I know it and do like it! Even for those that follow Diataxis, in my experience the "Explanation" sections are often lacking, especially compared to the "How-To" or "Tutorial" ones.
Python is one example that comes to mind. They do have explanations here: https://docs.python.org/3/howto/index.html. And, to be fair, they are generally excellent in my opinion! But they're far from front and center and there's much less overall content compared to the other Diataxis types I think (granted, I haven't rigorously checked).
Naive question: aren't belts lower maintenance than chains, and don't let last longer? Why doesn't a engine with a chain drive require equal or more replacements?
Amusingly, my 1995 Saturn had a timing chain, and the chain skipped a tooth on its last day, at roughly 60k miles. Now, there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the chain per se but it was the end of a sequence of failures involving the engine design.
On all of our other cars (Toyota), the belts needed to be serviced at X miles, but it was actually a cheap and quick procedure.
Ford and a few other makers have been using oil-immersed timing belts lately. They quite reliably fail after the car's warranty is up but well before the rest of the car is junk.
I agree, they are a disaster. However, I have heard people argue that Honda and other manufacturers have been using oil emersed belts for decades.
After 2017 Ford started using belts to drive the oil pump in F-150 engines (and possibly other Ecoboost engines). I have seen 100k teardowns of failed engines and the belt is not looking good at that point. If the belt breaks the engine is toast by the time the operator realizes what is going on.
Umm.. No and no. Belts need to be changed at some service interval, usually 100k SI units. If you don’t do it, a ripped belt wreaks havoc on the engine. Chains are typically installed for the life of the engine, and need to be changed only if it’s a problem.
A caveat though. I used to have a Škoda Fabia with a chain drive, and I did end up changing it, as it started making the tell-tale sound when stop-go.
In the context of hybrids though, I fully expect that chain to last the lifetime of the engine. The engine is under significantly less load than in a traditional ICE, so less stress on the chain. Also, for 100k mileage, the motor-hours that the engine has worked are less than in an ICE due to the engine regularly being off.
My Land Cruiser has a timing belt. I replace it every 90k miles per Toyota's specifications. My Tundra has the same engine, except that it has a timing chain. I've never bothered to replace the timing chain.
A timing chain is preferable as long as it isn't something like a Jaguar/Land Rover. The chain in those doesn't matter because they use plastic tensioners that eventually become brittle at crack/fail.
Chains can stretch, weigh more and make noise. This is why belts are used, in addition to being a space saver. The ultimate in reliability are gear drives. Those truly never wear out or need replaced (found in nearly any diesel engine).
Chains were very common in American cars and trucks for decades and they did need replaced after 150k-200k miles. I replaced the one in my 1993 Ford 5.0 at about 150k hard miles and it made a dramatic difference in performance (solved knocking/preignition on hills).
These days, there are some engines with (oil immersed) belts, but that's for fuel efficiency, not longevity. Chains last longer, typically, although I used to have a 97 Honda VFR that had neither. They started with chains in earlier models but had reliability issues so switched to straight cut gears. Man I miss the way those things sounded -- like a supercharger whine. Amazing
Big fan of helix and am in this camp. Used to have a bunch of plugins for neovim, but in Helix, honestly just haven't felt the need for anything besides what it comes with. It's a great editor.
I think you only miss (or at least I noticed this happened to me) a plugin system when you've engaged with the programmable side of your editor and then have to use one that isn't. I dont use/try to stay away from using (neo)vim plugins but I do like to pull out repetitive things into little snippets. I have things to manage my clipboard, pull up manpages in another editor tab when I put my cursor over a command and press a key in terminal mode, and a scattering of other quick useful tools. A lot of it's not reasonable to upstream, so it's a bit frustrating to me personally to use stuff that isn't programmable.
I've also toyed with emacs in the past and think I could like it for this reason, but ironically most other programming editors don't seem to be committed to the user's abilities as a programmer. I don't think it's nearly as easy/accessible/encouraged to program vscode, for instance. Self-documenting programmable programs like vim and emacs are so magical--- I hope they never go out of fashion.
I think a big missing piece with writing what you want in Rust and recompiling the editor to activate your changes is that you're not able to work with it _live_. That is, I can use the vim (or nvim or emacs) GUI/text processing/IO/etc facilities interactively as I'm writing my snippets to see if everything works the way I expected. I can send lines/expressions to the lua/elisp compiler running in the editor that I'm _currently using to write the program_ to change how it works, _on the fly_. It's an integrated programming experience in a way that very few things are--- it's not just about programmability, but this circular thing that goes on with editors that really fully commit to it.
