this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Programming

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[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The only thing a GUI text editor can be better at than a terminal editor is making it easier to use the mouse.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That really is one hell of a hot take ๐Ÿ˜€

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That really is one hell of a hot take

Yea well most of the comments in here are lukewarm takes so... there you go.

I for one really love the zoomed out preview on the right that has become popular in recent years.

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.

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.

I use LSP integration to see a complete list of errors/warnings and jump to them.

Another example: GUI color picker directly in my editor as a tooltip above color values in css/html templates.

That's for design, not text editing ;)

inline preview of latex or Template fragments.

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I almost exclusively do front end, in exclusively nvim. Exactly like you say, just have a browser window (or 2) permanently open.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

the zoomed out preview on the right

https://github.com/gorbit99/codewindow.nvim

GUI color picker directly in my editor

https://github.com/uga-rosa/ccc.nvim

inline preview of latex

https://github.com/jbyuki/nabla.nvim

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

scrolling is usually smoother

This is probably the last thing on my mind when editing text, but sure.

Did you know they the jetbrains IDEs have official vim-like key bindings? I converted a windows gvim user to it.

Yea I'm aware, but why would I use an emulator when I can use the real thing?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I hate animations. I'm glad that scrolling is instant in Neovim.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Conversly, I see nothing a TUI editor can do better than a GUI, including use of the keyboard

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.