Writing my own text editor, and daily-driving it
7 hours ago
- #programming
- #text-editor
- #custom-development
- The author expresses dissatisfaction with existing text editors and decides to create their own.
- Key issues with the previous editor (Howl) include lack of development, poor project-wide search, GUI limitations, and no integrated terminal.
- Tried multiple alternatives (Helix, VS Code, Sublime, Vim, etc.) but none met the desired feel or functionality.
- Started development with a minimal scope, focusing only on personal needs and avoiding unnecessary features.
- Adopted practices like replacing 'nano' with the new editor, documenting issues, and fixing annoyances immediately to maintain progress.
- Discusses challenges in cursor manipulation, file browsing, regex implementation, and syntax highlighting.
- Implemented efficient project-wide search with multi-threading and work-stealing for performance.
- Integrated terminal emulator buffers using third-party libraries for better functionality.
- Optimized rendering to minimize bandwidth and improve performance, especially over remote connections.
- Concludes that building a custom editor is rewarding, offering a perfect fit, deep learning, and increased productivity.