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June 19, 2025

[4]Helix

I had insomnia a few nights ago, so I started fiddling with different things,
including the CLI tasks tool dstask, which is sort of TaskWarrior without the
misanthropy. (I kid.)

So a kind of nice thing about dstask is that with dstask #{note number} note
you pop open $EDITOR in a Markdown note attached to the task. dstask is aware
of any Markdown checklists inside the task note and blocks completion of the
task if there are open ones.

That's maybe bad for me because I am a compulsive subtask-maker with a bad
habit of opening a task, loading the subtasks into my buffer, and just doing
them all without looking back. So if I stick with it dstask may shape my habits
that way.

For some annoying reason, dstask also barfs if $EDITOR has an argument, e.g.
emacsclient -nw, and I found myself once again writing some kind of wrapper for
emacsclient. That is not Emacs' fault, but it raised the perennial question
"when does $EDITOR come into play and do you need a whole-ass Emacs config for
those times?"

So I think "your go-to for this used to be jed, which acts like Emacs where it
matters." But I've been using evil in Emacs for years now: If I want to keep my
muscle memory between quick CLI edits and my whole-ass Emacs config, what I
really need is something from the vi family.

It being 3 in the morning, I embark on a tour of modern vi's, looking for some
sweet spot of "nimble" and "feature-packed." I burn through a few neovim
tutorials and starter kits (nooooooope) before stumbling into a feud between
neovim people and Helix people on reddit.

So around 4 I'm running brew install helix and going through :tutorial.

It's pretty nice! It launches quickly. No plugin system so the futzmonkey sort
of has to stay in its cage, but it's very batteries-included. I found a [5]
tutorial for setting it up for Markdown that wasn't overwhelming and helped me
get a sense of how its config works.

It is not "just a batteries included vim." It has its own keybinding grammar
(subject/verb, not verb/subject), so after bonking my head on those changes a
few times I [6]cheated and lifted a few vimisms.

I guess I also went through a quick consideration of micro, but the CUA-style
default keybindings confused me the way nano often confuses me.



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References:

[1] https://lmno.lol/puddingtime
[2] https://lmno.lol/signin?goto=/puddingtime/helix
[3] https://lmno.lol/
[4] https://lmno.lol/puddingtime/helix
[5] https://helix-editor-tutorials.com/tutorials/writing-documentation-and-prose-in-markdown-using-helix/
[6] https://github.com/LGUG2Z/helix-vim/blob/master/config.toml
[7] https://lmno.lol/
[8] https://lmno.lol/blog/privacy-policy
[9] https://lmno.lol/blog/terms-of-service