editor

The goal of this project is to create a lightweight code editor written in C, that is optimized for C projects, is performant, and productive.

This is what it looks like editing its own source code:

TODO

Textbuffer

• Indent Selected using Tab (small problem with cursors)
• Highlight focused word

Modes

• Search and replace in file and whole folder
• Align defines handle comments
• Shift tab work with spaces

Future

• Fix unicode problems
• Undo / Redo
• Multiple Cursors

Project overview

Code style

Global variables are prefixed with an underscore. When a global variable is used only in one module, it is begins with the module prefix (for example _sr_tf_replace is the text field for the search and replace module, that contains the replacement string).

I like to separate declaration and initialization of variables. This allows to insert statements at the start of the block before anything else happens.

The whole project is a single compilation unit. There are no header files, I directly include C files. Since every function is static, the optimizations by the compiler are much better.

I don't like to use const in C, because it is broken. For example, if I have a function that finds the last word in a string and returns a pointer to it. The function itself does not modify the string, so it makes sense to make the parameter const, right? So the signature would look like this:

const char *find_last_word(const char *s);

No! Because what if I want to use that function to find the word and capitalize it for example? That doesn't work because the returned pointer is const. This is a contrived example but such things happen a lot.

Another example is having a function that takes a substring of a string and needs to pass it to another function which accepts a null-terminated string (and does not modify it). Copying the string just to add a null terminator would be inefficient, so one can just save the character after the substring, put a null there, and after the call restore character that was there previously. So effectively, the string is modified, but after the execution it is the same as before.

Of course it is possible to cast away the const, but that defeats the point.

Abbreviations Index

I use two (or three) letter abbreviations as a module prefix. (Work in progress)

DONE:

BF  = Buffer Management [buffers.c]
TB  = Text Buffer [textbuf.c]
TF  = Text Field [textfld.c]
GT  = Go to location [goto.c]
KW  = Keyword hashtable (for syntax highlighting) [keyword.c]
DD  = Dropdown Menu [dropdown.c]
CF  = Confirmation dialog [confirm.c]
MSG = Message (Error or Info) [msg.c]
VEC = Vector (Dynamic array) [vector.c]

TODO:

SR  = Search and Replace [search.c]
SV  = Save File (As) [save_as.c]
OP  = Open File [open.c]
OB  = Open Buffers [opened.c]
IO  = Input / Output (Platform dependant) [io.c]
RR  = Rendering [render.c]
CR  = Cursor [cursor.c]
SEL = Selection [cursor.c]

Common Functions

example_init
Initialize example (for the first time)

example_destroy
Cleanup example, when it is no longer used (Free memory, etc.)

example_key
Example receives a keypress

example_open
Make example visible on the screen and focus it

example_clear
Reset example to initial state (For example, text field to empty string)

example_render
Example is rendered to the screen