Comment by bitbasher

At this rate, why not use vim? Half of the configuration is re-creating vim inside Helix. Not to mention, Helix has many dependencies (you just don't see them the way you do in neovim). I think I could make a case that my vim setup is more supply chain safe than Helix.

My current vim8 setup is very simple and has served me well for 8+ years. I'm currently using vim8 because it's what is available within my LTS distribution.

I only use one automatically loaded plugin (`vim-tmux-navigator` to simplify moving between vim splits and tmux splits, it's a passive plugin). I have reviewed the code for the plugin and I don't update it.

I only use two "optional" plugins (you can enable them using vim's built in package manager with :packadd!). I use `ale` (lsp, diagnostics and automatic formatting on save) and `vim-fugitive` (git workflow inside vim).

Why use ale? Because it works with vim8 and doesn't require any other dependencies like nodejs or python. I have reviewed the code and I'm happy with it. Install it and use it, don't update it without a reason.

Why vim-fugitive? It's a productivity booster. You install it once and forget about it. Tim Pope is the man.

I don't automatically load plugins (besides tmux-navigator) for a few reasons. Most of the time when I'm using vim it's for quick editing where I don't need the heavy tooling (like git integration or an lsp). If I am working on a project with a long term session I will enable git and lsp.

There's no need to automatically run code unless you need it.