this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Programming
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The only thing a GUI text editor can be better at than a terminal editor is making it easier to use the mouse.
That really is one hell of a hot take ๐
I for one really love the zoomed out preview on the right that has become popular in recent years.
https://jason-williams.co.uk/assets/img/2020/debugging_screenshot.png
Really hard to do in a terminal. If you have errors you can see very fast where they are located/clustered in the file and can already tell just by the shape of the program where it is.
Another example: GUI color picker directly in my editor as a tooltip above color values in css/html templates.
Another example: inline preview of latex or Template fragments.
Yea well most of the comments in here are lukewarm takes so... there you go.
I almost never navigate code based on its order or "shape" in the file. LSP-based symbol tagging or searching is way faster than scrolling. I guess you can click the spot on the preview that you need, but I refuse to reach for my mouse while editing text.
I use LSP integration to see a complete list of errors/warnings and jump to them.
That's for design, not text editing ;)
I will use a latex or markdown language server that renders to a browser tab.
To be fair, I don't do HTML/JS/CSS, so I bet VSCode or other GUI editors are great for that. But that's specifically because you want to see something rendered. Most of the time you can just see it in an actual browser next to your text editor though.
I almost exclusively do front end, in exclusively nvim. Exactly like you say, just have a browser window (or 2) permanently open.
https://github.com/gorbit99/codewindow.nvim
https://github.com/uga-rosa/ccc.nvim
https://github.com/jbyuki/nabla.nvim
Not really what you're after, but... Using a gui text editor means scrolling is usually smoother. Similarly, horizontal scrolling/wraparound experience is better.
Semi related: Did you know they the jetbrains IDEs have official vim-like key bindings? I converted a windows gvim user to it.
This is probably the last thing on my mind when editing text, but sure.
Yea I'm aware, but why would I use an emulator when I can use the real thing?
I don't even think that's the case, honestly. There are ways to make it animated smooth as well, and the scrolling is already more responsive and fast, and thus smooth.
Using vim keybinds in gui ide's feels bad to me usually cause of how slow they tend to be.
I hate animations. I'm glad that scrolling is instant in Neovim.
Conversly, I see nothing a TUI editor can do better than a GUI, including use of the keyboard
Yea I think I agree with you there, at least theoretically. In practice I've found that it's easier to use a TUI editor over SSH, and they require less resources, but that usually isn't noticeable on my PC. TUI editors can also run inside tmux, which is very nice if you are a tmux user.