How is the DX for helix (non-VSCode) text editor

[goldenratio]

Hey,
thanks for this great project.

I wondering, as helix user, how can I start using this project. (If it is possible).

[MihaelIsaev]

Thanks for the first discussion 🙂

Just to make sure we’re on the same page first: when you say this project, do you mean Swift Stream IDE itself, or maybe SwifDroid framework built with it?

Helix is indeed a text editor (similar to Neovim), while Swift Stream IDE is currently implemented as a VS Code extension, not a standalone editor or LSP that can be plugged into other editors. So there is no direct Helix integration at the moment.

If you are asking about SwifDroid specifically, it can be built manually from the command line. Under the hood it is just Swift + Android tooling. However, the recommended path right now is Swift Stream IDE, because it orchestrates a lot of steps automatically (toolchain setup, build order, Gradle glue, etc.) when you press Build. Doing all of that manually is possible, but more involved.

[goldenratio]

Hey @MihaelIsaev
thanks for the reply. Ya, I meant the IDE. I was wondering, can Stream IDE be orchestrated with CLI, so I don't have to use VSCode.

Swift has awesome LSP support (compared to kotlin). It works great with any text based editor that supports LSP.

[MihaelIsaev]

Hey @goldenratio, that makes sense, thanks for clarifying.

At the moment the orchestration logic lives inside the VS Code extension. I am planning to extract it into a standalone CLI tool, mainly to support CI/CD and headless builds.

Once that’s done, you will be able to use it with Helix as well, so stay tuned 🙂

By the way, are you asking about this mainly in the context of Android development, or for one of the other Swift Stream streams like web, server-side, or embedded?
The first CLI version will target the Android stream, and other streams will follow later.