i got helix set up as my code editor for godot!! ^O^
it has language server support for gdscript out of the box now so it can autofill just like the in-app editor, yessss
programmers who say you need to go mouse-free on vim for maximum efficiency are scrubs who don't have the gamer skill to three sixty noscope the curly bracket on line 572 in one try
last year around this time, i started getting into godot and was also in the midst of switching back to linux at the same time, so i got really interested in the idea of terminal-based text editors. i started out thinking that i wanted to learn vim, but i was already getting frustrated with vim's lack of visual feedback when a friend showed me helix, and i realized the rabbit hole went way deeper than i thought!
part 1: helix
helix was extremely new at the time and apparently becoming trendy among rustaceans. what made helix interesting to me was the alternative approach to vim's workflow, based on a more obscure editor called kakoune.
in vim you press a key denoting an action (for example, d for delete) and then more keys to denote the text to act upon (for example, w for a word) so typing d3w means "delete the next three words". in kakoune and helix, you instead make a selection with movement commands and then press an action key and see that change instantly reflected on your selection. visual feedback! this is really good for someone like me who struggles working with things that aren't visible directly in front of me, not to mention more mouse-friendly. you might also recognize it as the way any GUI text entry field behaves. (or for that matter, any image editing software, which i have orders of magnitude more combined hours of experience in than text editors)
unfortunately helix's support for gdscript was very WIP at the time, or at least i couldn't find the documentation i needed to set up the language server stuff - and so diving into the learning curve for this cool new toy had no real benefit for me at the end, since the end result would be less useful than simply sticking with godot's in-app code editor. and there's no way i could remember helix's keyboard shortcuts if i wasn't using it regularly, so if i wanted to keep being cute and using a terminal to edit config files, i had to find a super-easy one, and that's how i found micro ^O^
part 2: micro
micro (named for being nano x1000) is essentially like notepad or gedit for your terminal. it's got some nice, sublime/vscode-like power user features like multi-cursors and syntax highlighting and stuff, but the ease of use is its main draw. the way you select stuff with the mouse is completely intuitive, ctrl+S and ctrl+Z and ctrl+C and ctrl+V work as expected. micro became my casual text editor of choice immediately.
i've been using micro for about a year. at this point i embrace the fact that what draws me to terminal apps isn't efficiency or a particular love for pre-macintosh computing paradigms, but simple aesthetic appreciation for the simplicity and cohesion of colorful monospaced text on a dark semi-transparent background. plus when the rules are that simple, you have total control over the look!
oh, what's nano?
`nano` is like notepad if it was invented before mice or desktops existed. like vi it's available on basically every linux computer, intended to be an alternative to vi that anyone can use without having to be taught. there's a handy cheat sheet of useful keyboard shortcuts on the bottom of the screen. the problem is those shortcuts were designed by aliens from space: ctrl+K to cut, ctrl+U to paste, ctrl+O to save, ctrl+X to exit...? absolutely bonkers. there are ways to customize them ofc, and you can even enable mouse support by pressing alt+M. but the mouse support was also designed by an alien: you can't drag to select text, you have to double click on a character to start a selection and single click somewhere else to... you get the idea. still, nano is a really charming piece of software and mastering the quirks of nano is a totally reasonable alternative to committing to the learning curve of vi, especially for the use case of being able to jump into editing text on any server.so with that context, micro was intended to take nano's design philosophy (including its advanced features) and make it speak the language of any GUI text editor like notepad.
anyway, i jumped back into helix today. since i'm reinstalling all my shit anyway, i have an opportunity to introduce a new toy into my enclosure. i think i'm ready for it this time, especially now that it works with godot! i'm coming into it with a mindset like i'm learning an old video game, the kind with an unconventional control scheme and a steep learning curve. if you keep an open mind a UX experience like that can be really charming and toy-like. the idea of being faster isn't what's going to keep me going, i have to enjoy being slow for a while 