After using Helix as my primary text editor for over a year, I wanted to share my thoughts on the experience. Coming from Neovim, the transition had its challenges but ultimately proved worthwhile.
The Good
Helix comes batteries-included with LSP support, tree-sitter integration, and sensible defaults. No more spending hours configuring plugins just to get basic functionality working.
The selection-first modal editing paradigm took some getting used to, but once it clicked, it felt more intuitive than Vim's action-first approach. You see what you're operating on before you act.
The Challenges
The plugin system is still in development, which means you're somewhat limited to what Helix provides out of the box. For most development work, this is fine, but power users may miss certain Neovim plugins.
Verdict
For most development tasks, Helix is now my go-to editor. It strikes a good balance between simplicity and power, and the team continues to improve it with each release.