Suggestion for a more specific UX for file explorer

[apeir-n]

I had some thoughts on the file explorer interface, so I figured I'd share them here! But first, I wanted to say that I've only been using Helix for a month or so, so I'm still quite new, and haven't been around for much discussion. But I did have a look through the previous discussions regarding the file explorer, so maybe my take could be useful.

I'm really happy to have an actual navigable file explorer in helix. I know a lot of people prefer the fzf/telescope approach to opening files, but I personally much prefer an interface to navigate through. So, I thought that since helix already has a fuzzy file picker interface that users can type-and-go with, it would make more sense for the file explorer to have a more "navigation-first" and "search-second" UI.

Currently, opening the file explorer places you in a text field for searching for files, and lets you navigate with C-n and C-p. I think it would make more sense for the search field to be opt-in while in the explorer interface, and the default method of interacting with the explorer would be with navigation keys. Ideally, I think it would make the most sense to have it be a modal UI, which has been discussed before in #10599 and stuff. That way you could have the search field activated with i like insert mode, and navigate with the regular normal mode nav keys and stuff, being able to enter directories with l and move up in the directory tree with h. A modal interface like that would additionally give you a lot of space for implementing file management key bindings like making files and directories and renaming.

I think a pretty good argument was made for an "oil.nvim" style file manager in #12896 which would cover a lot of this functionality. I could live with that, but I personally would much prefer keeping the current file explorer UI as a dual pane explorer with preview, but adding a modal interface to it with an emphasis on navigation, especially since the basic UI already exists for that in its current form, just without the modality. Workarounds to achieve this kind of thing have also been suggested before in #8314, though of course it would be nice to have the built-in file explorer work this way, since that seems to be helix's thing :)

Anyway, there's my 2 cents.