a

A

A is a text editor. It is inspired by the Sam and Acme text editors for the Plan 9 operating system.

• Written in Go (no dependencies)
• Native Multi-Platform Graphics (as/frame)
• Closely resembles the Acme and Sam text editors.
• Optimized for editing huge binary files.
  • The underlying frame implementation (see as/frame) does not eschew null bytes.
  • Experimental UTF-8 support
• Standard UNIX keyboard shortcuts No vi/emacs tricks
• Mouse chording
• Command Language Edit command language is 80% implemented (slow)
• Structure highlighting

This repository will change frequently, things will improve unexpectedly. See issues.

install

Because the other packages in my namepace are frequently updated , I recommended using go get -u

go get -u -t github.com/as/a

usage

a [file ...]

differences and issues

• Compare to the true Acme https://github.com/as/a/wiki/Alterations

• issues https://github.com/as/a/issues

hints

To reshape the windows and columns, click on the invisible 10x10px sizer that I haven't rendered yet with the middle mouse button. Hold the button down and move the window to the location. Release the button.

edit

• 80% of the sam command language is implemented.

Edit ,x,the standard editor is any editor,x,any editor,c,ed,

commands

• Currently only in CWD
• Put [go build] in the tag
• Double click inside [
• Middle click to execute

look

• Right click on a string
• If its a file, it will open it
• If win32, it will also move the mouse

mouse

1 Select text/sweep
1-2 Snarf (cut)
1-3 Paste
2 Execute select
3 Look select

keyboard

^U  Delete from cursor to start of line.
^W  Delete word before the cursor.
^H  Delete character before the cursor.
^A  Move cursor to start of the line.
^E  Move cursor to end of the line.
^+  Increase font size
^-  Decrease font size
^i	Run goimports (in a tag ending in .go)

extras

• Looking (right click) in the main tag finds the result in all open windows

purpose

• ACME SAC doesn't run on my computer
• The solution is to create a text editor from scratch then

future

• Fixing the bugs
• Cleaning the code up
• Live multi-client editing
• Go specific ast/compiler stuff
• Better CMD exec
• File system interface to shiny events

see also

History of good text editors

• The Acme User Interface for Programmers (Rob Pike)
• A Tutorial for the Sam Command Language (Rob Pike)
• Plan 9
• Inferno
• Acme SAC