GNOME Builder vs Helix

GNOME Builder is a free integrated development environment for creating applications for GNOME. It integrates GTK+, GLib, and GNOME APIs, with editing features that include syntax highlighting, side-by-side editors, multi-monitor support, and a code overview mini-map. Git integration includes project cloning, and listed build integrations cover Autotools, Cargo, CMake, Gradle, Meson, Maven, Make, PHPize, and Waf. Code assistance includes Clang- and Python-based auto-completion, semantic highlighting, and diagnostics, plus Vala-based auto-completion and diagnostics. Builder offers live previews for HTML, Markdown, reStructuredText, and Sphinx, as well as optional Vim, Emacs, and SublimeText-style editing. Native applications can use its integrated debugger and software profiler. It supports jhbuild and Flatpak runtimes and integrates with arduino-cli. The app page says releases follow the GNOME schedule, every six months, and links to online help, contribution guidance, and an issue tracker. Builder is available for Linux desktops, with x86_64 and aarch64 builds listed.

Helix is a free, terminal-based text editor for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its editing model centers on multiple selections, so commands can act on several selections at once; it also supports multi-cursor editing and macro recording. Tree-sitter integration provides syntax highlighting, indentation calculation, and code navigation. Built-in language server support offers completion, go to definition, documentation, and diagnostics, though users need to install language servers for their chosen programming languages. Helix can select and navigate functions, classes, comments, and syntax tree nodes. Other included tools are a fuzzy finder for files and symbols, project-wide search, themes, automatic bracket pairing, and surround integration. Written in Rust, it can run in a terminal, over SSH, or in tmux. Configuration can be global or project-specific, including themes, keybindings, and language-specific settings; language servers and formatters can be configured through languages.toml files. Helix has no plugin system currently, although one is intended for the future. A graphical frontend is described as a future possibility.