in combinations, so looking up how to do something covered by a plugin often leads you to multiple incompatible answers. And even if you bite the bullet on trying to build your own config from scratch (which I did with emacs) you're still often just taking on faith other people's recommendations on stuff, or spending a lot of time learning about a plugin to make a decision and that time is time you're not spending on whatever you want to be doing.

Helix benefits from being new and not carrying generations of legacy decisions behind it. As a result, helix can make decisions and defaults that fit "modern" expectations. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also probably what I would recommend for someone "new to the TUI" as a place to start when you just need something with a good chunk of modern conveniences and don't want to spend the next few weeks getting the editor configured.

1. hx is fast to start, and fast to use, it looks pretty too 2. the defaults are pretty good, i added a few bits and bobs, but customizing hx is not a way of life for me. emacs and neovim had me stuck in endless improvement loops... 3. tui works great on remote servers, it is nice to have the same setup on my mac, linux, and server. sure other editors does that too but also hx. 4. i got all the lsp i need. arguably getting my languages.toml setup was more fiddly than I wanted. In practice I found getting the setup right on other editors also was a bit of a chrore though.

I prefer the simple config and the selection-first editing model (best writing on this: https://kakoune.org/why-kakoune/why-kakoune.html). After talking to other Vim users who had a hard time adjusting to Helix, I think I must have used Vim in a pretty Helix-like way to begin with — selecting first. I never could get used to vim motions where the target text is not visualized.

I suspect editor choices are not super rational. A lot of it comes down to what feels right, new, exciting, engaging, and not so much what is theoretically optimal.

Personally, I don't like the idea of maintaining 500+ lines of config with tens of plugins. Setting up neovim from scratch is pretty tedious. Using something like lazyvim sets up 50 plugins, which are updated by simply taking the most recent commits from respective git repositories.

It’s only a matter of time before someone deploys something malicious to one of those 50 plugins.

Language support in JetBrains IDEs is top-notch, but they consume a lot of resources and do not work well for remote development in my experience. I still open them from time to time to do complex refactoring. Also, I just hate the idea of opening Goland, RustRover, and PyCharm at the same time. I have a monorepo at work with multiple languages.

I really like the great defaults helix comes with.

I used neovim for 20 years and still like it a lot. But after some plugins broke I wanted to give helix a try. I am missing a plugin system in helix.

However, for me, helix comes with the nearly perfect amount of functionality, while being extremely responsive. It also made me appreciate stuff like multicursor, which I haven’t tried before.

I tried multiple out of the box nvim solutions, but never liked one of those.

I looked into zed, but don’t see much of a reason to use it. Maybe I should give it a try.

Hx is batteries included. Nvim requires installing lots of plugins that do not inspire confidence - descriptions ridden with emojis, impossible to know who maintains what. Too many vectors leading to possible compromise.

Speaking to the second point, it's clear that some folks will avoid quitting the terminal at all costs. I could very well be one of them. :-D