3 ms·

Ok, this sounds awesome, but do you miss the GUI integrations? like , being able to pop a document open in your editor from the desktop? It just feels like it'

by ray_v 6mo ago

Ok, this sounds awesome, but do you miss the GUI integrations? like , being able to pop a document open in your editor from the desktop? It just feels like it's hard to nail down your preferred workflow / setup ... but it's likely worth it if you're using it daily! Are there any good visual or video demos of using this type of setup? I'm having trouble picturing what makes people really love this type of TUI-only workflow.

jonaustin 6mo ago
You're holding it wrong if you're dragging files around a desktop to open them. Just use a fuzzy file finder within the terminal or within vim itself.
chrysoprace 6mo ago
It's not my kind of workflow but you can download a graphical client like Neovide, which I think has options for opening directly from your file browser. I typically have a terminal-heavy workflow so it's very rare that I'm browsing to files from within my desktop, but if I am using Dolphin to look for a file I have a "Open terminal here" shortcut and then I'll usually just run "nvim doc.md". Why not give it a try? You'll likely find that there's an adjustment period and you can always switch back to your old editor if you don't like it. The beauty of it is that you can build it into whatever IDE you want instead of having useless features shoved into your IDE whether you use them or not.
himata4113 6mo ago
lazyvim DOES have mouse and GUI-type support. This is a huge myth! I use mouse regulary in neovim and tmux.
jrumbut 6mo ago
As an aside, it would be straightforward to make vim/neovim the editor that opens when you double click a text file on the desktop. This kind of setup is at its most powerful when you live on the command line though. For instance, you need to modify .py files across multiple projects that mention a certain variable, have a certain word in their name, and were modified within the last month. That search is a bit easier in bash/zsh than it is in most IDEs and the strength of vim/neovim is the shell integration.
skydhash 6mo ago
I use Emacs and opening a new file is just pressing “C-x C-f” (find-file), typing the path (completion is available), and pressing enter. As for vim, I would spawn a new terminal (WM keybind, new tab, new pane with tmux), cd to the directory and open it with vim. The nice thing is that I rely only on the keyboard, no need to point with the mouse. It may not be faster, but typing is sequential and there’s no context switching. So muscle memory helps a lot. Just like you don’t think about each character when you write, I don’t really think about the shortcuts and commands I use.
- smohare 6mo ago
  [dead]
- opan 6mo ago
  It's interesting that vim and emacs have this sort of cultural difference where emacs users tend to have one session always open, and vim users are more likely to directly launch a new session per file. I've largely adopted the emacs approach with my usage of neovim, though still use a mix. I have a Session.vim file that opens my windows/tabs/buffers I saved, including remote files using the scp://hostname/filepath syntax. Certain files I edit often enough that I just want them always open, and arranged a particular way. I do sometimes open a one-off separate session to quickly edit a config, though. I don't wanna mess up my muscle memory by introducing too many extra buffers or possibly messing up the order (although if I did do that I could just quit out and reopen the Session.vim file to get back to my saved arrangement). Another thing I picked up from my time with emacs was making keybinds to interact with the "other" window. One macro I use often will delete the second line of the file in my current window, save, change to the other window, delete second line, save, change back to original window. When activated from keybind it all happens approximately instantly. I also have some binds to jump to the top of the other window's file (without leaving my cursor stuck over there) and so on, letting me keep my cursor in the main area most of the time.
  - skydhash 6mo ago
    Vim current directory is tied to the process, while each buffer in Emacs have its own default directory. Also the buffer’s local variable in vim comes from different sources. In emacs, a lot of stuff are tied to a major or minor mode. You only have to toggle them to switch between keybinds, syntax,…
hboon 6mo ago
> like , being able to pop a document open in your editor from the desktop? There's a hackish way to do it by watching for Neovim command line commands that start with "/Users/" (change it if you are on other OS). Your coding agent can probably hack something up based on: `//Hackish supports drag and drop files into Neovim by examining when command line starts with "/Users/".`
liancheng 6mo ago
In Neovim, most non-toy language servers allow you to open the doc/definition in a popup/floating window, typically bound to `K`. Some language servers like rust-analyzer and gopls also support opening the docs in your browser.

by ray_v 6mo ago

jonaustin 6mo ago

You're holding it wrong if you're dragging files around a desktop to open them. Just use a fuzzy file finder within the terminal or within vim itself.

chrysoprace 6mo ago

It's not my kind of workflow but you can download a graphical client like Neovide, which I think has options for opening directly from your file browser. I typically have a terminal-heavy workflow so it's very rare that I'm browsing to files from within my desktop, but if I am using Dolphin to look for a file I have a "Open terminal here" shortcut and then I'll usually just run "nvim doc.md". Why not give it a try? You'll likely find that there's an adjustment period and you can always switch back to your old editor if you don't like it. The beauty of it is that you can build it into whatever IDE you want instead of having useless features shoved into your IDE whether you use them or not.

himata4113 6mo ago

lazyvim DOES have mouse and GUI-type support. This is a huge myth! I use mouse regulary in neovim and tmux.

jrumbut 6mo ago

As an aside, it would be straightforward to make vim/neovim the editor that opens when you double click a text file on the desktop. This kind of setup is at its most powerful when you live on the command line though. For instance, you need to modify .py files across multiple projects that mention a certain variable, have a certain word in their name, and were modified within the last month. That search is a bit easier in bash/zsh than it is in most IDEs and the strength of vim/neovim is the shell integration.

skydhash 6mo ago

I use Emacs and opening a new file is just pressing “C-x C-f” (find-file), typing the path (completion is available), and pressing enter. As for vim, I would spawn a new terminal (WM keybind, new tab, new pane with tmux), cd to the directory and open it with vim. The nice thing is that I rely only on the keyboard, no need to point with the mouse. It may not be faster, but typing is sequential and there’s no context switching. So muscle memory helps a lot. Just like you don’t think about each character when you write, I don’t really think about the shortcuts and commands I use.

smohare 6mo ago
[dead]
opan 6mo ago
It's interesting that vim and emacs have this sort of cultural difference where emacs users tend to have one session always open, and vim users are more likely to directly launch a new session per file. I've largely adopted the emacs approach with my usage of neovim, though still use a mix. I have a Session.vim file that opens my windows/tabs/buffers I saved, including remote files using the scp://hostname/filepath syntax. Certain files I edit often enough that I just want them always open, and arranged a particular way. I do sometimes open a one-off separate session to quickly edit a config, though. I don't wanna mess up my muscle memory by introducing too many extra buffers or possibly messing up the order (although if I did do that I could just quit out and reopen the Session.vim file to get back to my saved arrangement). Another thing I picked up from my time with emacs was making keybinds to interact with the "other" window. One macro I use often will delete the second line of the file in my current window, save, change to the other window, delete second line, save, change back to original window. When activated from keybind it all happens approximately instantly. I also have some binds to jump to the top of the other window's file (without leaving my cursor stuck over there) and so on, letting me keep my cursor in the main area most of the time.
- skydhash 6mo ago
  Vim current directory is tied to the process, while each buffer in Emacs have its own default directory. Also the buffer’s local variable in vim comes from different sources. In emacs, a lot of stuff are tied to a major or minor mode. You only have to toggle them to switch between keybinds, syntax,…

hboon 6mo ago

> like , being able to pop a document open in your editor from the desktop? There's a hackish way to do it by watching for Neovim command line commands that start with "/Users/" (change it if you are on other OS). Your coding agent can probably hack something up based on: `//Hackish supports drag and drop files into Neovim by examining when command line starts with "/Users/".`

liancheng 6mo ago

In Neovim, most non-toy language servers allow you to open the doc/definition in a popup/floating window, typically bound to `K`. Some language servers like rust-analyzer and gopls also support opening the docs in your browser.