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by tux1968 234 days ago
The details are different, but they're both select-then-act. Admittedly, I've never used Helix, but I don't see how what you've described is a game changer. Surely, at least sometimes, what you want to do is exactly what visual-mode provides: explicitly select a region, using the combined movement of any available operator, and then act on that region.
1 comments
eviks 234 days ago
> at least sometimes

Surely you understand the difference between sometimes and all the other times? This is a game changer for all those other times. Otherwise helix has a similar extending selection mode like visual

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tux1968 234 days ago
> This is a game changer for all those other times.

Is it though? I honestly don't understand what the big deal is. The original contention was that the benefit was in offering selection-then-action, unlike Vi. And then when it's pointed out that Vim actually offers selection-then-action as well, there is a new assertion that it's the particular WAY that Helix offers selection-then-action that is key.

To my mind, selection-then-action is provided by Vim if you want it. Maybe it's a few extra keystrokes sometimes, because it's not the default mode, as it is in Helix, but the main concept (ability to think in object-then-verb) is available in both, if that's the way you prefer to think.

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eviks 234 days ago
> I honestly don't understand what the big deal is.

Honestly, you't not even trying to

> To my mind, selection-then-action is provided by Vim if you want it.

Ok, let your mind be content with ignoring the difference that I've just explained. By the way, you can also trivialize vim as "it's just a fewer keystrokes sometimes to do the same as in notepad, what's the big deal?"

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tux1968 234 days ago
> Honestly, you't not even trying to

Why do you think that? I've been listening to what you say. But again, you haven't exactly proven that operating on the single-most-recent movement (which as I understand it, also defines the selection) is the thing that you want to operate on the most often, rather than the convenience of being able to use the flexibility of multiple movements to define a selection.

Anyway, many people do claim that an editor isn't the most important thing, and that thinking takes a lot more time than the operation itself, and that therefore Notepad would often be sufficient. What those people don't really appreciate is the ability to operate on multiple lines at once, not a single selection, but across vast swathes of the text being edited. When your thinking is done, and needs to be applied to every single line of the file, you'd much rather have Vim than Notepad. But in such a case Helix wouldn't offer much, if any, advantage over Vim.

You seem emotionally attached to this in a way that my skepticism provokes, so we can drop the debate. People should use whatever they prefer; no harm done.

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