[OtomotO]

I think Helix does a lot right on the "initial configuration" front.

It comes with LSP and treesitter configured out of the box.

Neovim on the other hand is heavily customizable, but you also have to do this for awesome functionality

[davidkunz]

For people interested in Helix, I've done a small video: https://youtu.be/9Zj-wiQ9_Xw

[NotTheDr01ds]

Thank you for the great video - I'm glad I watched it. Hadn't heard of Helix or Kakoune until now. While I have decades of muscle-memory in the vi key-bindings, it's easy to see that the select-object/verb method makes a lot of sense.

[OtomotO]

Omg, I am a fan! <3

[davidkunz]

Thank you! :)

[recuter]

This is a well done video and Helix is cute. But I feel like this is more of an Emacs-y batteries included attitude and therefore blasphemy.

Configuring Neovim from scratch is part of the fun of learning your editor and isn't that much work.

[lijogdfljk]

I switched from Kakoune to Helix recently. I've been very happy. It'll be a larger leap for a Vim user, but it was almost drop-in for a Kakoune user. Though i did tweak my bindings quite a bit to be more Kakoune like hah.

[mbarbar]

What kinds of improvements does Helix offer over Kakoune?

[lijogdfljk]

For me it was that it worked mostly just like Kakoune (or at least, the parts i used of Kakoune) with nicely integrated LSP. It also had TreeSitter based movement options and themes, which is really interesting too. A potential future where vim-like navigation is done on TreeSitter objects is attractive.

The potential DSP integration is nice too. And to top it all off, it's made in a language i enjoy and within the first 24h of using it i had a PR made for a small feature i wanted. Being able to contribute in a language i enjoy was nice.

[omaranto]

I don't use either one, but just from reading the comments here: using treesitter for syntax highlighting and having LSP configured out of the box (for kakoune I think you need to install an extension called kak-lsp).

[ayushnix]

I installed helix a few days ago and I realised that I've been using my neovim setup with much higher input latency than I'd like. I'm not sure which plugin is responsible for the increased typing latency or if there's an easy way to find out.

I wish helix had a mode where its keybindings become the same as that of neovim for easier transition. After years of using (neo)vim, it's almost impossible for me to switch to a different set of modal keybindings. I always ended up pressing x to delete characters in helix which, in turn, ended up selecting the entire line.

[mjlbach]

I think currently Helix targets a different audience. Helix does not have a plugin system (there is an ~1 year old proposal to use WASM but until it is functional the point is moot) or embedded scripting language, so your ability to customize it is extremely limited.

[pkulak]

You can get nvim packaged up with goodies out of the box with something like Lunarvim.

[OtomotO]

Difference is that this is not the default and people looking for (neo)vim will not find it, unless by chance.

Defaults matter

[gosukiwi]

Dang, Helix looks surprisingly good and simple!