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Ask HN: What keymap do you use in code editors/IDEs?

by bartekpacia on 9/1/24, 6:13 PM with 6 comments

Hey HN,

I'm curious what keymap do you use when you work with code in code editors/IDEs. I see 3 types of answers to this questions:

a) the program's default keymap, e.g. VSCode, IntelliJ

b) the program's default keymap but heavily customized

c) your own keymap?

I'm between b) and c) right now and I think I regret it and should've just sticked with the defaults.

I heavily configured the VSCode keymap a few years ago (using this tutorial [1]) and it's been serving me well, but recently I realized it's bad in a sense it makes it hard to easily switch between editors (which I started doing recently). For example I started trying out Zed and Cursor the past few weeks but found out that I'll have to spend a considerable amount of time on making the keyboard shortcuts work the same way they do in VSCode. Had I stick to the default VSCode keymap, I'd just select "use VSCode keymap" and be done with it.

For this reason, I'm considering switching to the default VSCode keymap, and using it in all editors I use (IntelliJ, Zed, Cursor, all the others).

[1]: https://makevscodeawesome.com

  • by wruza on 9/1/24, 10:29 PM

    You switch often early in your career. Later you settle and it doesn’t matter. You may think that shiny new hyped bleeding edge is so much better, but in reality these are toys with unclear future. If the features you’re impressed with are really important and not just a shallow wow-effect, they’ll land in every other editor in no time.
  • by rvrs on 9/2/24, 12:25 AM

    d) vi(m) keybdings? there's a vim emulator plugin for every single code editor
  • by trumbitta2 on 9/2/24, 1:42 PM

    I use the Sublime text one as an extension for VSCode, out of habit
  • by aristofun on 9/2/24, 3:56 AM

    Default jet brains with some customization to fit with macos shortcuts
  • by eimrine on 9/1/24, 7:17 PM

    keymaps suck for me, because they suppose using mouse, and vi is the true way.