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Zed is not a great modal editor, modality is a strapped on afterthought. At least that the impression the vim keybinding give me. IMO the best chance I see for

Zed is not a great modal editor, modality is a strapped on afterthought. At least that the impression the vim keybinding give me. IMO the best chance I see for a fast modal editor that works out of the box is Helix.

dkersten 1y ago
When did you last try Zed? If it was recently then that hasn’t quite matched my experience, for me vim keybindings work quite well. But I did think the same when I first used Zed over a year ago.
- cess11 1y ago
  Is it now possible to import .vimrc, or otherwise configure e.g. the sequence j k to execute Escape?
  - xedrac 1y ago
    You can easily configure jk for escape. I don't know about importing .vimrc
    - cess11 1y ago
      Can you explain how?
      - xedrac 1y ago
        From the documentation at https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/vim.md https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/vim... { "context": "Editor && vim_mode == insert", "bindings": { "j k": "vim::NormalBefore" } }
  - dkersten 1y ago
    No .vimrc importing, but remapping capability is quite comprehensive.
- eikenberry 1y ago
  I tried it a couple days ago. Lost me right off with the poor `:e` experience; popup box with no completion, fuzzy-matching, sub-directory support. Vim is a file oriented editor, not a project oriented one, so good file operations are table stakes.
  - eproxus 1y ago
    I don’t quite get what Zed’s emulation of :e has to do with being a modal editor. It’s a completely different editor so of course the interface to interact with files is going to be different, but in my experience Zed’s implementation of modality when it comes to its Vim mode is extremely good. Even better than the already excellent NeoVintageous for Sublime Text.
    - eikenberry 1y ago
      Fair point. I guess the problem is with their (Neo)Vim keybindings, not so much with the modal-editing part. I included it as vim is the most popular modal editor and its keybindings are what are lacking. Are there any modal editors that are not file-based? Maybe it would be better to say this is a problem with its file-based editor emulation?
weakfish 1y ago
I at least really like that ctrl-w allows switching between panels as well as editors, something VS code doesn’t do (or at least, you can switch to the explorer but not back?) and is a major papercut IMO
jkl5xx 1y ago
Huh? Zed's vim emulator is one of the best I've used in an IDE. Saying it's an afterthought feels disingenuous. I'm pretty sure some of the core zed devs are big vim enthusiasts.

dkersten 1y ago

When did you last try Zed? If it was recently then that hasn’t quite matched my experience, for me vim keybindings work quite well. But I did think the same when I first used Zed over a year ago.

cess11 1y ago
Is it now possible to import .vimrc, or otherwise configure e.g. the sequence j k to execute Escape?
- xedrac 1y ago
  You can easily configure jk for escape. I don't know about importing .vimrc
  - cess11 1y ago
    Can you explain how?
    - xedrac 1y ago
      From the documentation at https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/vim.md https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/docs/src/vim... { "context": "Editor && vim_mode == insert", "bindings": { "j k": "vim::NormalBefore" } }
- dkersten 1y ago
  No .vimrc importing, but remapping capability is quite comprehensive.
eikenberry 1y ago
I tried it a couple days ago. Lost me right off with the poor `:e` experience; popup box with no completion, fuzzy-matching, sub-directory support. Vim is a file oriented editor, not a project oriented one, so good file operations are table stakes.
- eproxus 1y ago
  I don’t quite get what Zed’s emulation of :e has to do with being a modal editor. It’s a completely different editor so of course the interface to interact with files is going to be different, but in my experience Zed’s implementation of modality when it comes to its Vim mode is extremely good. Even better than the already excellent NeoVintageous for Sublime Text.
  - eikenberry 1y ago
    Fair point. I guess the problem is with their (Neo)Vim keybindings, not so much with the modal-editing part. I included it as vim is the most popular modal editor and its keybindings are what are lacking. Are there any modal editors that are not file-based? Maybe it would be better to say this is a problem with its file-based editor emulation?

weakfish 1y ago

I at least really like that ctrl-w allows switching between panels as well as editors, something VS code doesn’t do (or at least, you can switch to the explorer but not back?) and is a major papercut IMO

jkl5xx 1y ago

Huh? Zed's vim emulator is one of the best I've used in an IDE. Saying it's an afterthought feels disingenuous. I'm pretty sure some of the core zed devs are big vim enthusiasts.