Enhance Helix Motion Support (Core Motions)

[micke754]

Kia ora/Warm greetings to Neurocyte and the wider flow team!

I've just stumbled across your project while digging through the ziggit.dev forum and I have to say that I'm really impressed with your work on this thus far. I've used a mix of Neovim and Helix over the past couple of years (mostly for Python and R development) and I've really enjoyed using flow for the past day. It's really responsive and I love how smooth the scroll animation looks (better than Helix and similar to Neovim with the mini.animate plugin). Seamless theme integration is another standout feature, and I'm excited to discover more. Also, I like the command palette in Vim and Helix mode being up the top like in VSCode (much better than down below).

I've noticed that the Helix motion implementation is currently limited (which is understandable), and I'm writing to request consideration for expanding the support for Helix motions. My goal is to be able to test flow more extensively in my daily workflow. I appreciate that several Helix motions like ge, gg, gl, and gs are already implemented – this is a great start!

Therefore, I would like to specifically request the implementation of core Helix motions to begin with.

Potential Implementation Approach: To start, focusing on implementing fundamental word and character motions would be incredibly beneficial. For example: w, b, e (word motions); x, d and c (highlight, delete and change) to work as they do in helix.

Feedback and Next Steps: I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this request. My aim is to help flow achieve a useful level of Helix motion support, while respecting flow's unique identity. If you are open to it, I would be happy to submit further, more specific feature requests related to Helix motions in the future. Of course, there's no pressure to prioritize these if they don't align with the project's direction. I just didn't want to open up a bunch of feature requests if there was limited appetite for it.

Additionally, I would love to help with testing and implementing things where possible, but the main limitation here is my lack of experience with system-level languages given that I mostly work in the Data and DevOps space. But hey I'm happy to learn :)

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Kevin

[neurocyte]

I've converted your post to a discussion because I'd like to add individual feature requests or issues for each actionable change.

[neurocyte]

Feedback and Next Steps: I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this request. My aim is to help flow achieve a useful level of Helix motion support, while respecting flow's unique identity. If you are open to it, I would be happy to submit further, more specific feature requests related to Helix motions in the future. Of course, there's no pressure to prioritize these if they don't align with the project's direction. I just didn't want to open up a bunch of feature requests if there was limited appetite for it.

Yes, please do submit feature requests for any new helix mode bindings you need/want. If the binding is there, but different to helix in some way, please create a regular issue.

[neurocyte]

Kia ora/Warm greetings to Neurocyte and the wider flow team!

I've just stumbled across your project while digging through the ziggit.dev forum and I have to say that I'm really impressed with your work on this thus far. I've used a mix of Neovim and Helix over the past couple of years (mostly for Python and R development) and I've really enjoyed using flow for the past day. It's really responsive and I love how smooth the scroll animation looks (better than Helix and similar to Neovim with the mini.animate plugin). Seamless theme integration is another standout feature, and I'm excited to discover more. Also, I like the command palette in Vim and Helix mode being up the top like in VSCode (much better than down below).

Thank you! It's nice to hear that flow has some appeal.

[neurocyte]

Potential Implementation Approach: To start, focusing on implementing fundamental word and character motions would be incredibly beneficial. For example: w, b, e (word motions); x, d and c (highlight, delete and change) to work as they do in helix.

Yes, basic motion and selection is the top priority.

[neurocyte]

Additionally, I would love to help with testing and implementing things where possible, but the main limitation here is my lack of experience with system-level languages given that I mostly work in the Data and DevOps space. But hey I'm happy to learn :)

Writing feature requests that document basic missing features is already a big help. Especially if they detail what exactly the command should do. Not all devs (especially me) use helix regularly, so we need to know if something is off and needs fixing.