Switching to Helix: My Experience and Tips

I recently switched from Visual Studio Code (VS Code) to Helix as my primary text editor. I wanted a more efficient and powerful modal editor for working with Go, Terraform, YAML, and other languages and tools. I also appreciated the lightweight and efficient design of Helix. In this post, I will discuss my experience with the switch and the adjustments I made to make Helix a better fit for my daily work.

My reasons to switch from Microsoft Visual Studio Code

One of the main reasons I switched to Helix was because I was looking for a more lightweight and efficient text editor. While VS Code is a powerful and feature-rich editor, it can be resource-intensive, especially when editing large files or working on a system with limited resources. This is probably due to Electron, lots of JavaScript, and the fact that I had many plugins installed that I didn’t use regularly.

In contrast, Helix is written in Rust, and it is a lightweight and performant editor that has not caused any significant performance issues for me. It offers a good balance of power and efficiency, and I have been happy with the switch.

All you need is a pipe!

To me, one of the standout features of Helix is its ability to pipe selected lines and pass them as input to any command, and then replace the selected lines with the output of the command. This is a powerful and efficient way to perform common tasks, such as formatting text or running code snippets.

For example, let’s say I have a file with some unformatted text that I want to wrap to fit within the 80th column. I can use the fmt command to do this automagically. First, I would select the lines of text that I intend to format, and then I would use the | command to run fmt -w 80 on the selected lines. The output would then replace the selected lines, effectively formatting the text to fit within the 80th column.

Overall, the piping feature in Helix is a great way to automate common tasks and save time when working with large files or performing repetitive tasks sorting with sort, filtering with grep or finding unique lines with uniq. 😏

Really… You can use any command that follows the unix philosophy! Isn’t that great already?

Customizing Helix for a Better Workflow

At first, I wasn’t sure if I needed to customize Helix, as it seemed to work well out of the box. However, after spending some time with the editor and exploring the various customization options, I realized that making a few small adjustments could make a big difference in my workflow.

For example, selecting a color scheme that works well for me has made it easier to read and work with code, and adding vertical rules at the 80th column has helped me to keep my code and documentation aligned and easy to read.

theme = "monokai_pro_spectrum"
[editor]
rulers = [80, 120]
mouse = true

These small changes may seem insignificant, but they have made a noticeable difference in my productivity and overall enjoyment of the editor.

Something more useful was changing the behavior of the clipboard to work seamlessly when using copy-paste. This saved me a lot of time when working with large blocks of text from a command line.

[keys.normal]
# Use system clipboard
y = "yank_main_selection_to_clipboard"
p = "paste_clipboard_before"

Overall, I have found that customizing Helix to suit my specific needs and preferences has helped me to work more efficiently and effectively. While it may not be necessary for everyone, I would highly recommend taking some time to explore the customization options and see if they can help you to improve your workflow.

If you need some inspiration, you can check my configuration here.

Auto-complete, linting, formatting and more

One of the things that has really improved my workflow in Helix is the use of language servers. These servers provide a range of features, such as formatting, linting, auto-complete, and references that can help to write code as a full IDE.

To install some language servers that I use every day for Helix, on macOS you can use the following command:

# For Terraform (HCL), Bash, Generic YAML, 
# Docker, Docker compose and Ansible
brew install terraform-ls bash-language-server \
             yaml-language-server docker-ls \
             ansible-language-server

# For HTML, json, css, javascript and typescript
npm i -g vscode-langservers-extracted typescript typescript-language-server

# Go official language server
go install golang.org/x/tools/[email protected]

You can check more language servers here, and it is possible to check how the various languages are supported by running:

hx --health

Finding my way to files (fzf + ripgrep)

The default file browser in Helix (helix .) is missing the ability to filter files by their content, rather than just their names. While the default file browser does use fuzzy search, it only searches for matches in the file names, which can be limiting if you are looking for a specific piece of text within many files.

To address this issue, I modified a bash function¹ that uses fzf and ripgrep to filter files by their content. This has been a game-changer for me, as it has made it much easier to find specific pieces of text within many files. In addition, I modified the script to support opening multiple files at once (with vsplit), which has saved me a lot of time when working with related files.

This is the code that I have added to my ~/.bash_profile or equivalent:

# Helix Search
hxs() {
	RG_PREFIX="rg -i --files-with-matches"
	local files
	files="$(
		FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND_DEFAULT_COMMAND="$RG_PREFIX '$1'" \
			fzf --multi 3 --print0 --sort --preview="[[ ! -z {} ]] && rg --pretty --context 5 {q} {}" \
				--phony -i -q "$1" \
				--bind "change:reload:$RG_PREFIX {q}" \
				--preview-window="70%:wrap" \
				--bind 'ctrl-a:select-all'
	)"
	[[ "$files" ]] && hx --vsplit $(echo $files | tr \\0 " ")
}

It’s easy to get started

One of the things I really appreciated about Helix is the easy tutorial that is available to help you get started quickly and learn how to use the various keyboard combinations. To access the tutorial, simply use the command:

hx --tutor

The tutorial is a great way to learn the basic features and functions of Helix, and it is a great resource for those who are new to modal editors or want to get up to speed quickly. I used Vim before, and there are some small things that I had to get used to, and there is a guide for that too.

It is worth mentioning that the Helix community on Matrix is very helpful and welcoming, and is a great resource for getting support and learning more about the editor. 🙏 I had a small question about using multiple cursors and within seconds somebody helped and gave me super useful tips!

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, switching to Helix as my primary text editor has been a great decision for me. Its modal interface, lightweight design, and efficient features have made it a great fit for my daily work, and the various customization and customization options have allowed me to tailor it to my specific needs and preferences. The use of custom scripts and language servers has also improved my workflow and helped me to write better code faster. 🚀 Overall, I have been happy with Helix and do not plan on returning to Visual Studio Code. I highly recommend Helix to anyone who is looking for a fast and efficient text editor that is customizable and powerful.

Go to helix-editor.com and get started! You will not regret it 😉